History

With women springing up in every work field, the demand for smart and fashionable day-time clothing began to gain popularity and in just a year, GENERATION had already formed a large cult following of strong, forward minded women who were getting things done!

every GENERATION campaign began to get as much traction for the imagery it put out as the clothes it was selling. The “Colours of Earth” collection built upon the idea of freedom and optimism with painstaking indigenous crafts such as tie dyeing, ajrak, rilli and block printing sourced from all over Pakistan becoming its language of communication.

In just three years GENERATION had achieved enough success and admiration to open standalone stores in Liberty and Fortress Stadium in Lahore.

GENERATION being ahead of the curve, organized the first ever fashion show in the country. Kinnaird College which was the hub of female empowerment and progressive thinking at the time served as the perfect venue, as friends, students and some renowned faces of the media industry volunteered to walk the runway in a collection that reflected the woman of the future

The “Banjaran” collection which was showcased at Ménage, consisted of exciting and fun ghaghris (skirts) full of Bedouin detailing such as hand woven Ikats, rilli patchwork, tartan checks, and colour blocking. The show proved to be particularly memorable as the models walked the runway with matkas skillfully balanced on their heads to great applause by the audience.

Women were exalted. Beautiful desirable clothes and unbeatable value for money, what could be better? These sales marked the annual seasonal sale calendar which is followed by the entire country to this day.

The collection, featuring the rising star of the time Resham, did not only turn out to be an instant hit, but also singlehandedly revived a whole cottage industry, with designers increasingly interpreting the craft in their works again.

The turn of the new decade also saw the beginning of the brand’s love affair with the city by the sea, GENERATION made a grand entry in Karachi by opening two back to back outlets in Clifton and Bahadurabad.

The colour palette began to embrace the 90s feel completely, leaving behind loud hues in favour of earthy and neutral tones. The “Kashmir Story” collection saw fully embroidered styles that would easily fall in the ‘designer’ category of formal wear.

With increased demand, the factory moved to a purpose-built unit spanning over 30,000 feet of covered area at Ferozepur Road Lahore, the first of its kind catering exclusively to ready-made clothing for women.

The landmark Zamzama store was also inaugurated around the same time, another area which soon became ‘cool’ with the opening of Karachi’s best restaurant, Okra next door as well as the first store of the country’s largest textile giant...any guesses?

Shalwars turned into constructed bell bottoms, hem lines shrunk often going asymmetrical, with a reintroduction of darts and zips- the eastern garment got a whole new euro-centric ‘chic’ outlook.

GENERATION too hired its first ever fashion design team from Pakistan School of Fashion Design (PSFD) whose modern aesthetic reflected fully in the “Mandarin” collection, which paired cheongsam inspired constructed short kurtis with bell bottoms and boot cut trousers set off with embroideries taking international inspiration as well, which in this case was the mandarin script.

Increasing popularity and demand in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lead to GENERATION’s first retail presence, opening its doors in Peshawar a year earlier.

Girls began listening to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera’s music and desired to emulate their style. As locally a new kind of star, the super model was born, with Vaneeza, Iman Ali, Amina Haq and Iffat Omar ruling the roost, women started to become comfortable with their sensuality.

The closest they could get to that in Pakistan was to chop of the sleeves of their kamiz, with low cut necklines, deep backs on a form fit silhouette. This much controversial uniform remained all the rage for quite a large chunk of the mid-2000s.

The year also saw daughter of Nosheen and Saad Rahman entry into the brand, who joined the design team fresh after graduating from London College of Fashion.

GENERATION’s FUSION OF EAST & WEST bridged the gap by introducing the concept of fusion wear, tops, tunics and kurtis with a distinct desi aesthetic, offering a more modest outlook than the average T-shirt, yet fashionable and versatile enough to be styled with Jeans, Skirts and western style trousers.

For the first time, an expansive set of Metric sizes including 8,10,12,14 and 16 were introduced that made the line more approachable and easier to wear for women of a much more diverse size set. Furthermore, she proceeded to diversify the product range by introducing the concept of distinct lines with subsequent design philosophies which you know of today as Basic, Woman, Classic, Cottage, later adding Flo, Ming and ReGENerate to the mix.

