Pakistan’s first designer starts Indian retail

In a historic fashion, business and diplomatic move, Faiza Samee, the Pakistani designer who once dressed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto for her wedding, has begun retailing in Delhi, the first ever for a Pakistani designer in India.

Samee, who will be selling at the Carma fashion boutique in Mehrauli, has even made saris for the first time in her more than two-decade fashion career, especially for the India launch.

“This is a dream come true,” Samee told IANS in an interview. “People have been telling for 10 years to sell in India. But there were too many complications and I wanted everything to be just right.

“But now everything has cleared and here I am.”

In the past, governmental bickering between the countries, that from time-to-time has frozen all links, obstructed Samee, like hundreds of business people on both sides, from doing business across the border.

Now Samee is finally free to sell her gorgeous lehenga-cholis, ghararas, salwar kameezs and capris in Delhi. “I wanted to come to Delhi because I believe Indians and Pakistanis identify with each others’ clothes – essentially it’s the same thing…