The Dream Weaver
By Zohra Goawala | Fashion | Life Style | Published 17 years ago
Blazing with brilliant colours, Khaamta’s fabrics could set a room on fire. When Ghazala Saifi set up Khaamta, a khaddar outlet, she zoomed in on one colour: orange. Every fabric had a shade of orange. “All my khaddis are on fire,” she jokingly remarked to a friend. However, in the last five years, Khaamta has turned its sights on multiple shades — and designs to boot — the idea being to make the material more “versatile and wearable.”
The Khaamta showroom displays plain and worked kurtis, shirts, skirts, knee-length embroidered kameezes and a wide range of loose fabric with prints that draw their inspiration from geometric African and Indian motifs. Ghazala Saifi encourages people to wear plain chiffon dupattas to add flair to the outfits.
From the thread to the fabric, everything is created under one roof under Saifi’s supervision. For starters, the designs are sketched manually and run by her before they go into production. Every eight to 10 days Khaamta introduces a new design into the market. And according to Saifi, so far none of her designs have been replicated by copycats.
Saifi justifies Khaamta’s high prices by saying, “You cannot compare our fabric with the cheaper stuff available at shopping plazas. We use the best dyes, create our own designs, and what’s more, we keep changing our colour palette.”
Khaamta’s designs are the perfect embodiment of city chic, combining comfort with style. The label’s premier product is cotton in radiant colours, with zarri weaves serving to enhance the look. This season Khaamta has introduced light fabrics to beat Karachi’s unbearable heat. Saifi plans on using a lot of browns next season — and with good reason: brown, with its neutral and subtle tones, perfectly complements every skin tone. She also intends to diversify from cottons to silks. “I will attempt to create a different image of silk compared to what you see around.”
Khaamta is fairly new, and Saifi is still getting her act together — but she is enjoying every bit of it. “Every day is a challenge; it brings excitement and happiness to me. I find my work extremely fulfilling.”