This is a different Eid. Not the sort where you dress up and flit from one party to the other, meeting friends and family and partying till you’re wearied out. This year, this single most celebrated Muslim festival, wrapping up a month of fasting and usually preceded by all-night dinners and heavy-duty shopping binges, is a quieter one. We’re home. Celebrating with close family. Meeting select friends, if any. Sometimes, merely via online video calls. And at other times, through ‘socially distanced’ meet-ups with our faces masked.

What does this mean for Eid fashion statements? One could argue that fashion is hardly a consideration at a time when people are enduring tragedies and living in fear, trying to sidestep an all-encompassing virus. And with thousands of people rendered unemployed, it is more important to spend on charity rather than on clothes.

But the fashion industry, traversing luxury-wear, pret and bridal-wear, also provides livelihood to millions of people. When you spend on a local brand — and if you’re ethical, refrain from overspending — you help it survive and continue to pay its workforce. And while clothes may not be an absolute necessity, retail therapy — particularly on a festive occasion — does improve mental health. Shut down in our homes for months, bulldozed constantly by news of rising death tolls, stocks crashing and businesses closing down, our mental health does need an occasional boost.

But with the lockdown only just having eased across the country, the fashion industry has only had a few days to operate. There hasn’t been enough time to create extensive Eid collections. Additionally, while Eid may have brought on huge crowds of shoppers, sales are still only a fraction of what they would have been had this Ramazan not been beleaguered by the coronavirus pandemic. Retailers know this and they have been careful investing into new stock.

Fashion is hardly a consideration at a time when people are enduring tragedies and living in fear, trying to sidestep an all-encompassing pandemic

In fact, most Eid collections aren’t Eid collections at all — they are spring/summer collections that were going to be rolled out into the market two months ago, before shops were suddenly closed down. Designers — particularly high-street retailers — were stuck with extensive inventory and, in this time of crisis, they have presented these clothes as part of ‘Eid’ lines.

What does this mean? In the high street, particularly, this means that there are more options in cotton as opposed to lacy, bling-infested chiffons. Smart, neat cuts are dominating as opposed to flowing, complicated ones. Price points are generally lower because cottons, even the most embellished ones, tend to cost less than formal silk and chiffon. The heavy-duty unstitched formal ‘Eid’ collections, usually costing a bit more than 10,000 rupees, haven’t surfaced.

“We had three extensive collections ready at the time of the lockdown,” says Khadija Rahman, director of design and marketing at high-street brand Generation, “and these are the ones that we have retailed prior to Eid. We always have designs that have festive details and they work well as occasion-wear.”

Similarly, designer Khadijah Shah, who is yet to open up stores and has so far been retailing her brands Zaha and Elan online, says that there has been “no time to re-strategise or plan a new collection... All we could manage to do was retail our spring collections but they have sold well. The customer is going to be more careful with spending but they will appreciate products that give them value for money.”

Shamoon Sultan, CEO of Khaadi, observes that brands will have to focus on their core strengths in order to survive the tricky road ahead. Even though Khaadi has seen a surge of crowds ever since the easing of the lockdown, Shamoon feels that customers will no longer invest in designs that are experimental. “We have to deliver on products that customers value the most and maintain quality. Covid-19 has affected people’s spending power, and they will be more likely to buy products that they are accustomed to.”

Waleed Zaman, Creative Director of Kayseria and Leisure Club, is planning smaller product lines and more essentials in the future. “There are certain pieces of clothing that are essential to us: a basic white or black shalwar, track pants, a simple kurta. With cash liquidity running low, people will be wanting to buy more of these.” For Eid, however, like many of his peers, Waleed has retailed existing stock that had hitherto been prepared for spring/summer and other collections that were already in the works for Eid.

In the realm of high-end couture, similarly, designers are retailing their ‘summer festive’ collections, originally aimed for the market in March. “Generally, we start preparing for the summer in February, moving towards lighter fabrics such as cotton net, chiffon and cotton karandi, and lighter colours,” says Rizwan Beyg. “And my brand has been focusing a lot on bringing back the dupatta, which is why we incorporate it into most outfits. Clients generally require formal dupattas for Eid and they find plenty of them in my summer festive line.”

More interesting than sartorial innovations in Eid collections are some of the ways in which Eid clothing has been marketed, particularly in the case of Generation. On their official blog, the brand suggested ‘7 fun Eid looks under Rs 5,000’, giving a nod to the fact that spending power may be running low for many of their customers.

A limited edition ‘gota paranda’ collection, aimed at sprucing up Eid looks on a budget, and a small selection of Eid cards were also launched, suggesting sending cards the old-school way at a time when physical meetings are not possible. Earlier, during lockdown, the brand had also introduced blueprints of designs, so that buyers could purchase loose fabric from Generation and stitch their own clothes at home.

“We understand that this is a difficult time,” observes Khadija Rahman, “but dressing up for Eid gives us some sense of normalcy.”

And this is why, at a time when morale and budgets are low, people have still shopped for Eid. There are no new Eid trends or statements, but — except for a very small, perpetually affluent, shopping-happy contingent that does not care if the rest of the nation is barely managing to survive the economic downslide — there has been a change in the way Pakistan shops for clothes. Designers aren’t making too much and people aren’t buying too much, or at least not as much as they used to. One outfit is being preferred to five. Comfortable, timeless pieces are in trend. Wardrobe essentials are in demand. Competitive prices are a priority. Quality overrides the need to show off the latest ‘in’ collection.

The world still wants to feel happy with the occasional splurge, but it is treading carefully. And this state of fashion is indicative of the state of the times that we live in. Unnecessary luxuries, and the urge to boast a brand, are being stripped away and we are moving towards a sensible mindset, where we take pleasure in fewer, more individualistic statements. Fashion is moving back to basics, even on Eid. It took a virus to make it happen.

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 24th, 2020