LAAM Fashion Week will stage LFW Presents in Karachi for the first time on Saturday, 26 September, with a five-designer showcase titled Kaleidoscopic Karachi at the historic Nusserwanjee Building, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS).
The evening marks the second edition of the LFW Presents format and its first outing outside Lahore. Deepak Perwani, Khaadi, The Pink Tree Company, Wardha Saleem and Sana Safinaz will present collections, opening with an immersive archival exhibition by photographer Tapu Javeri, titled Four Decades of Fashion Through the Lens of Tapu Javeri.
Kaleidoscopic Karachi is built around the idea that the city resists a single identity. Maheen Kardar, Executive Director Designer Experience and Curation at LFW Presents, said she wanted the showcase to feel like stepping into Karachi itself — “layered, restless, colorful and full of contradictions.”
“I pictured five designers, five distinct interpretations, each revealing a different fragment of Karachi, until those fragments come together to form something larger than any one perspective,” she said. “That is the beauty of a kaleidoscope: every turn gives you a new image, yet somehow, you always recognize the city.”
Tapu Javeri described his exhibition as “a sort of a walk down memory lane,” adding that Karachi is both where he lives and a part of his creativity.
Each designer brings a distinct reading of the city. Deepak Perwani offers sleek, restrained cocktail-hour Western wear, saying, “There will be a lot of fun and excitement, but not a lot of colour.” Khaadi, led by Saira Shamoon, brings what she calls “an explosion of colour, print, chaos and a bit of glamour,” amalgamating the Khaadi and Chapter 2 lines. The Pink Tree Company, headed by Mohsin Sayeed, places craft at the centre, with block prints, varied fabrics and a rule-breaking spirit. Wardha Saleem returns to her alma mater IVS with earthy, embroidery-heavy work rooted in Sindhi craft. Sana Safinaz presents Mastaani, a 20-piece heritage collection described by Sana Hashwani as “very cinematic,” with strong textures, handwork and colour.
The venue itself carries the evening’s theme of preservation and reinvention. Built in the early twentieth century and originally located in Kharadar, the Nusserwanjee Building was dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt at the IVS campus by the school’s architecture students.
Kaleidoscopic Karachi is the second edition of LFW Presents, LAAM Fashion Week’s year-round, invitation-led showcase format designed to move fashion beyond the seasonal calendar and into distinctive cultural spaces. LFW is led by Arif Iqbal, Amir Iqbal, Saad Ali and Maheen Kardar, with LAAM and Design651 as co-founders and Talking Point handling PR and strategic communications.
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