It’s obvious the socialites will dress extremely well on the red carpet or at any event for that matter. But it’s so much more fun to see how models, who have seen a LOT OF BEAUTIFUL CLOTHES in their careers, get creative with their own wardrobe when they are in a rush!

I tend to think that personal style is what gives each model that certain edge or personality over the others. And I can go on and on about how I prefer the relaxed & natural state of fashion as opposed to the layers of make-up and overly expensive & made up looks.

Here’s a look at some personal style choices that a few models made at PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week in Lahore.

Here we see Fauzia wearing a black & white screen print dress, black leggings, some glitter ballet shoes and a pop of color on the lip to go with the super bright carry on. Her tied up hair and reflective ray bans really complete this ‘futuristic & monochromatic’ look.

Areeba has a great sense of off duty style, that being said this is one of her weaker looks as compared to the other days I saw her. I love the military jacket the most. Wish she somehow added some color to the whole outfit instead of so much black. Perhaps a loose grey t-shirt and blue jeans with military boots would’ve completed the look to make it more casual and timeless.

Recently I have been obsessed with POLKA DOTS, so it was love at first sight when I saw this dress at Zara in Bali. Now that I look at the photo, I wish I had sported a delicate vintage looking watch or something with this dress. But I usually stay away from accessories anyways.

Gauri was one of the three models who came from India to participate at this fashion week. She wears a sheer salmon color high neck with cap sleeves, black pants along with my favorite part of this whole outfit…. the tan sneaker heels. She does a good job of carrying the casual chic look as she prefers to carry a backpack rather than a traditional girly handbag.

Himangini also dropped in from India for this show. Again I love the sneaker heels! They look great paired with loose 80’s wash boyfriend jeans along with a sports jersey and round shades.

Thefashioneasta.com is giving you the Backstage Pass to some of the hottest fashion events.

We start with Fashion Pakistan Week 6 and hope to bring you more of the inside scoop of fashion in Pakistan.

Webisodes coming soon to thefashioneasta.com. Stay tuned.

Directed & Produced by: Hira Tareen at H&Z
D.O.P: Fatima Shah
Edit: Hira Tareen at H&Z

This was a huge passion project for both Natasha Salon and H&Z Creative Agency.

But there was a lot of work that was put into executing the shoot by all people involved including Zara Tareen, myself & the lovely ladies at Natasha Salon (Natasha & Sabrina Khalid) when it came to the photography, post/special effects, art direction, copy writing, make-up, styling and concept development. Not to mention the faces of the shoot, Amna Baber & Bilal Ashraf (besides myself.) Aside from all the hard work, we had a few goofy fun moments that I’d like to share and of course the prep for each look was fun too.

Getting my hair crimped.. crimpled? Wait what’s the right word?

Here’s my little doll friend who is waiting in line to get her make-up done as well! Wait till you see what she looks like in the double page title spread! Can you spot her?

These lace lashes were super cool.

Blood stain lips.

Time for a selfie, while Sabrina does my hair.

Zara fixing the dress before her shot.

Bilal & Amna in their characters.

Bilal I think you spilled something on your shirt.

Sabrina taking a look at the set while Zara adjusts her lighting.

Bilal and I getting into our characters before Zara starts clicking.

Amna scaring me with her very last look! Stop it Amna!!!!

But I still think most designers are using various tracks through out the show rather than making an effort to get someone to make them a proper mix for the show. Yes using separate tracks gives you a flexibility to change the order and timing last minute, but unfortunately the DJ who sits up there doesn’t quite mix the songs together quite well. When you do a pre-produced mix (with the right DJ of course) you can ensure that the transition between song A and B won’t be offensive to the audience. And by that I mean all sorts of weird overlapping sounds that just make you want to go WTF.

Also, it’s so important to set the right mood with the right selection of music for a particular collection to create the desired visual impact.

The two designers/brands who stepped up ahead of the game and put time and effort into getting their mixes created were Aamna Aqeel & Daaman. And from the feedback seems like the music played a key role in how people responded.

AAMNA AQEEL’S MIX:

Aamna came over for a meeting and mentioned that she wanted her music this time to go more on the happier, feminine and softer side. Last time we did a nice fashion meets deep house sound. She really liked this track called ‘Moves Like Ms Jackson’ that I played for her and wanted everything else to sort of go around that. The challenge was that FPW initially required a 15 minute mix which I knew was going to run too long. During rehearsal Sheroo confirmed that it indeed will run only 6 – 8 minutes max. We tried to change the choreography so that the show spans over at least 10 minutes but we were really pushing it. So last minute executive decision was to start the mix from 4:56 onwards so that her favourite song could play during the finale. Yeah lot of work goes into this stuff. Here it goes.

DAAMAN’S MIX

When I first had a meeting with Malyha and Owais from Daaman, they made it very clear that they didn’t want too upbeat of a tempo or something to electronic sounding. They also wanted a ‘HAPPY’ positive sounding mix with a lot of feminine vocals and more known songs rather than underground tunes. This was the best that I came up with within their requirements and turned out, this mix was quite the favourite amongst the models, designers and anyone who was there to attend rehearsals or the show itself. I guess the Adele vs. Daft Punk mix really makes its impact and the first track (mix of Royals) really has a ting to it too. Check it out!

