Eid calling: One man's tale of surviving Chaand Raat shopping

Ladies, if you have a man in your life who takes you out for 'Chaand Raat ki shopping' without complaining then you need to treasure him. Though if it’s your husband, then that’s fine. His spirit was broken long ago and he’s resigned to his fate.

If it’s your father, then stop lying, they don’t make fathers who won’t complain about driving around at stupid o’clock in the morning (unless he really wants to get away from your mother).

If it’s your brother, then he should probably be thanking you. You are his ticket to ‘family only’ shopping malls. Now try not to slap him as he stands around staring and drooling like he's at the Playboy Mansion rather than Dolmen Mall.

If it’s your boyfriend, and he seems to be genuinely enjoying this night then he’s really into you, perhaps even in love. You should probably not share news of your arranged marriage for now. Let’s rip his heart apart closer to yourshaadi time.

If it’s a single male cousin the same age as you or perhaps a little older, then oh boy, you are screwed. This bhai of yours has already planned your wedding. Congratulations on limiting your gene pool. You now may have some mutant babies, and not the kind you see in X-Men.

No, in general, men don’t like Chaand Raat ki shopping, because we really loathe large crowds. We also like to breathe air which is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, and 1% other gases, not air which is a 100% mix of sweat, farts, tear vapor from women who can’t find the perfect lawn ka jora, and variousdupatta dye smells. This mix is especially toxic for us when shopping in creaky rundown shopping centers on Tariq road where there are 500 fans running in every shop and it is still 50 degrees, where the air is as humid and moist as a moldy old double roti, where the air is so rancid bacteria would not survive.

Men spend all of Ramazan trying to escape the tyranny of the matching dupatta. — Photo: Manal Khan

I apologize if I am generalizing.

For women, I realize it’s no picnic wading past large aunties whose makeup has melted in the heat leaving their faces looking like Picasso paintings, aunties who haven’t heard of the invention of deodorant. But at least you are motivated to find those perfect pair of shoes for your Eid ka jora. If the tables were reversed, and this was San Diego comic con, I’d be whizzing between the aunties like the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field.

Eid traffic is just the beginning of our woes.

The problem begins with the traffic.

Everyone and their grandmother is out for Chaand Raat ki shopping. A five minute drive turns into a fifty minute one. Meanwhile, the windshield cleaning boys are out in full force during Chaand Raat, stalking traffic signals with a squeegee in one hand, and a bottle of cleaning liquid in the other. No, it doesn’t matter how clean the windshield is, the squeegee boys will attack you like post-apocalyptic zombies swarming humanity's last habitable outpost.

Finally, you reach your shopping destination, and there isn’t a parking spot in sight. Your man drives slowly in hopes of spotting a vacant parking area while impatient drivers stuck behind scream profanities as they blast their horns. Eventually, you find a spot, but it is a ninety minute rickshaw ride from where you want to shop. What’s more, it is pitch black with not a human soul in sight.

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While shopping, our level of honesty is inversely proportional to how long we’ve been at the mall. After five hours, you could be trying on a barrel keg, and we’ll tell you it’s the most precious thing ever made.

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Here, a small disagreement can take place before the two of you step out of the car. Your man is happy to have finally found a parking spot, but you don’t want to want to walk such a distance. At the same time the two of you are tense because the area is dark and times are dangerous. This is when someone suddenly knocks on the window, and you are surprised to hear your man scream like a five-year-old girl. Thankfully, it is a just a beggar, looking for some coin.

Finally, parking is done, and both of you step out of the vehicle. This is when the parking wala comes up to you demanding his twenty rupees. The parking fee is nominal, and paying them for their hard work is not a problem, but it is remarkable how the parking wala can find you regardless of where you are parked. You could be hiding on the moon, and a parking wala will float by: “Sir,paisay. Sir, paisay!”

Eventually, the two of you are inside, and the shopping begins. There are thousands of shops to visit. How delightful.

