First look at Pakistan Fashion Week 4 in London

Over the weekend of 8th and 9th June, The Grand Connaught Rooms in London held host to Pakistan Fashion Week 4.

The event featured 22 catwalk shows and I'll be dedicating blog posts to my favourite collections, but in the meantime, here are some of the key looks!

Dazzling prints

The show featured a range of outfits from formal dresses and bridals to more casual outfits like these stylish prints suits from Bombay Stores, Moon Textiles and Naurangg by Uzma Shah & Moeeza Rabbani. Gul Ahmed also had some beautiful print outfits which I'll be blogging about in more detail soon.

Shimmering silver and metallics

As is the current fashion for Pakistani formalwear, there were A LOT of long flowing maxi dresses and evening gowns. Shimmering outfits with slight hints of colour were also a feature I noticed in a lot of the collections. The three above are from Rizwan Ahmed, Rana Noman and Naurangg by Uzma Shah & Moeeza Rabbani.

Ombre styles

More long flowing dresses, but this time with an ombre-effect going from white to blue. It must be a popular colour combination to be included in three designer's collections. Interestingly I first remember seeing an outfit like this in a collection by Shazia's Bridal Gallery in 2010 - check it out here (5th pic down).

Did you attend the show? What did you think of the event and which collections caught your eye? Look out for my upcoming blog posts covering PFW4 London in more detail!

Here are the credits for the show:

Event produced by: Riwayat LTD London
Head stylist: Huma Tahir
Make up by Tanya Khan
Hair by Reena & Sonya
Photography by Shahid Malik

Faryal Makhdoom Walima outfit - another Tarun Tahiliani creation!

Hello Magazine came out today featuring photos from Amir Khan and Faryal Makhdhoom's Walima which took place in Manchester on the 9th June.

You know I'm all about the fashion and so I've studied her dress in great detail and it looks like another Tarun Tahiliani creation!

What do you think? I'm convinced it's the same dress, just the silver top underneath had less of a sweetheart neckline and the model wears the collars closed whilst Faryal has hers open.

Now some people have made comparisons between Faryal and Kate Middleton, whether you agree with this or not, I think one thing which is certain is that A LOT of women have been inspired by Kate Middleton's wedding dress. On the catwalk model, the styling for the top of Faryal's walima outfit does remind me of Kate's dress a little bit, although it's not so obvious to see with the way Faryal has styled it.

In case you missed the wedding photos, here's the wedding outfit by Tarun Tahiliani (the catwalk model is wearing a different top but it's the same lehnga)

Now that all the pictures are public, what do you think about both of her outfits? From the comments I've seen on Facebook, Twitter and in other online discussion forums, a lot of people are saying she should have chosen a Pakistani designer for at least one of her outfits to reflect her background, but I have to say I disagree. Ok, she could have used this opportunity to raise the profile of a Pakistani designer, but she still has her own personal taste and I don't think any bride should feel restricted to choosing a designer based on their nationality.

Which was your favourite out of the two dresses?

I liked her wedding outfit slightly more than her walima outfit, although had I been wearing either of these I would have styled them a little differently.

Faryal's make-up for both events was by Naeem Khan and her hair on the Walima was styled by Lubna Nazir.

Both of the Tarun Tahiliani outfits were featured in his Bridal Week Collection from September 2012, check out more from that collection here.

Khush Wedding Magazine First Issue Summer 2013 Review

Hair and Make-up by Summaya

Outfit by Gul's Style

Jewellery by Red Dot Jewels and Anees Malik

Flowers by FlowerEscent

Back in January I blogged about a new print magazine aimed at Asian brides and grooms in the UK. Last month the first issue of Khush Wedding magazine launched and the team at Khush were kind enough to send me a copy. Here are my thoughts on the mag!

First up, the all important cover image. In the past I have criticized other asian bridal mags for choosing cover photos which seem more suited to a fashion magazine rather than a bridal/wedding magazine, but Khush Wedding's cover definitely conveys the content of the magazine.

The magazine goes into a fair bit of detail on how the cover bridal look was put together for any brides who want to re-create this look for their own big day.

Now onto the fashion!

There were a lot of outfits in this magazine which caught my eye, including the blue outfits above from Revaaj by KV. As well as outfits from stores/designers I had come across before, like Gul's Style and Arinder Bhullar it was good to see some less familiar names and designs.

This was the format for the beauty portfolios - I think it's good that they show close-up details for the lips and the eyes.

Other features of the magazine included real weddings, wedding decor ideas, travel guides for honeymoons and food/catering ideas - a page which I stopped a looked at for a good few minutes because the food looked soooooo good!

