Khawar Riaz is known as a star-maker par excellence and has been instrumental in making several careers Zara Sheikh, Farooq Mannan, Ahmed Butt, Arooj, Imran Abbas, Amina Shafat, Danial… the list of stars made by this star makers is endless. Having the Midas touch must make him feel ten feet tall!

“I love unconventional faces - faces that most other people wouldn’t consider exceptional. I sometimes get fascinated by a particular face and imagine how I could go about transforming it. For instance, when Ahmed and Zara came to me, no one would have thought that they had it in them to become models, but I saw their potential right then and there. I immediately knew that they would become the king and queen of the industry. But I had to work on them. I had to give them time, patience, and the right kind of environment. And then they just blossomed and these seemingly ordinary individuals became head-burning beauties. Stars need to be made into stars; there’s always a creator behind them”.

In a place like showbiz where careers are quite short-lived to procure numero uno status is difficult, but what is even more difficult is to sustain it. There is this general impression that Ather Shahzad have managed to keep the fire going, while Khawar’s work, on the other hand, is fast losing its edge.

How would you defend your decline?

“I think I am very successful in my own way. I am still surviving. Success does not lie in people’s praise but in your body of work - what you deliver. If you are satisfied from within, I believe you have achieved it. And this inner satisfaction is far better than keeping others happy, you have to be true to yourself and do what feels right. If you go against your inner being just for some worldly attainment, you will never be happy in the long run. People who play diplomatic games lead very disturbed personal lives. But that’s not the case with me. Thank God!” says Khawar with sheer confidence.

The art of traveling mostly translates into knowing how to snare an in-flight upgrade or – equally enviable – being able to arrive everywhere stress and crease-free. Pop along to Pakistan’s Decorated Vehicles – part of the Pakistani Film, Media and Arts Festival at Tramway – and you’ll discover the brilliantly embellished moving canvasses that are the country’s trucks and buses. Photographer Peter Grant has recorded these eye-catching vehicles and his images, mounted alongside Billboard Art of Lollywood, create a sense of the everyday artwork on Pakistan’s streets.

Consider yourself unlucky if you have missed Sarah Gandapur shoot, printed in a local tabloid, which was based on the Victorian Era with Ather Shahzad and Reema. From Lahore with love, Sarah is the latest to join our flourishing fashion scene. A few shoots and adequate clientele Sarah is on the ove. And it’s just the beginning. But again, well begun is half done. Isn’t it?

What is on your mind?
To be one of the very best designers in the world… and make my family and country proud.

Old is gold and new is bold. Bold enough to bowl you over with everything that they do. And they do like no one can do. Here is a great tidal wave of young fashion gurus and divas that has stormed our fashion industry shores… Rocking a lot of boats and changing the scenery of the breakwater. So charged are they that they could put KESC’s Power Station to shame. They are relatively new but surely on a signing spree. So meet the new fashion police, which is lighting up our fashion world.

Designers

Usman Dittu