Why don’t I wear designer lawn -- Narmeen Hamid

"Our clothes make a statement about us. To be honest, I deliberately discourage my clothes from talking too much, because I’d rather do the talking myself. When my clothes talk excessively, people tend not to pay enough attention to what I am saying or doing and not that I am arrogant or anything, but I truly think I have more valuable things to say than any statement my clothes can make. I am the one calling the shots. I want my clothes to echo my personality, so we aim for low-key, practical, quaint, slightly eccentric, quietly confident.

Designer lawn is like your clothes having a noisy press conference while you skulk in a corner somewhere! I’m much too vain for that.

Creativity is a road less taken -- Iram Zia, , head of the textile department of NCA 

"Lawn is definitely a need of the season since summer is our longest season. It’s a necessity than luxury.

With the designer input, fashion is bound to take precedence. Since the label says "designer lawn" and comes under a certain price bracket, a simple three-piece suit with print alone will not do. Consumer wants value for money so all the unnecessary paraphernalia becomes part of it. For, in our kind of weather, we surely don’t need silk dupattas, heavily machine-embroidered necklines and sleeves and printed/embroidered hemlines.

From the design point of view, 80 per cent of the designs are a rehash. Some brands come to me and unabashedly ask for a designer who can design the "chalta kaam" that sells well and involves little innovation. So creativity is a road less taken.

In our lawn market, brand identity is hard to find. One brand looks like the other. I wish it could be turned around.

We, as an academic institution, are doing our best. At the backend of almost every brand are trained professionals. But the market dictates in its own terms.

The lawn industry is very hungry for textile designers and now they are ready to pay them well too. But I wish the brand manufactures would give a freehand to design graduates."

Designer lawn is the answer to verything  -- Sarah Sikandar

"This month pulls women of all ages with a magnetic force to the superiority and privilege that comes with designer lawn. For many of us, designer lawn is a lot more than your average three piece lawn jora. Anyone can wear lawn, everyone does in summer. But the four thousand we pay as an additive renders the privileged that comes with a brand name. From a lawn suit it becomes a Sania Maskatiya dress and B3 which only your sister-in-law had or 12C which your friend wanted but didn’t get.

Designer lawn is just another example of the increasing competitiveness in terms of affordability and luxury. If I can afford it, I am better than you, one of you. This designer lawn club has plenty of wanna-be members who would compromise to get their hands on both B3 and 12 C.

For the six long months of heat and socialising, designer lawn is the answer to everything -- from hi teas to office meetings to even a friend’s anniversary dinner. This multiplicity of designer lawn has won it many of its followers, including me."

Combining borders and prints -- Mohammad Saleem, a tailor based in Karachi

"I have been cutting clothes for almost 30 years. Never have I felt the pressure of work as much as I have done in the past few years. I am always running late with deliveries. Ladies begin to pour in with lawn joras even before we are done with our winter orders, which can be as early as February.

These new fashion lawn joras entail combining borders and prints. It takes longer and more care to finish them. Although these joras, designed by designers, have made it easy for women to select a style or pattern as they usually come with one on the packing, for us tailors it is all the more challenging -- joining borders, joining different prints, fancy buttons and motifs, etc. Much more care is needed with these new fashion suits than ordinary lawn prints. We need to work with our hands, and we charge for it, too. The only good thing is that women do not care about fitting anymore. Most of them now prefer loose shirts, so perfect fitting is not needed."