Khush Wedding is available to buy now, priced at £3.95, from WH Smith stores, high street newsagents and in a number of asian fashion stores across the UK. Find out more about where to buy in your area and to see more from inside the magazine over on the Khush Wedding Facebook page.

I've been reviewing the magazine as an Asian fashion fan, so I'd love to know what brides, grooms and anyone else planning an asian wedding thought of this magazine. Post your comments below!

Asian Fashion at Cannes 2013

Followers of Asian Fashion Blog on Facebook will have seen me posting photos of Sonam Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai and Vidya Balan's outfits at Cannes 2013 and now I've finally got round to writing a full blog post dedicated to Asian fashion at Cannes 2013!

Sabyasachi

I have to start with Indian designer Sabyasachi, who provided a whole wardrobe of outfits for Cannes 2013 jury member Vidya Balan as well as some of the other bollywood celebrities.

Out of the three lehngas above, I'm more drawn to the two on the right. I wouldn't have chosen Vidya's styling of having her hair covered in the far right outfit as it looked a bit weird on the red carpet, but in her defence, it was apparently raining that evening!

Here are some of her saris:

My favourites are the two on the right. Not a big fan of her hairstyling overall, I prefer hairstyles with a bit more volume, and there's the nosering she wore in the outfit on the far left...check out my earlier blog all about statement noserings.

The Sabysachi Mukherjee Facebook page posted some behind-the-scenes photos of Vidya's fittings for her Cannes looks, you can view it here.

Aishwarya Rai also wore Sabyasachi:

Nimrit Kaur's black Sabyasachi outfit was a similar style (but different colour) to an outfit Sridevi wore when she was promoting the film English Vinglish. View Sridevi's white version here.

Sonam Kapoor

Style queen Sonam Kapoor had two main asian outfits for Cannes, starting with this Anamika Khanna sari and jacket.

There's no denying this is a beautiful outfit but for some reason I'm not liking the way she's posing in it, we all know this girl knows how to pose on the red carpet, but in the above pics at least she doesn't do the outfit any justice.

For another Cannes event Sonam wore this Shehla Khan lacey outfit:

I didn't really like the look and have to agree with High Heel Confidential's tongue-in-cheek description of this as "A wealthy-young-Sicilian-widow-still-in-mourning-forced-to-attend-a-gala-to-snare-her-next-husband"

More Aishwarya Rai

Another sari worn by Aishwarya Rai, this time by Tarun Tahiliani:

This next outfit by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla split opinion with some people putting it down as "worst dressed"...personally, from this picture I really like it - especially the close up details you can see on the right. I like how she's styled her hair in this outfit too.

Manish Malhotra

Manish Malhotra was another big Indian designer who dressed a Bollywood star at Cannes 2013. Ameesha Patel was seen in two of his outfits and considering I'm not a fan of hers at all, I think she looked good!

Who were your favourites from the Cannes 2013?

First Look at Amir Khan and Faryal Makhdoom's Wedding - Hello Magazine Cover

Congratulations to Amir Khan and Faryal Makhdoom on their wedding last weekend!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who will be picking up a copy of Hello! Magazine tomorrow to see all the pictures, but in the meantime here's the front cover of the mag which they shared with the Queen!

Faryal's outfit was by Tarun Tahiliani and from what I can see in this cover pic she made a good choice! I'm excited to see more from this event and from the Walima which is taking place on Sunday 9th June in Bolton.

[update - here's a full length pic of the couple and an outfit alongside an outfit from Tarun Tahiliani's India Bridal Week Collection September 2012 which has the same lengha as Faryal with a different top.]

Check out Faryal Makhdhoom's Walima outfit here.

Bollywood Carmen comes to Bradford (and BBC3) next week

Next week the BBC are putting on a Bollywood version of the opera show Carmen. The event will be taking place live in Bradford City Park and will also be screened LIVE on BBC Three.

The star of the show is former Eastenders actress Preeya Kalidas and it also features Bollywood actor Abhay Deol who seems to be playing himself!

Here's an interview of Preeya talking about Carmen:
(I like her earrings!)



As Preeya says in the video, her outfits will be designed by Strictly Come Dancing's costume designer. I always thought there was a bit of a Bollywood feel to some of the Strictly Come Dancing outfits I've seen on past series so it will be interesting to see what the designer comes up with.

Meanwhile, the other cast members including Abhay Deol will be wearing outfits from local asian fashion boutique Ranis Bradford.

Ranis will be providing outfits for Abhay and I'm really pleased to hear that they're also providing a bridal outfit and a groom's outfit for two of the other cast members - every Bollywood show needs a wedding!

I'll be blogging more about the asian fashion in this show after it's been on tv, but in the meantime you can watch a video trailer here.

The show will be live on BBC3 next Sunday, 9th June at 9pm!