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As she sits in her office that is lined with books on poetry and history, one gets an insight into the life of this remarkable woman. Referred to as the “Dior” of Pakistan, Nilofer has dressed clients like Princess Diana, Jemima Khan, Olivia George Harrison, Madonna and Benazir Bhutto among many other dignitaries. Very firm and confident of her legacy, she takes her work as a mission. Nilofer hails from the martial race of the Niazi Pathans of Isa Khel and traces her lineage back to Sher Shah Suri. No wonder she is not afraid of taking up challenges!
She has given the west an insight into our vibrant and rich culture and introduced them to the delicacy of our local embroidery. She uses her dresses like a canvas, adorning them with semiprecious stones, golden and silver embroidery, and dabka. She trims them with laces and combines different textures; the result is stunning. Her attention to detail makes sure that every piece is meticulously finished. She has taken what she describes as the “road less travelled”, earning respect with a lot of hard work, sometimes sleeping only for three hours.
She has displayed her collections at various shows all over the world and has shared the runway with some of the leading names in haute couture in Paris. Her shows have received international acclaim from fashion television channels and magazines. She presented her spring/summer 2007 couture collection in Paris during the fashion week, in which she paid homage to Empress Josephine and Noor Jehan.
Couture Fashion Week in Paris
“A French team from the Prêt Foundation did a survey of the designers in Pakistan. I was the only designer selected and then I was invited to Paris where I went through a series of interviews. Couture Foundation has a fashion week twice a year in Paris. After a meeting with the President of the Foundation, I was advised to hire an agent in Paris. I hired one and invited her to come to Pakistan so that she could advise me what to make for my collection. We decided to show our collection for the spring and summer fashion week,” she says.
 
 
 
 
“I had several meetings with my art directors and my public relations team. I also asked for the government’s help as Couture has very high standards and, therefore, the cost is huge. Being the first Pakistani to be invited on that level and to be showing with the big names, had its own pressures. The major stress for me was that I would be the first one to show and set the precedent and it would be a benchmark for our Pakistani fashion industry and the softer image of Pakistan. Those six months were total frenzy for me. I made three trips to Paris to organize. Luckily Boucheron had agreed to lend their salon and jewellery for the event.
“The most important thing was the concept and to decide what to show in Paris. I did not want to show my ghararas and lehngas and I did not want something that was totally western. I love to make mysterious and exotic clothes with lots of layers,” she adds.
“I wanted something with which they could relate to, yet it would be something that bore our signature style. So the concept was a dialogue between Empress Noor Jehan and Empress Josephine Bonaparte. In those two personalities, I presented a fusion of east and west. Noor Jehan loved white, she promoted Moghul art, she was the first one to introduce Attar-e-Gulab. Josephine, on the other hand, was a very strong, fashionable and beautiful woman. Noor Jehan, who introduced chikan kari, was a trend-setter in her own right. She hired artisans from Persia. The inspiration for chikan kari came from Italian lace. That is how that jaali form came,” she says.
  
 
 
 
“Josephine, also loved white. She set white in fashion. Her most famous dress was white with pink roses. Hence my collection was white. Plus, I love white too not that I am an empress,” she says laughingly.
I wanted to open the door for the Pakistani design industry and product and the strategy was to build a grand image which then filters down to the market and the ready-to-wear stuff. The invitees were a very select group. They could not stop raving about it. They loved it,” recalls Nilofer with pride.
The Good Old Days
“My first collection was presented in 1991. I created a ready-to-wear line, moving into formals. I was doing embroidery, using threads, stones, kamdani on block prints for years. I used designs from old blocks and shawls. Although I had been working since 1978, my fashion house started in 1991. In ’93 I presented a collection on calligraphy. I came across a book by Martin Lings in which he says it is an art inherited only by Muslims. I gave the feel of old paper to the fabric in that collection. I also made angarkhas inspired by the cover of Quran.
“Then I did a collection on the designs of Central Asia because this is where the Moghuls came from. I went to Samarkand and Bukhara for my research. I realized what cultured people they were. They got artisans from Persia and Turkey. It was a beautiful collection,” she remembers.
“I have tried to do something different in life