The summer season has started and with that has begun the season of wearing lawns too. Lawn is an easy material to wear which is light, soft and comfortable. Hence in summers, lawn is at the top of its sales. Lawn manufacturers and textile mills get into a battle with each other for bringing out the best that they have to offer with a variety of prints and also designer made exclusives. The strength in the competition of marketing best lawn collections is something that has actually rendered the phrase “lawn wars”.
Especially in major cities of Pakistan, lawn sales rise and the demand increases ever more. There are arranged many fashion events showcasing the latest designer collections in lawn prints. The designers hire top models to display their unique creativity in lawn designs and adorn their collection and the textile industries hire top actresses to model and advertise their products. Models are now being hired, even from across the border now. For example, with this year’s Firdous Lawn ambassador being Sonam Kapoor.
The reporters of the fashion industry are on their work 24/7 to get the latest scoops of who has come out with their new strategy of advertisement as well as who is hiring whom to showcase their talent. These lawn collection endorsements are very strong to attract people and generate more customer base. With billboards showing the latest endorsements and magazine pages filled with it all, fashionistas flock to these outlets and boutique stores quickly.
Sometimes, a lawn brand which is able to generate more publicity through these star endorsements gets to have a lead in these lawn wars. But it is always the case with the quality of lawn that should matter. Pakistani lawn is exported world over, especially to markets in Europe and the Middle East. Capturing foreign clients is also something that lawn designers keep their sight on.
Lawn is printed usually with floral patterns and also with abstract designs to it. This makes lawn prints easy on the eye and beautiful to look at. For big designer brands like Gul Ahmed, Bonanza to those of Nadia Hussain, Junaid Jamshed and others, they do often collaborate together and often also manage to get out on their own individually. For example, Bonanza hired the designer Shameel to bring out Luxury Lawn collection.
One thing though which is a bit sad is that these exclusively created lawn prints do get copied and are then sold cheaply. This is not only stealing from designers whose original creation the lawn prints were, but also stealing from those brands that sell them exclusively. However, the quality in cheaper copied version is low and is not worth the money either.
Being expensive at times when lawn prints are made exclusively by the designers, the masses of the country could not afford to wear. Hence, lawn manufacturers should themselves come out with prints which are affordable and yet attractive to wear.
Images Courtesy: Akhtar Soomro (LATIMES) and Tahir Iqbal (FlickR)
