:: RENDEZVOUS with REZZ ::

The writer is a renowned fashion choreographer & event planner

As a trailblazing pioneering fashion photographer and now a fashion designer, Arshad Tareen, unlike most of his fashionista peers, has never hogged for publicity. He has always been a humble low-key person and this is what endears him to his friends. Popular names of today like Aijaz Aslam, Adnan Siddiqui, Rubab, Fawzia, Iraj, Meshe Khan, Rubya Chaudhry, Asia Sial Khan, Nadeem A Khan, journalists Kaleem Ahsan aka Mickey (of photography duo Mickey & Momey) and Navaid Rasheed (Tony) owe much to Arshad Tareen for the grooming and platform that he provided to them, enabling them to make their mark.

Arshad is now delving into designing --- making beautiful ensembles and working at it in his own low-key style and manner --- letting his work speak for him.

TRAIN OF THOUGHT

What is on your mind?
What's going to happen to this country???'

How would you describe your personal dress style?
Understated -- very casual -- and boring.

How does your work dictate your lifestyle?
If I let it, it can actually start ruling my life. So I have to keep drawing lines.

Which fashion icon would you relate closely to your style?
I can't think of any.

The proudest professional moment in your career?
Next question, please!

What is your professional aim in life?
To keep paying my bills -- comfortably.

What is your style mantra, hot brands, current looks or style regrets?
Dress comfortable.

Where's the best place to be?
Home, sweet home, or somewhere out of Pakistan.

What scares you the most?
Untimely deaths of people around me.

What keeps you sailing in a crisis?
Steel nerves and tremendous amount of patience.

Which item from your wardrobe do you love the most?
My t-shirts and boxers.

Independence Day Special :: Jinnah, the man of style! ::

Sheikh-Amer Hassan is a fashion graduate from the prestigious London College of Fashion and Bournville College of Art in England. Now living between Karachi, Lahore and London, he is one of the pioneers of fashion in Pakistan and famous as a designer, socialite and a social worker

This is a continuation of what I started last week. It is a celebration of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam. It is so nice to actually get to learn so much about him and to be able to share it with others. So very little is actually known about the man himself, it is rather sad. He was an extraordinary person but an ordinary human being with heart, feelings, emotions, ups & downs, friends and family —- but why are we deprived of all such basic information? For instance, how many people actually knew that they were seven siblings of four brothers and three sisters? But, the question is, who are they and where are they? The firstborn Jinnah was soon joined by six siblings, brothers Ahmad Ali, Bunde Ali, and Rahmat Ali, and sisters Maryam, Fatima and Shireen. However, to see the many faces of the great man through photographs and films is a good opportunity to observe him more closely and to understand his taste in the finer things in life.

The young Jinnah, a restless student, studied at several schools: at the Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam in Karachi; briefly at the Gokal Das Tej Primary School in Bombay; and finally at the Christian Missionary Society High School in Karachi, where, at age sixteen, he passed the matriculation examination of the University of Bombay. The same year, 1892, Jinnah was offered an apprenticeship at the London office of Graham’s Shipping and Trading Company, a business that had extensive dealings with Jinnahbhai Poonja’s firm in Karachi. However, before he left for England, he married, at his mother’s urging, a distant cousin, Emibai Jinnah|Emibai, who was two years his junior. The marriage was not to last long: a few months later, Emibai died. Later, during his sojourn in England, his mother too would pass away. In London, Jinnah soon left the apprenticeship to study law instead, by joining Lincoln’s Inn. The welcome board of the Lincoln’s Inn had the names of the world’s all time top ten magistrates. This list was lead by the name of Muhammad, which was the sole reason of Jinnah’s joining Lincoln’s Inn. In three years, at the age of 19, he became the youngest Indian to be called to the bar in England. In 1918, Jinnah married his second wife Rattanbai Petit (‘Ruttie’), twenty-four years his junior. She was the fashionable young daughter of his personal friend Sir Dinshaw Petit, of an elite Parsi family of Bombay. Unexpectedly there was great opposition to the marriage from Rattanbai’s family and Parsi society, as well as orthodox Muslim leaders. Rattanbai defied her family and nominally converted to Islam, adopting (though never using) the name Maryam Jinnah —- resulting in permanent estrangement from her family and Parsi society. The couple resided in Bombay, and frequently travelled across India and Europe. In 1919 she bore Jinnah his only child, daughter Dina Jinnah. Mohammed Ali Jinnah would receive personal care and support through his later life from his sister Fatima Jinnah, who lived and travelled with him and also became a close advisor. She helped raise his daughter, who was educated in England and India. Jinnah later became estranged from his daughter, Dina Jinnah, after she decided to marry Parsi-born Christian businessman, Neville Wadia (even though he had faced the same issues when he married Rattanbai in 1918). Jinnah continued to correspond cordially with his daughter, but their personal relationship was strained. Dina continued to live in India with her family.

Speaking to Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, he said “If we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor —- you are free to go to your temples, mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state —- in due course of time, Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to Muslims, not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual, but in a political sense as citizens of one state.”

Happy Birthday Pakistan!