Flashback to a couple of years ago: Ayyan, of the fair skin and bee-stung lips, is the most coveted model around. You really can’t miss her - she is on every ramp, the face of most magazine covers and she stares down at you from various billboards dotted across the city. Like a true supermodel, Ayyan is equally at ease donning a hijab for an ad campaign as she is whizzing around town on a motorbike. And who can ever forget the images of her getting intimate with an ice cream bar?

Fast forward to today and the one question on the minds of most people in the fashion industry is: "Where is Ayyan?" The girl who once sat pretty on the supermodel throne seems to have abdicated way before her time was up. Fashion photographer Faisal Farooqui remembers seeing her last in February 2014 at the Fashion Pakistan Week showcase in Karachi. "I remember she was the showstopper for most of the shows. Designers love her for her ability to carry whatever she wears to perfection. I haven’t come across her after that. Isn’t she taking out music videos now?"

Ah yes, how can we forget! When Ayyan went pffft in a cloud of smoke and vanished from Karachi, it seems she surfaced somewhere in a nightclub in Romania last June, suffering from a bit of an identity crisis. The poor girl seemed to be under the impression that she was J-Lo and collaborated with one F. Charm to give us her debut single ‘You and I’. If you are among the fortunate few who haven’t seen the video where Ayyan tries desperately to sing in English (we’re talking deep, soulful lyrics such as "na na na na, everybaaady go higherrr), then you can’t begin to imagine the shock and horror with which the Pakistani fashion industry watched one of their own gyrate embarrassingly in a number of tasteless outfits.

"Hasn’t she learnt anything in her years of modelling for some of the best designers in the country?" bemoaned friends and ex-colleagues. Ayyan’s wardrobe choices were always a cause for gossip (when she arrived at the Magnum launch party as its brand ambassador dressed in a slinky gown that bared her cleavage more than it covered it, she unleashed many a scandalized tongue) but one had to admire the grace with which she carried off whatever she wore. Yet the lacy jumpsuit and the bejeweled headdress of the first video and the catwoman-inspired cape and mask of the second (yes, there is a second video and very soon we will suffer a third too!) begs the question: is bad taste in fashion these days?

The other question that we would love an answer to is this: has Ayyan quit modelling? Going by her social media accounts, the girl is "extremely busy and travelling travelling travelling" and that too on a private jet. She’s been putting up photos of herself on airports across the world, from Paris to Zurich, and is seen jetting around in an extremely luxurious-looking aircraft. She’s also promoting her upcoming single, and it looks as if music is the only thing on her mind these days.

Why would she abandon modelling considering how great she was at it? Frieha Altaf, CEO of Catwalk Productions, might have the answer to that. "Everyone wanted Ayyan, the girl was a true supermodel given her naturally stunning looks and height. Plus she was gori, a bonus if you are working in Pakistan. There were other good models like Aaminah Sheikh and Amna Ilyas around but all the big corporate clients wanted "that Magnum girl" only. I think it got to a point were Ayyan was overexposed; she needed to get out before the world OD’ed on her."

The Dubai-born girl has apparently moved back to her city of birth and is dividing her time between there and London as she focuses on completing her debut album, according to Frieha. With the audio of her third single ‘Earthquake’ just releasing, it seems Ayyan is an unstoppable force and we’re afraid it won’t be long before the entire album is out to accost our ears with its cringe-worthy lyrics and composition. Someone please send the girl this memo: Granted Sting’s ‘Desert Rose’ was a hit but the time for lacing every song with Arabian/Moroccan-inspired beats is long gone.

The problem with Ayyan’s music, however, isn’t the banality of the lyrics or the manufactured quality of her vocals- it’s the sheer unoriginality of the content. As satirical musician Ali Gul Pir so eloquently put it in a tweet, "Ayyan’s new song - catchy for sure but lyrics like "I can be your hood, girl on the grind?" Girl, you’re from Rawalpindi. Whatchu talkin bout?" Elaborating further in a conversation with Instep, Ali says, "Personally speaking, I would never listen to her music when I can turn on the actual inspirations J-Lo or Beyonce any time if I wanted to hear that kind of music. But hey, people seem to like it. Not all music has to be thought-provoking. If ‘Babydoll’ from Bollywood can have a market, why not Ayyan with ‘Making Dollars’ or ‘Earthquake’?"

We’re not sure if she’s making dollars but Ayyan sure is making a lot of people marvel at her sheer audacity and remarkable confidence. Zahir Rahimtoola, the force behind Labels and the person who gave Ayyan her first big break as a model, isn’t surprised. "She was always a very determined and ambitious person. She was great in front of the camera but it was clear that she had much bigger dreams. She might have gotten flak for her singing but kudos to her for not giving up and following her passion. Such commitment deserves applause."