Sweat. Blood. Tears. — Photo: AP

Every shop you enter, your man only has only one goal in mind; to find a place to sit. Yes, our eyes are trained to find an empty stool or a vacant chair like a sniffer dog is trained to find contraband. Sometimes we’ll see the seats already taken by an elderly lady, and will fantasize about pulling it from underneath her.

In dusky old shopping centers it is particularly heavenly to enter an air-conditioned shop. Here, even the weird pungent smells of the freshly dyed clothes start smelling good. Things seem even better if there is a nice place to sit. But just as we rest our posteriors down, we are disappointed to hear that you are moving on to another shop.

“Chalo? But we just got here?” we silently protest. “This shop is nice. Are you sure you don’t want that hideous blouse?”

Of course, as you go from shop to shop you’ll ask us how a garment looks on you. Now, trust me when I say we don’t enjoy lying. We like being completely honest about how that polka dot blouse looks like it belongs more on a giant panda, and how those pair of shoes look exactly like the five trillion other shoes in the store.

But our level of honesty is inversely proportional to how long we’ve been shopping. After five hours, you could be trying on a barrel keg, and we’ll tell you it’s the most precious thing ever made; “Now let’s buy it honey and go home.”

Why are we Eid shopping already?!

If you’re a shopaholic red-blooded woman, there’s a good chance that you’ve lately been bamboozled quite a bit by nifty marketing.

Even before temperatures soared, billboards popped up within your periphery, urging you to stock up on lightweight lawn fabric in preparation for the sweltering summer that was sure to follow. Off you went, wrapping your shawl around you, shivering in the icy winter wind while you rationed up on your future wardrobe.

Then, as the heat rose, the lawn imagery assailed you full-throttle. On billboards and TV adverts, magazines and social media’s expansive platform, you grew dizzy with the extensive variety on offer. You felt duty-bound to buy a certain collection because it tended to go ‘sold out’ and then there were the prints that were created by your favorite designer and a few more just because they looked so good in those (many) photo shoots with the desert backdrops. They were bound to stand out just as well in the dusty, arid climes of your city – reason enough to crank up the bank account again!

And now, just when you thought you were done with your shopping, out came the advertisements again, pitching an all-new key word to entice you: ‘Eid’!

Eid, already?!

But Eid is more than a month away. The fasting month of Ramadan is yet to begin and you’re still happily gorging on three meals a day (albeit not too much because you want to continue fitting into that summer wardrobe you’ve amassed so diligently). Nevertheless, Eid exhibits and collections are quite the ‘it’ things right now, drawing in crowds and a healthy bit of shoving and pushing all the way to the sales till.

Khaadi launched its both lawn (above) and chiffon collections for Eid

“It takes time for unstitched fabric to get stitched by tailors,” points out CEO of Khaadi, Shamoon Sultan. “This is actually the ideal time to launch an unstitched Eid collection.” He says this while standing in the colossal Khaadi outlet in Karachi’s Dolmen City while masses of women stream through the unstitched fabric section. The Eid line of embroidered chiffon has just launched that morning and it is apparently a huge hit. The price is steeper than Khaadi’s lawn range, teetering at around Rs 8000, but it hasn’t deterred the avid shopper. Most of the designs have already flown off the racks, leaving them bare, to be restocked in a few days’ time. “We’ve delved into an unstitched chiffon line for the first time and it makes sense. Eid-wear tends to be more formal,” says Shamoon.

The other Eid collection of unstitched fabric to have been launched that very day has been by Sana Safinaz and it, too, has strayed away from lawn’s much-hackneyed dominion. Instead, the fabric of choice is poly net and cotton net, worked with heavy embroideries and following a quintessentially sophisticated palette. The prices range between Rs 8000 and Rs 10000 – not a problem for the designer duo’s many fans who have ensured that some of the suits are already ‘out of stock’.

Pieces from Sana Safinaz's Eid collection are already 'sold out'

“The fabric adds in a luxe element,” explains Safinaz, “so that the clothes can be worn in the evening, on Eid, at a big dinner or even at events leading to a wedding.”