She also began to play with the brand’s image as shoots became more conceptualized and experimental, roping in creatives like Ather Ali Hafeez and the renowned artist Usman Saeed to work on the campaigns.

GENERATION also became the first retail brand of Pakistan to introduce a dedicated Formals line, with authentic hand worked embellishment techniques such as zardozi, sitara and naqshi work, making ready to wear Pakistani formals a reality for the first time. This feat also won the brand its first ever Lux style award for 2008 as well as the subsequent one in 2009.

with exquisitely hand embellished velvet outfits, the likes of which you would only find in the most coveted of designer’s studios who’d make you wait for months on end (if you could afford to order from them in the first place).

Pieces having the same level of intricacy and attention to design were now available to buy off the rack at unbelievable prices. The fashion industry was shaken indeed. And a new regular much like GENERATION Whites in the summer, GENERATION Velvets went on to develop a recall value which still keeps people coming in droves every winter.

GENERATION faced the brunt of this new-found competition head on as most of these retailers opened up in the same location as GENERATION’s Gulberg store in Lahore.

It marked the beginning of GENERATION’s new era, with massive hiring of fresh creatives newly graduated from PIFD that year, as well as setting up for the first time, a dedicated Marketing department aimed at rethinking fashion advertisement for the changing times. The year began with the era of Abdullah Haris’s beautiful campaigns for GENERATION.

The brand would go on to expand their presence in the twin cities with its first store in Rawalpindi.

featuring Zara Abid as the empowered GENERATION Woman, it was set in a utopian reimagination of the present, where the woman freely navigates public spaces without fear of stigma and harassment. While all other brands were focusing on foreign shoots, selling the fantasy of the unattainable, rich designer clad woman, GENERATION’s advertising featured an approachable woman accessorized with items from street vendors, feeling at home at dhabas, getting onto the metro bus and playing galli cricket. 

Khadija Rahman’s first collection for the brand ‘A dot that went for a walk’ too debuted in the same year, A complete deconstruction of what South Asian garments mean she reinvented the shalwar, the kamiz and the dupatta putting out completely new ideas about what each of the staple components of desi fashion could look like. The collection truly revolutionized the idea of what a ‘fashion week’ collection is supposed to be, crafted in cottons, voiles and thick webbed organic netting, exploring new shapes and forms, the collection turned out to be the immediate darling of fashion critics all over the country, leading the brand to start another stint of victories at the Lux Style Awards.

Lahore also welcomed its second GENERATION store in the beautiful Emporium Mall in 2016. /p>

The campaign even featured trans women, women belonging to ethnic minorities, and pregnant women. The beautiful campaign video by Umar Riaz set the bar for all relevant conversations in fashion and advertising.

GENERATION’s Shehzil Malik Collection released in 2017 proved the be the uniform of choice for many of the attendees. This was the brand’s first ever design collaboration with artist Shezil Malik, featuring edgy street clothes with the artist’s feminist messaging and illustrations emblazoned all over as bold prints and embroideries. The collection flew off the shelves in hours.

The year ended on a sweet note for the residents of DHA in Lahore as GENERATION had opened up at Packages Mall and they would no longer have to travel all the way to Gulberg to get their fix.

. Desis have been made to systematically look down upon everything about their culture and clothing as inferior to European ideals since the days of colonialism.

“No Nonsense Nighat” was born out of the fantasy of a South Asia unperturbed by western standards of beautiful, cool or fashionable. Bringing unfazed desi-ness to the 21st century, No Nonsense Nighat wasn’t the typical desi damsel in distress, but instead equipped with utilitarian footwear, a side tied dupatta, her hair swept up in a paranda,

she was ready to take over the world.She was loud, she was desi, she was a fashion icon and she was out to reclaim the term ‘paindoo’ because paindoo is not a slur. Her influence on fashion trends can be calculated by the fact that parandas made it to Milan fashion week just a few months after Nighat’s debut and they have undeniably gone on to become the must have accessory of the current decade.