Admired Pakistani fashion designer Ali Xeeshan became a topic of discussion as a result of his latest campaign which aimed at the sad reality of the society that is dowry and after that the campaign backfired.
The fashion icon gathered a huge amount of admirations for bringing light to an essential issue of the Pakistani society by unveiling his ‘Numaish’ campaign—displaying a bride dragging a cart-load of dowry with the groom present there seated above everything on the cart.
Other than all the applauses, there was a major number of people who were not very happy about the campaign as they blamed the designer of ‘hypocrisy’ for campaigning for poor brides but on the other hand he is marketing his couture at unbearable prices.
A user said “The recent campaign against dowry is impactful. So I looked up the designer Ali Xeeshan. Google took me to his bridal collection. One would have to sell their kidney to buy this dress,”
Whereas another user wrote: “Ali xeeshan be like say no to dowry instead buy lehnga worth lacs from me,”
In response to all the allegations, the designer wrote: “When I was developing it [the campaign], I was only looking into the struggles of girls. But later I realised that dowry pressurises the parents more.”
“I remember last year a client’s wedding was called off because one of the demands from the groom’s family was to have a gold-plated shaving kit. Many people say that you make expensive outfits, then why are you talking about this? These two are very different things – that [designing outfits] is my business and no one is compelled [to buy them],”
“If you can afford my clothes please be my guests and if you can’t then don’t put yourself under the pressure. If someone asks me whether they should buy my clothes or educate their daughter then I would ask them to provide the education. I will manage to sell my clothes.”