It’s a clever marketing decision. Lawn designs, even the most embellished ones, are now nothing new to the market. Eid collections in more formal fabric, meanwhile, manage to immediately catch women’s attention – especially since they are also ideal for the wedding season that immediately follows Eid.

Designer Maria B. can be credited for more or less pioneering this concept. Two and a half years ago, her design house launched the first M-Broidered collection before Eid and observed sales rolling in. “We also have an Eid lawn line which has its own market but there is a definite strata that wants to wear heavier clothing on Eid day or at weddings that follow. Our M-Broidered suits are absolute evening-wear, using luxe fabric like woven jacquard, digitally printed silk, tissue and velvet trimmings, nets, embroideries and Swarovski details. We started off with one collection but it has now become so popular that we have four M-Broidered line-ups, released during key sales periods throughout the course of the year.”

Bought for Eid, treasured all year round - Maria B's M-Broidered are hot-sellers

There are also festive lines that have just been launched by textile bigshots Al-Karam and Gul Ahmed, high-street maverick Sapphire and many more are sure to follow. Oh well, the more the merrier.

Shopping … on a full stomach

But would designers – and textile mills - benefit more were they to release collections a bit later, cashing in on the pre-Eid hype, when the nation at large fasts all day and then treats itself with shopping splurges?

Apparently, the pre-Eid hype has already begun.

Seen here at their private showing of their Eid collection, Farah Talib Aziz's public exhibition was a knockout the next day

Maliha Aziz, brand manager at Farah Talib Aziz, whose brand’s recent Eid exhibit of ready-to-wear in Karachi was quite a success, testifies to this. “Our customers actually prefer shopping right now, when they aren’t fasting,” she observes. “It also makes things easy for us. We aren’t fasting either and have much more energy. Our exhibit also featured evening formals that could be created on order and our craftsmen have started working on them immediately. It’s going to be a hot fasting season and we know that everything will just slow down. Even our workmen’s hours will shrink, ending well before sunset.” Following the Karachi event this past weekend, Farah Talib Aziz will be exhibiting prêt in Dubai, followed by Lahore and then, Islamabad.

And therefore, even though the festival is still more than a month away, it’s Eid shopping season. If you’re the red-blooded shopaholic woman that you claim to be, you’ve probably already stocked on some of those Eid designs that had long been tempting you on Instagram.

Beware, though: as they usually do, more embellished options are likely to crawl out of the woodworks in the next few weeks, luring you, cajoling you, to just spend another 10 grand or so. Off you’ll go, to the mall again. Like we said, the more the merrier – or is it?

Why are we Eid shopping already?!

If you’re a shopaholic red-blooded woman, there’s a good chance that you’ve lately been bamboozled quite a bit by nifty marketing.

Even before temperatures soared, billboards popped up within your periphery, urging you to stock up on lightweight lawn fabric in preparation for the sweltering summer that was sure to follow. Off you went, wrapping your shawl around you, shivering in the icy winter wind while you rationed up on your future wardrobe.

Then, as the heat rose, the lawn imagery assailed you full-throttle. On billboards and TV adverts, magazines and social media’s expansive platform, you grew dizzy with the extensive variety on offer. You felt duty-bound to buy a certain collection because it tended to go ‘sold out’ and then there were the prints that were created by your favorite designer and a few more just because they looked so good in those (many) photo shoots with the desert backdrops. They were bound to stand out just as well in the dusty, arid climes of your city – reason enough to crank up the bank account again!

And now, just when you thought you were done with your shopping, out came the advertisements again, pitching an all-new key word to entice you: ‘Eid’!

Eid, already?!

But Eid is more than a month away. The fasting month of Ramadan is yet to begin and you’re still happily gorging on three meals a day (albeit not too much because you want to continue fitting into that summer wardrobe you’ve amassed so diligently). Nevertheless, Eid exhibits and collections are quite the ‘it’ things right now, drawing in crowds and a healthy bit of shoving and pushing all the way to the sales till.

