— The Pond’s Preview Lounge provided a keyhole into the next day’s collections (and an exclusive capsule collection by Sania Maskatiya on the last day), the red carpet and the overall ambience created by fashionistas

— Kuki Concepts who has an artistic vision that is maturing with time and design duo Arsalan Yahseer, who showed spark even at their debut last season and have the capacity to evolve with time. Emraan Rajput surprised with a mismatched sorbet palette that wasn’t all that bad.

— The Fashion Pakistan council’s intervention and editing was desperately needed with the rest of the shows. One feels it is unfair to lead younger designers like Nabeela Adeel of Nargis Hafeez, DnF, Maimoona Arshad, Ayesha Hasan, Ishtiaq Afzal Khan and Amir Baig to believe they are ready for the runway. Perhaps these labels will develop with time, but then again maybe they’re just not made for stage.

— Rizwanullah needs to decide upon the role he wants to play in fashion because as a designer (that too of ready to wear) he is inconsequential at fashion week unless he begins retailing. One has seen one too many ‘sartorial statements’ from him that are made for stage and unfortunately stay there.

— Zaheer Abbas presented his strongest collection to date but when and where will it be available? One can only assess its true value when it makes the retail journey.

— British high street brand Debenhams was allowed a showing at FPW and while it’s not exactly kosher, this showing did throw light on two things: one, with designers like Jasper Conran and Rocha available in Karachi, local designers have a yardstick to compare the construction of dresses to. And secondly, it showed how much of a difference a complete look — replete with accessories, shoes and bags — could make to the presentation. The Nine West show, however, could not make the same impact. — AHI