Yousuf Bashir Qureshi was one of the designers who was in the UK last month, showcasing his designs and taking part in the Internation Foundation For Mother and Children Health Charity Fashion show, where his collection was shown alongside collections by fellow Pakistani designer Maria B.

Here are some of the designs from his collection called "Holey"
I attended this fashion show and there was definitely surprise amongst the audience when these unembroidered almost neon-bright outfits came onto the catwalk, particularly after just viewing the heavily embroidered Maria B bridals!


A week after this fashion show, I was given the opportunity to meet Yousuf Qureshi in person, to view his designs up close and to find out more about the man behind these bright coloured clothes.

He described the inspiration behind his "Holey" collection as a celebration of colour, I managed to record a sound clip of Yousuf describing this his concept behind "Holey" in his own words - have a listen:



Yousuf hasn't always focused on asian fashion, his background was originally in costume - he dressed Madonna for her Ray of Light album, then moved into movies where he designed the first jacket that Keanu Reeves wore in The Matrix.
He's also designed for Kenneth Cole, for Givenchy, Christian Lacroix, as well as creating in his own words "recipes for denim washes" which he sells to brands like Levis and Diesel.

He could have easily stopped at a successful career in fashion design, but he started to take an interest in photography and established himself as fashion photographer with his work appearing in W magazine and American Vogue. He admits to doing so much fashion photography that he got bored of it all, and was inspired again by watching a news story on genocide in Ethiopia "I just went there and started shooting - I became a war photographer".

He became involved with the IFMCH charity when he met charity founder and Chairman Dr.Saleem Khan in Pakistan. He came to the UK specially for the launch of IFMCH and agreed to showcase his collection at the charity fashion show.

Although the fashion show only had female models, Yousuf didn't shy away from showing his menswear designs, much to the amusement of the audience and the models too!

After speaking to Yousef in great depth about allsorts of non-fashion related topics, I got a chance to check out the clothes up close and even try an outfit on! My initial impression of the collection after watching the fashion show was a bit like "I wouldn't wear this..." but then I tried the below outfit on:
Firstly I went and put it on back-to-front...that was an embarassing moment to say the least! but once I had it on the right way around and I looked in the mirror I liked what I saw. The great thing about this collection is that you can mix and match the pieces and the colours to suit your own tastes - for example I'd probably wear this outfit with plain black pajama and some sky-high funky heels.

If you're interested in any of the pieces in this collection or the jewellery which was also designed by YBQ the main contact for anyone in the UK is Mariha on 07974003046.

A big thanks to photographer Shahid Malik for use of these photos and to the International Foundation for Mother and Children Health who arranged for me to meet and interview Yousuf.