By Maliha Rehman
Old-world beauty and the bittersweet tale of a princess hiding behind her poetry forms the inspiration for designer Mohsin Naveed Ranjha’s latest luxury unstitched collection, symbolically titled Makhfi. The designer has always had a penchant for building stories around his collections and his muse for this year’s Zarlish festive collection is Princess Zaib Un Nisa, daughter of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, a poetess who expressed her emotions through the pseudonym (takhallus) Makhfi, an Arabic/Urdu word which means concealed and disguised.
Model Sadaf Kanwal epitomizes the Mohsin Naveed Ranjha (MNR) Makhfi, wandering the sprawling Shalimar Garden, a landscape which had once enamored the princess, motivating her to write poetry that inevitably led to her identity getting revealed. The silhouettes are timeless – ghararas, shararas, lehngas and a peshwaz – and the embellishments glint with hand and machine embroideries, gota, pani-work. Set against the ageing walls and arches of the Mughal garden, she exudes grandeur, much like the princess that she is emulating.
The story of Princess Zaib Un Nisa is a poignant one. Despite being in a position of power and privilege, being a woman she was not allowed to express her opinions on certain matters openly which is why she opted to write under the anonymity of a pen-name. Her secret, however, was revealed when she visited the Shalimar Garden and was so enchanted by its beauty that she returned to her royal home and wrote about it. People around her began to guess that she was, in fact, the mysterious Makhfi. A series of events followed which eventually led to her getting imprisoned by her father.
The MNR collection, dedicated to the princess, pays tribute to all that she kept hidden and all that she allowed the world to see, as she roamed the nooks and corners of the garden. The imagery also alludes to the stories sheltered within its symmetrical passages, the love and hatred that they may have witnessed over the years and the secrets held within their walls.
Sitting under the arches of the gardens’ famous bara dari, the princess looks out at the world, wearing ‘Afsana’, a lehnga and choli set, embellished by a patchwork of sequins, panni and tilla embroidery, set off by a net dupatta with a scalloped border and sequin-work.
In another terrace, she poses wearing a red lehnga, choli and dupatta against a backdrop of white marble. The design titled ‘Bia Jaan’, is named after Mohsin Naveed Ranjha’s wife, a tradition that he follows in every unstitched line, creating a design in red and dedicating it to her.
One of the most striking designs in the lineup is titled ‘Roshni’, featuring a skin-toned jacket, paired with a sharara and dupatta, embellished with screen-print, sequins and panni-work.
Red sandstone lattice work and ageing brick walls form the background for the opulent ‘Lehar’ – a long shirt, paired with a voluminous sharara and dupatta, with tilla embroidery and chata-pati inspirations.
The flowing organza dupattas, classic silhouettes and traditional embroideries are molded to a range of colors, from a soft pink peshwaz and an ethereal white to bold mixes of orange and red, green and gold, burnished brown and copper. Set against a historic landscape, it all comes together to depict a princess in her many moods, a poetess looking at the beauty surrounding her and taking inspiration.
And while the unstitched designs are elaborate and can easily be worn to weddings, the collection is priced between Rs 36,900 and Rs 44,900. According to the designer, this is deliberate, in an effort to allow more people to purchase designer-wear that is priced much lower than what is available on the racks of an atelier.
And while unstitched festive-wear by designers is not something entirely new to the market, Makhfi has a melancholy and mystery to it, the memory of a princess gliding down a landscape that was designed with the gardens of paradise in mind.
The story adds to the collection’s allure. The price-points make it relatively accessible. The MNR brand – an established name in the country’s fashion circuit, gives assurance to customers and makes the designs even more covetable.
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