The Man Who Made the Handloom Savvy

THE MAN WHO MADE THE HANDLOOM SAVVY

Shamoon Sultan, Khaadi

Sarah hameed, Amal Faisal, Ayesha Akber and Safdar Jhang

11/24/2010

Pakistani fashion designer Shamoon Sultan of "Khaadi" believes success comes before work. Peculiar thought, but works well for him. Modest and effervescent, this Pakistani fashion designer is equipped with extraordinary entrepreneurial abilities

The ingenious

"I think I just did the right thing at the right time"

- Shamoon Sultan, CEO, Khaadi

Pakistani fashion designer Shamoon Sultan of "Khaadi" believes success comes before work. Peculiar thought, but works well for him. Modest and effervescent, this Pakistani fashion designer is equipped with extraordinary entrepreneurial abilities. "Had I not studied at Indus Valley, I would not be where I am today. IV is an art school and I was trained as a designer. It is very important to be professionally trained in your field. You cannot just pick up skills along the way. Indus Valley doesn't teach fashion design – it focuses on textile design, so this is why I chose to venture into this field."

"Well, I wouldn't quite put it like that. It just happened at the right time. My immediate family is not really into art or design, all apart from two of my uncles who are architects – Arshad and Shahid Abdulla. Besides them, there is no one in a similar field. However, my uncles did encourage me quite a bit, so I suppose I owe them a debt of gratitude".

"I always felt that it was very important to have separate outlets for my products and that the working area must be clearly defined. I wanted to bring all the weavers in to work at one central location, and this was something that no one was doing at the time. Everybody who was in the business used to operate out of their own homes and designers and weavers also preferred to stick to their own shops. So this is exactly what I did – I allocated a central space for the weavers to work from and this is how it started off".

Since its inception in 1998, by Shamoon Sultan, Khaadi has developed enormously into a full fashion house that not only has its own production facility with a team of experienced weavers but also has many other skilled artisans creating a wide array of colorful products.

Known for its dazzling mélange of yummy colors, full of happiness, textures, and hottest styles in the purest cottons and silks that arrest the minds and hearts of people with its extraordinary ambiance, Khaadi aims to revive the tradition of hand woven fabric, which has been an intrinsic part of rich tapestry of life in the East, into a solid new market.

Khaadi has an in-house dyeing unit, where all the griege thread is dyed, ensures that every strand meets the high standard of quality that is the hallmark of Khaadi. In addition to that, an in-house stitching unit helps the designers create innovative and fresh patterns and products. Besides, a fully-equipped design studio, armed with qualified and talented designers, makes sure that the brand stays abreast of changing fashion trends both nationally and internationally.

The inception

As a textile design graduate, specializing in weaving, Shamoon spotted a significant gap in the market to create highly fashionable clothing and home textiles from hand-woven fabrics.

Launched in 1998, Khaadi started as a small venture with only a handful of weavers. Today, the business has grown ten-fold with its own factory employing a team of highly skilled weavers and artisans producing a wide range of colourful, haute couture clothing, fashion accessories and soft furnishings. The business has opened 14 exclusive Khaadi stores in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Faisalabad and Sialkot, has become a well-known designer brand, and is one of the most successful textile houses in Pakistan.

All these factors have contributed to making Khaadi the only brand specializing in hand-woven fabrics, garments, home products, and accessories with 9 full-scale outlets in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Shamoon Sultan graduating from design school in 1999, Shamoon started working with a few handloom craftsmen who were trying to keep their dying art alive.

Khaadi is an established brand name and Shamoom employs 2000 workers and 16 qualified designers – all keeping the tradition alive. Khaadi has won