Khaadi launched its both lawn (above) and chiffon collections for Eid

“It takes time for unstitched fabric to get stitched by tailors,” points out CEO of Khaadi, Shamoon Sultan. “This is actually the ideal time to launch an unstitched Eid collection.” He says this while standing in the colossal Khaadi outlet in Karachi’s Dolmen City while masses of women stream through the unstitched fabric section. The Eid line of embroidered chiffon has just launched that morning and it is apparently a huge hit. The price is steeper than Khaadi’s lawn range, teetering at around Rs 8000, but it hasn’t deterred the avid shopper. Most of the designs have already flown off the racks, leaving them bare, to be restocked in a few days’ time. “We’ve delved into an unstitched chiffon line for the first time and it makes sense. Eid-wear tends to be more formal,” says Shamoon.

The other Eid collection of unstitched fabric to have been launched that very day has been by Sana Safinaz and it, too, has strayed away from lawn’s much-hackneyed dominion. Instead, the fabric of choice is poly net and cotton net, worked with heavy embroideries and following a quintessentially sophisticated palette. The prices range between Rs 8000 and Rs 10000 – not a problem for the designer duo’s many fans who have ensured that some of the suits are already ‘out of stock’.

Pieces from Sana Safinaz's Eid collection are already 'sold out'

“The fabric adds in a luxe element,” explains Safinaz, “so that the clothes can be worn in the evening, on Eid, at a big dinner or even at events leading to a wedding.”

It’s a clever marketing decision. Lawn designs, even the most embellished ones, are now nothing new to the market. Eid collections in more formal fabric, meanwhile, manage to immediately catch women’s attention – especially since they are also ideal for the wedding season that immediately follows Eid.

Designer Maria B. can be credited for more or less pioneering this concept. Two and a half years ago, her design house launched the first M-Broidered collection before Eid and observed sales rolling in. “We also have an Eid lawn line which has its own market but there is a definite strata that wants to wear heavier clothing on Eid day or at weddings that follow. Our M-Broidered suits are absolute evening-wear, using luxe fabric like woven jacquard, digitally printed silk, tissue and velvet trimmings, nets, embroideries and Swarovski details. We started off with one collection but it has now become so popular that we have four M-Broidered line-ups, released during key sales periods throughout the course of the year.”

Bought for Eid, treasured all year round - Maria B's M-Broidered are hot-sellers

There are also festive lines that have just been launched by textile bigshots Al-Karam and Gul Ahmed, high-street maverick Sapphire and many more are sure to follow. Oh well, the more the merrier.

Shopping … on a full stomach

But would designers – and textile mills - benefit more were they to release collections a bit later, cashing in on the pre-Eid hype, when the nation at large fasts all day and then treats itself with shopping splurges?

Apparently, the pre-Eid hype has already begun.

Seen here at their private showing of their Eid collection, Farah Talib Aziz's public exhibition was a knockout the next day

Maliha Aziz, brand manager at Farah Talib Aziz, whose brand’s recent Eid exhibit of ready-to-wear in Karachi was quite a success, testifies to this. “Our customers actually prefer shopping right now, when they aren’t fasting,” she observes. “It also makes things easy for us. We aren’t fasting either and have much more energy. Our exhibit also featured evening formals that could be created on order and our craftsmen have started working on them immediately. It’s going to be a hot fasting season and we know that everything will just slow down. Even our workmen’s hours will shrink, ending well before sunset.” Following the Karachi event this past weekend, Farah Talib Aziz will be exhibiting prêt in Dubai, followed by Lahore and then, Islamabad.

And therefore, even though the festival is still more than a month away, it’s Eid shopping season. If you’re the red-blooded shopaholic woman that you claim to be, you’ve probably already stocked on some of those Eid designs that had long been tempting you on Instagram.

Beware, though: as they usually do, more embellished options are likely to crawl out of the woodworks in the next few weeks, luring you, cajoling you, to just spend another 10 grand or so. Off you’ll go, to the mall again. Like we said, the more the merrier – or is it?