Pakistani designer wear wows Kashmir

Name any internationally renowned Pakistani designer brand and you'll find it on the tastefully decorated shelves of the Tradition of Finesse exhibition.

On view at a local shopping complex is a Who's Who of the Pakistani fashion world: Junaid Jamshed, Bareeze, Chinyere, Working Woman, Kayseria, Leisure Club, Shahnameh and Urban Culture, to name just a few.

Sheikh Feroz, 44, the managing director of the Alkhuddam Group of Companies under whose aegis the exhibition-cum-sale of Pakistani designer wear has been organised, told IANS: "I used to buy Bareeze for myself in Dubai. I said why can't Kashmiris wear such comfortable and traditional dresses? That was my inspiration. Our USP is the high quality of the brands that we have on display here."

Feroz said Junaid Jamshed and his team of designers had telephoned him from Pakistan on Tuesday morning.

"They said they had organised a special prayer meeting at their headquarters for the success of the exhibition," Feroz said.

The exhibition is an affirmation that in spite of differences between India and Pakistan, the people-to-people connect between people on both sides of the frontier, which has been boosted by cross-border bus services and trade, remains strong.

The show opened on the day the defence secretaries of the two countries were engaged in talks in Islamabad in a bid to resolve the differences over Kashmir's Siachen glacier, the world's coldest and highest battlefield where the guns have been silent since a 2003 truce.

From the traditional shalwar kameez for women to kurta pajamas for men - and a host of other outfits in between - the exhibition is overflowing with brands Kashmiris till now only saw on television channels or read about in fashion magazines.