This year British Council brought young urban fashion from the Pakistani underground to centre stage at Alchemy. South Bank Centre, London, hosted an evening of Pakistani fashion on 21 May 2014, featured a film exploring the relationship between dress and identity in Pakistan and a catwalk show of the work of select young Pakistani designers.
Documentary filmmaker, William Williamson, commissioned by Dazed Digital and British Council came to Lahore in May 2014 to shoot the film said, “The preparation for the shoot and the shoot itself was more than a production and it has all become an entanglement of thoughts, memories and feelings of apprehension. The Director of Photography, Will Hanke and I were there for ten very intense days. There is a madness to Lahore, one which I still can't demystify really. The organised chaos of the city definitely reflected in our work. It's a stark contrast to London, where I live, and left me constantly meeting my ignorance”.
The catwalk show featured the work of Indifference, Wardha Saleem, Mohsin Ali and Ali Xeeshan. Their collections revealed the breadth of fashion design coming out of Pakistan and how cultural identity is embraced and yet boundaries pushed. Commenting on his showcase, Ali Xeeshan said, "My collection 'Trouble' refers to past cinematic glamour in Pakistan".
The film was premiered online in June 2014.