There’s no denying that lawn can be a yawn.
We barely notice the mélange of unstitched suits replete with embroidery dotted about billboards along the road. We’ve seen far too many of them and except for a few, they’ve all begun to look the same. What does always stand out, though, are the famous faces that begin to appear rampantly on billboards, catalogs and Facebook, shedding aside their designer-gowns and drifting into the conventional three-piece designer lawn.
From Bollywood mega-stars to the toasts of local cinema and television, lawn’s a star-studded business.
The rise of the 'lawn' girl:
In recent times, we’ve had Elan featuring Nargis Fakhri from across the border one year and our local pretty girl, Mahira Khan, in the subsequent summer. Designer Nida Azwer debuted two years ago with actress Humaima Malick as her brand ambassador and Aamina Sheikh has long been a lawn connoisseur, flitting from Wardha Saleem’s colorful funk to So Kamal’s floral odes.
Firdous lawn, long ago, opted to feature a motley crew of stars year after year, from Kareena Kapoor to Deepika Padukone, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor and Dr. Shaista Wahidi. Ittehad lawn by Fahad Hussayn, two years ago, boasted heroine du jour Priyanka Chopra and in 2014, Five Star Classic Lawn forked out what must have been considerable funds to dress Indian siren Katrina Kaif in three-piece glory.
“For a lawn that’s just starting out, Indian faces pique customer curiosity,” agrees Faraz Manan, whose hot-selling summer designs for Crescent lawn have long been modeled by the girls of Bollywood’s Kapoor khandan: Karisma, initially, and for the past two years, Kareena Kapoor. “For my brand, it helps that Kareena and Karisma have a regional appeal rather than popularity just within India.”
Is it a sales thing or just pure glamour?
But now that his lawn brand is a name unto itself, does Faraz feel that the expense of a Kareena Kapoor is still required to boost sales? “Kareena carries shalwar kameez beautifully and in the Indian market for lawn, she helps create mileage. People have long associated the Kapoor sisters with Crescent lawn by Faraz Manan, which is why we hope to continue working with Kareena even though she is no longer necessary for sales. In fact, Kareena only models our summer lawn lines while the other seasonal collections feature model Nadia Malik.”
Another lawn best-seller, Elan, has skipped the celebrity route this year, choosing model Rabia Butt for their travel-based lawn shoot. “I did not want an Indian face on our billboards because then we’re not allowed to advertise in cantonment areas,” reveals designer Khadijah Shah. “Besides, I think Rabia’s dusky, exotic looks emulate our ethos very well and she’s an absolute pro, giving us exactly the looks that we’re looking for. Elan now has an established market and the overall lawn fashion shoot needs to be strong rather than the face it features."
She adds: "I am still open to working with celebrities, though. We enjoyed having Mahira Khan as our model last year.”
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Old favourites are still going strong:
Quite the popular choice, this year Mahira flew off to scenic Sri Lanka for good friend Umar Sayeed’s lawn shoot. “Mahira wears lawn well,” observes Umar, who has ended his long-term collaboration with kingpin al-Karam to designing 2015’s prints for Imperial Tex. “The designer name is enough to draw in customers and although whatever Mahira wears manages to sell, she isn’t mandatory for sales.”
From one brand to another, the repetitive use of Mahira Khan and Aamina Sheikh does pinpoint the dearth of popular style icons in the local arena. The only other options, for now, seem to be sisters Urwa and Mawra Hocane, the faces of this year’s Maria B. lawn. “They’re both very well-liked and beautiful,” observes Maria, who had the stunning Mehwish Hayat on her billboards last year. Mehwish, probably, would have been all the rage in the lawn circuit had she not recently gyrated to the salacious ‘Billi’ item number, thereby possibly alienating the mostly conservative lawn clientele.
Still, this year more than ever, some of the most highly anticipated lawn brands are resisting the lure of a famous face. Deepak Perwani for Zeniya lawn, Sania Maskatiya for al-Karam, Zara Shahjehan, Gul Ahmed and the reigning, hysteria-inducing Sana Safinaz lawn are all letting the brand and the prints speak for themselves – rather than the celebrity.
“Our aim is to create innovative designs and variety rather than creating hype through a celebrity endorsement that takes away the emphasis from our product,” explains the team at Gul Ahmed.
Safinaz Munir of Sana Safinaz seconds the sentiment. “Our lawn campaigns have always focused on the design rather than the face representing it. We do like to have a consistent model to be allied with our label. For many years, we consistently featured Neha and now, Amna Babar is modeling our lawn.”
Identifying a brand's need is the smart decision:
It all boils down to what a lawn brand needs: to debut with a splash in the market or to keep customers curious by investing heavily in Indian faces or for the established players, to just have a shoot that is gorgeous enough to have women yearning for a slice of that designer aesthetic.
As Zainab Chottani, whose collaboration with Lakhany Silk Mills features the very happening Jacqueline Fernandez in sunny Bangkok, points out, “Indian stars are hugely popular not just in Pakistan but also in India, where our lawn has a strong market. An ‘it’ Bollywood face certainly helps in generating publicity but in the end, it’s the design and the fabric quality that bring in sales.”
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