To hear some of the other mixes that I have made previously you can go to http://www.mixcloud.com/hiratareen

Oh and stay tuned and check back in a few days for some crazy images and video from backstage madness at FPW.

For their February Valentine issue, Xpoze Monthly decided to do a cover, interview and feature couple photo shoot of my wonderful husband Ali Safina and I.

Let’s just say there is about 12 – 13 pages of in-depth Q&As and well.. lots of photos. **TMI ALERT**

Luckily my other partner in crime was the one photographing us. Wild guesses? Yep… Zara Tareen.

This is us(Zara, Myself, & Ali Safina) at NPRO waiting for my hair to get done. Zamin from NPRO did my make-up & hair, he’s really good. (The phone cover was a gift from my Mom. You can find more like this at http://www.katespade.com/accessories-tech/ks-accessories-tech,en_US,sc.html )

Here are some selfies of the process and after the make-up. The hair is still missing the crazy amounts of backcombing and product.

Some behind the scenes moments published in the issue.

The lovely cover.

The contents page.

A nice little collage from another blog called Umairica

And last but not least, one of my very favorite shots of the photo shoot. Ali looks crazy good! m.A.

How to Be a Model: Coco Rocha’s 7 Secrets to Making it a Career

The ladies (Natasha & Sabrina) were jam-packed at their salon but still gave me proper time & service in making me feel beautiful right before my big day. And I just love all the different ideas they have for hair do’s! Feels like playing dress-up back in the childhood days. Lots of fun! Thanks again ladies if you are reading this!

Here are the pics. Which look do you like better?

The days are near and wanted to share a few glimpses of the planning process.

A & H’s Invite

The dress under construction

Yep that’s all I am gonna reveal for now. Talk to you all soon.

The award-winning and talented Adnan Malik is the Director of the video and had a clear-cut vision of how the treatment of the video should be which lead to numerous meetings about the wardrobe and the overall look for each scene, not to mention constant trips to Mango (who was nice enough to sponsor a lot of the wardrobe pieces)

The mood/styling of the entire video was intentionally quite natural, understated and minimal but one of the most fun scenes to style and do make-up for was the ‘concert’ scene. The story line cannot be revealed just yet, however it is a scene of Zoe as a true rockstar putting the past behind and ‘arriving’ to a happy moment in her musical career and life.

THE MAKE-UP/HAIR

Here are noteworthy products I used for Zoe’s make-up:
Eyes – Revlon Diamond Lust Eyeshadow in ‘Celestial Silver’
Rimmel Long Lasting Lipstick in ‘In Vogue’ which is a cool bright pink (almost red) shade

And for the hair I wanted to achieve a more carefree rockstar look, so we went with a bed head/messy & tousled style.
On damp hair I used a combination of the Rusk Thick Body & Texture Amplifier Spray along with the Sea Spray by Paul Mitchell. Once I applied the sprays, I combed out the hair, took lots of sections, rolled and pinned them up as seen in the photo below:

I let it sit for about 15 minutes or so… then dried it with a diffuser blow dryer thoroughly. After it seemed like it was dry I pulled out the pins… flipped the hair downwards and dried it again to give a volume boost to the hair.

THE STYLING & WARDROBE:

EXCLUSIVE BEHIND-THE-SCENE PHOTOS: 

So this was just the one of the many scenes. Keep watching this space for more exclusive BTS coverage of Zoe’s hot new music video. Trust me, you won’t find this anywhere else!

The über talented and extremely fun to work with trio from Natasha Salon at a Serene location in Karachi, Pakistan

(Left: Hina Durrani, Right: Sabrina Khalid, Bottom: Natasha Khalid)

Zara and I checking out the frame.

Photographer Zara Tareen crouching down in a corner to get the best possible frame at Cafe Flo in Karachi.

The beautiful mother/daughters trio!

Sabrina and Natasha Khalid in between shots while Zara prepares the frame.

Now go and grab the October 2013 issue of Hello! Pakistan to see the actual shoot and these stunning ladies in action!

So starting a new feature on this blog called #RememberThis? to bring back all the random 80’s & 90’s memorabilia whether it’s music, an accessory, clothing or anything that’s worth remembering! Let’s start with this track by MC Lyte (remember her!?) that used to be the one of the biggest “jams” from the 90s! Brings back major junior high school memories! And the groove still hasn’t gotten old for me at least!

As I was browsing through netaporter.com I encountered this little baby:

Yes it is definitely a little out there and quite the statement piece. But should work well if you the ‘understated head-turner’ type.

Would you wear this clutch? Want to know your thoughts!

For more details go to: http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/382551

On Page 26 of the Kayseria Pret ‘Pretalogue’ you will learn how to make your own Disco Shades inspired by Jewelled Sunglasses like the one below.

All you need is a pair of well shaped sunglasses with enough room around the frames, a glue gun, small jewel rhinestones, and some square cut out mirrors (that I purchased from Paaras Art Store in Khadda Market, Karachi.)

The rest of the instructions are above (in the first image) and pretty self explanatory.  If you want to improvise you can even use other things like chains, studs, etc.  I used mirrors because it gives more of an ethnic touch and it went well with the styling of the entire Virsa line of Kayseria Pret.

This is a simple and fun way to glam up a pair of old boring shades that you don’t wear anymore. Here are some more images for inspiration. Happy Monday!