YBQ's Collection at PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week 2010 Karachi

An amalgam of excitement, colour, glitz and glamour, Day 3 at PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week was opened by Karachi based designer Yousaf Bashir Qureshi (YBQ). The show started with actress and model Amina Sheikh walking down the middle of the ramp wearing a white dress while YBQ painted on the dress in a synchronised manner. Once the dress was complete, she walked into the audience. YBQ’s womenswear Prêt-à-porter collection for Fashion Week, which was entitled “Dust to Ashes – Ashes to Dust – the eternal hour glass of existence” was created in cottons and georgettes.

The collection of dresses took inspiration from the philosophy that we come from dust and to dust we return, the cycle eternal, each rise reaching a crescendo before falling again; each fall giving way to a new life. In these rebirths and reinventions, life pens our story. Tales of boyhood adventures (when the dust flies) roll into adolescent musings (when it rages), into elations of manhood (when it starts to settle), middle aged dilemmas (when it flies again), the onset of wisdom till the ultimate claim of age – and the dust finally settles. He also actively participated in charity show called “Fashion Gives Back” in which the Fashion Week and other designers participated featuring live music from the famous band “Fuzon”. The charity show was produced by HSY and styled by Asmaa Mumtaz.

YBQ graduated as a food scientist and was part of the faculty at Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising  (FIDM), Los Angeles; Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York and in Pakistan at the prestigious Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi. He is also an accomplished photographer and the owner of the independent Commune Artists Colony a space for artists, by artists. He has previously designed for Sheryl Crow and is also the proud recipient of several international awards including the Asian Designer of the Year Award, Coalition of Los Angeles Designers 2000 in the Creative category and Best Prêt Wear Designer Award in Milan for Trussardi, to name a few. YBQ recently opened the YBQ Concept Studio in Karachi and launched his first ever collection in Pakistan, entitled “Fresh Difficulties” to much acclaim. YBQ showcased both his menswear and womenswear entitled ‘Holey’ at the debut PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week, the inspiration for which was derived from both ‘Holy and Holi’, deriving concepts for good and evil.