press

GENERATION, Pakistan’s oldest premium ready-to-wear brand, will open its doors for the first time in Hyderabad on 5th March 2022. To celebrate the occasion and to experience the iconic ready-to-wear apparel firsthand, the event will be at their Fortune Arcade store in Qasimabad. The grand opening has a flat 20% off for the first 2 days on every purchase made!

The times they are a-changin’. As the world slowly, gradually works towards embracing a greener future, both producers and consumers are increasingly becoming more environmentally conscious. Attitudes may vary and we may still have a long way to go when it comes to minimizing the impact of human actions on the ecosystem, but with increased awareness and more eco-fr­iendly efforts, we are finally starting to move in the right direction.

As fashion in Pakistan takes a rather neutral and streamlined turn in daily pret, we track this sartorial journey back to when kameezes kissed ankles, dupattas had to be three meters long, and what compelled us to rein it all in.

Opening its doors to Fortune Arcade – Hyderabad’s swankiest and newest address for fashion – Generation brought its palette of the season to the city by the river.

A name associated with the celebration of craft and culture; Generation has been a purveyor of the rich textile heritage of Pakistan. Now, adding to this history of 4 decades where the brand has stood for everything going right with fashion in the country, Generation opened its doors to the people of Hyderabad with its first ever store in Sindh located outside of Karachi.

If major brands begin to think about sustainability as not just the end result, but also in terms of what goes on at the back end, at the workshops and the factories and the warehouses, perhaps we might have a chance to catch the wave after all.

In a bid to become more eco-friendly, the environmentally-conscious, ready-to-wear clothing brand GENERATION has been making several efforts as they embrace sustainable fashion. Among them is the utilization of surplus fabrics to create accessories, including these striking little potlis.

If you've been browsing the fashion side of the internet recently, you may have come across the term 'sustainable fashion'. There's a lot of discourse about the clothes we wear and how they were made but what exactly is sustainable fashion?

RAWALPINDI: With Eid Al-Fitr just a week away in Pakistan, high street fashion brands found themselves facing their most profitable season of the year without traditional brick-and-mortar sales on their side-- and were forced to release their collections online.

Diversification within the fashion industry is on the up rise, now more than ever, if one goes by international ramps and campaigns. With designers showcasing their designs on a range of body types, skin tones, gender identities and ages, consumers are able to identify with many variations of beauty rather than trying to fit themselves into the standard of beauty/fashion ideals that are otherwise presented. The world is redefining the definition of both and designers are in the forefront expressing this change.

This powerful social media campaign is breaking stereotypes and taboos surrounding marriage. It shows the various rituals of a traditional wedding ceremony of Shahnaz, the bride, who is getting married for the second time.

For a country obsessed with weddings, Pakistani clothing brand Generation’s choice of a marriage ceremony as the theme for a campaign last December appeared unsurprising. But there was nothing regular about the campaign called Shahnaz ki Shaadi, or Shahnaz’s Wedding.

ISLAMABAD: “I wouldn’t say we are tackling skin colorism. I think we are just challenging norms of beauty and want the debate to become wider and more inclusive in every way,” said Khadija Rahman.

For a country obsessed with weddings, Pakistani clothing brand Generation’s choice of a marriage ceremony as the theme for a campaign last December appeared unsurprising. But there was nothing regular about the campaign called Shahnaz ki Shaadi, or Shahnaz’s Wedding.

Generation, one of Pakistan’s pioneering high street fashion houses, has spent considerable time, through its many campaigns in recent history, to remind us that the rigid ideals of beauty and age that were once promoted excessively and exclusively across the world and in some ways are still promulgated through fairness creams endorsed by movie stars and size zero models at many, if not most fashion weeks, were and will continue to remain half-truths.

Fashion meets art in a limited edition collection that is about to get stocked at Generation stores across the high street – and we’re not referring to your usual, phool-patti artistry here.

Instead, joining hands with graphic designer/illustrator Shehzil Malik, Generation is seeking to make some strong feminist statements: a girl wearing a hijab riding a motorbike; another, with her hair open; girls with piercings, tattoos fair-skinned, dark-skinned; staring boldly out at the world.

Two decades ago, urban Pakistan was a pretty dull place in terms of branded shopping. There was barely any organised retail and the ubiquitously unflattering ‘free size’ kurta was the only option available to women who wanted reasonably priced ready to wear clothing. But then again, Pakistani women were more than happy to buy unstitched fabric, along with buttons, lace and piping and then take the lot to the tailor for a custom-made jora, even if the process was hassle-ridden at the best of times.

Khadija Rahman, hot on the heels of her debut success for Generation at Fashion Pakistan Week, talks about revamping the brand and reinserting some intellect in todays ‘it’ world of fashion.

This year marks 33 years in the business of fashion for Generation. Surviving, if not thriving for more than three decades in retail is an accolade in itself for any brand and Generation has more than merely survived. A staple of the fashion circuit in the late ’80s and throughout the ’90s when there weren’t many options available for ready-to-wear, the iconic brand suffered a slump through the first half of the new millennia, only to pick up its game and return to consumers with a new identity but retaining the same eclectic ethos. Spearheading this revamp is creative director Khadija Rahman, taking on the baton from her mother Nosheen.

She is young, charming, entrepreneurial and very well grounded. We sat down with Khadija Rahman, Creative Director of GENERATION who is one dynamic business woman and a hands on mom!

The massive red brick structure is imposing yet grand; trees that have lived through the rise and fall of decades of fashion trends line the courtyard and the lush green patch of greenery outside conjures up visions of lazy Sunday picnics with the family.

LAHORE: Even when prêt wasn’t all the rage and women were still making their rounds to their tailors, Generation set the precedent of having ready to wear available in ‘small’, ‘medium’ and ‘large’ sizes. It has dominated the fashion front for a long time is Generation. People associate with the label as one of the pioneers of fast fashion.

With seven stores countrywide, Generation is a household name when it comes to women’s fashion in Pakistan. Playing true to its name, Generation strives to serve one generation of women after another, with sincerity. Unlike other garments which underwent mass-production, its clothes are dyed, screen-printed and embroidered by hand. Here’s a look at the design process in Generation’s factory on Ferozepur Road in Lahore. -Text and photos by Nushmia Khan

KARACHI:Whether it’s a casual day at her workplace or an evening out with her family, 25-year-old Sobia Asad is usually dressed in a Generation outfit. Asad said the realisation that this was ‘the’ store for her came a few years ago. “My mother used to shop for me and often would buy clothes from Generation. But I realised this was the perfect choice for me when I started to shop on my own. They have outfits in all sizes, the designs are good and the fitting is simply perfect.”