With her finger on the pulse of all that’s glamour, Saba Ansari is a class act — whether painting top fashion supermodels for runway shows, dolling up celebrities or making beautiful brides. She exerts her fingers and brushstrokes to create looks that defy reason and realism. Not limited by the conventional idea of beauty and style, Ansari uses her imagination and allows her creativity to flow through seamlessly, ultimately honing her craft to perfection.
Saba Ansari’s name is behind Sabs Salon that has successfully expanded from catering to the masses to branching out into the world of fashion and showbiz. After a decade in business, today Ansari has proved herself to be a force to reckon with. But aside from being an innovative stylist and businesswoman extraordinaire, she cherishes her role as a homemaker as well —her husband Kaukab, mother and three children are her support system and she attributes much of her success to them.
In this interview to Images , Ansari sheds light on Pakistan’s booming fashion industry, her role in the upcoming PFDC Fashion Week in Lahore and Fashion Images 2011 in Karachi, as well as her plans to take her business of beauty to Lahore and Dubai.
As I enter her work place, I find it brimming with life — an experience that can easily convert into addiction. The impeccably dressed Saba Ansari interacts with every client within the parameters of the salon with poise and grace. She tells me she has an hour before half-a-dozen brides storm into the makeup room so she engages into conversation right away.
“I was attracted to beauty and looks even as a youngling. Later, I got the opportunity to begin my career at a professional salon and then took up beauty courses abroad. Back home, I started off with a small setup at a social club before I got my first break with an editorial spread followed by the music video of Pappu yar tang na kar by Junoon,” she remembers.
Today, Ansari’s work is regularly featured on the covers of all the country’s leading fashion and lifestyle glossies, and fashion runways as well. She also does the styling for a host of TV serials, morning shows and commercials and accredits a wholesome combination of hard work, great team and good fortune that has enabled her to make a mark in the industry.
“As luck would have it, I got the inimitable chance to prove my mettle with the first fashion week to be held in Pakistan. It was a different prospect altogether and offered me the chance to explore another diverse platform.” Ansari was able to deliver by creating one look after the other for four consecutive days and 30 designers in total for Fashion Pakistan Week (FPW) held in November 2009.
According to Fashion Pakistan ex-CEO, Ayesha Tammy Haq, “Saba is well-organised and a professional through and through. It is her ability to stay calm through it all that I admire the most. Fashion weeks, especially backstage, are extremely chaotic and the lack of time can intimidate anybody. But nothing seems to faze her and at FPW she dealt with panic situations remarkably well. Needless to say, I was very impressed.”
After her FPW triumph, a herd of fashion shows and more prominently the PFDC-Sunsilk Fashion Week saw her making tracks to Lahore. Now, Ansari considers the upcoming PFDC Fashion Week in Lahore to be far more significant in her career than all the previous ones, “Although I have been associated with PFDC Fashion Week both times but this time round it’s extra-special. After the second fashion week in Karachi in November last year, many concerns were raised about choosing me and my team for two consecutive events. The management initially toyed with the idea of getting another stylist on board but it was shot down by the participating designers.”
Moreover, Ansari claims another upcoming fashion event as the single most noteworthy achievement in her career, “Being chosen to style Fashion Images 2011 is an honour. Augmenting maximum credibility, it takes my credibility as a professional stylist to an entirely different level.”
She believes that the increasing number of fashion weeks and shows taking place have benefitted the fashion industry, and Pakistan at large. A layman has the savoir faire of style and trends in vogue because fashion has permeated into every segment of our society. “Pakistan’s fashion industry is growing progressively, and simultaneously it is creating bigger and better opportunities for everyone. It started off with the Fashion Pakistan Week and fashion has seen overwhelming success ever since. We made international headlines and now the world knows that we mean business,” says Saba Ansari.
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