Of craft & culture – Generation opens first store in Sindh outside of Karachi

Karachi: A name associated with the celebration of craft and culture; Generation has been a purveyor of the rich textile heritage of Pakistan. Now, adding to this history of 4 decades where the brand has stood for everything going right with fashion in the country, Generation opened its doors to the people of Hyderabad with its first ever store in Sindh located outside of Karachi.

Proving their-ability to be a market leader when it comes to sustainable fashion with the right number of craft and local artisanal techniques complementing each collection, the brand is now the latest tenant at the new fashion spot of Hyderabad, Fortune Arcade.

Known for its small and medium craft enterprises, Hyderabad has remained a city shrouded in the rich sartorial culture, that often gets obscured and dictated by its goliath neighbour to the south, Karachi. Its culture and tradition have always been divided between the local heritage of Sindh and the bustling metropolitan zeitgeist. The launch of Generation too, is a part of this amalgamation between the new, the cultural and the classic, where seemingly, the latter has won over even the biggest of names in the prêt market such as Khadija Rehman’s Generation.

But what made it stand out?

For starters, the fact that Generation brought its fresh palette of the season to the city by the Indus made it a hot-stepper right as it opened its door in the early hours of the day. Out came the cool oranges with florals and a multitude of hues in vibrant yet heritage-lead colours, which truly provided a nod and an ode to what brand has come out to be known for.

But just what took them so long to open up outside of Karachi?

“Our customers had been asking us for a while now to open a store in Hyderabad. In fact, they were annoyed by us for not opening sooner,” Khadija Rehman, the creative director behind Generation, revealed at the launch. “We have a large clientele from the city and it was quite a natural decision. It is also the eight largest cities of Pakistan, and we were already available in the other seven, so we just had to open here as well.”

The launch, which was visibly a buzzing addition to Hyderabad’s fashion scene, also brought forward evidence that the city is ready to consume more fashion done up in a sustainable way – which the horde of clients enquiring about what dye is used and what sort of techniques have been applied being proof enough.

But, for Generation it is much bigger than this just being yet another successful stint with the customer experience. Months – probably years in the making, the launch in Hyderabad will most definitely serve as a litmus test for its expansion further into Sindh – a province where Rehman draws major inspiration and craft from.

“We’ve been working with artisans in Sindh for decades. We’ve been doing the Ajrak collection since the 90s, and we did one last winter as well,” Rehman revealed about their long partnership with the textile and craft-workers of Sindh. “It is made quite close to Hyderabad, at Bhit Shah. We have another one planned which is currently in sampling and will launch next year. We also recently worked in Umarkot, Thar, where we utilised the local Rilli techniques there.

While the fashion in Pakistan expands further – and often towards the fast fashion side of things, Generation remains a forerunner in doing the opposite by paying more attention to things that matter – such as the environmental footprint, and the concept of sustainability. Truly, there aren’t many brands out that may make this central focus, but with Generation one could be glad they care for the only land we call home – one could always hope it stays this way and we get to see the brand expand further with the right conscience always leading it.

Rilli, Ajrak,