Fashion designer Huma Adnan joined hands with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to put up a unique show at Serena, Islamabad. Titled Craft Stories, the exhibit showcased a jewellery line created purely by the refugee women in Pakistan.
The aim of the show was to help refugee women to explore their talents and skills, and especially to “assist them in earning a respectable living for themselves.”
As Adnan wrote in a pre-event Instagram post: “Every piece in the collection has a special meaning to me personally because I know the stories and hard work that have gone into this project. Each piece represents beauty and love and loss and fears and tears and you can see it in the perfection of their finishing.”
Under her able guidance, a creative team of experts worked day and night to train the women in the said craft, before the latter were able to deliver.
The result was alluring pieces of jewellery that were also representative of the country’s roots and cultures, be it in the choice of motifs, colour palettes, even the kind of threads used, as well as the techniques.
At the exhibit, a bevy of models presented the collection on the ramp. The event was attended by a host of UN officials and foreign dignitaries.
Earlier, Adnan visited an Afghan refugee camp in Karachi, where she was joined by Mahira Khan also. The couturier, known for her pret label FnkAsia, also urged on the “fashion influencers [who] have the potential to start new economic cycles” to support such ventures.
