There is madness behind the glittering venue of Fashion Pakistan Week spring/summer 2014. Make-up crews are silently working on the faces of the models, realising the vision of designers and stylists. The whirring of several hairdryers, deafening for normal human decibel levels, gets drowned by the calls, shouts and chatter. Professional models are either fixing their make-up, checking their looks or posing for the clickers. Unprofessional ones are busy throwing tantrums. Same goes for designers. But everyone knows the method to this madness. Everyone knows his or her drill. For models it’s make-up, hair, clothes and accessories. For stylists it’s adding accessories just before the final examination by the designer. And for designers taking a critical look at the final image and fixing a bit here, a strand there. But the toughest responsibility falls on the shoulders of backstage managers: to keep everyone happy and meet their last-minute demands. This is not the job of a human being made of flesh. It requires nerves of steel and the patience of prophets. Muneera and Amir Lakhani of O2 productions both have excellent managerial and organizational skills.
If the show area is pregnant with expectation, backstage is pulsating with creative energy.
Just before stepping on the ramp models get a couple of moments to take a deep breath behind the thin wall that separates them from the blinding arc lights; blaring music; hundreds of eagerly-waiting pairs of eyes and a battery of cameras. All chaos, madness, hysteria masterfully concealed by nonchalant calm, languid body language and the mood they are briefed by designers. All energy and chaos magically transforms into sheer chic display. Because all the world’s a ramp…
Jaffer Hasan loves to capture this high energy, this creative chaos through his lens. From a lipstick in front of a worn-out mirror to feet wrapped in cloth, from a model secretly fixing her lipstick to a designer taking a critical look at her creation on a model, nothing escapes Jaffer’s eyes and lens. With fine details and large chaos, he creates images that tell tales that are often untold for commoners who just view the gliding models and fashionable clothes on the ramp. This is his passion. For backstage, he even gladly sacrifices the viciously fought-over place in the media pit and most-coveted front seats. For both the clicker and the viewer, it’s a win-win situation. If Jaffer gets to quench his thirst for untold visual stories, the viewer gets to see them and have a feel of what goes on behind the ramp up, close and really personal.
If “all the world is a ramp” I wonder why the kaarigars and tailors who worked on the outfits were not invited to the curtain call? Why were their names not included in the credits? Why were they excluded from this ramp? Why have you not mentioned whether the kaarigars and tailors employed by these designers make a living wage? What is the “difference” between the wages the workers earn on making the outfits and the profits that the designers make by selling the clothes at exhorbitant prices?
Certainly, all the world is not a stage.