Pakistani handbags made it to Paris Fashion Week

Hirra Babar had several moments during her entrepreneurial career when she questioned whether she was on the correct track. Even though she graduated from one of Pakistan’s top business institutions, she was drawn to fashion since it was an exciting sector in which she could freely express her thoughts, no matter how outrageous. Fashion offered her enormous creative freedom, and the prospect of working at a multinational company gave her the creeps.

Warp, the 33-year-old Lahore native’s start-up, was founded in 2016 with the goal of establishing a line of bags for the modern lady. She didn’t want to construct just any bag, though; she wanted to create something that combined outstanding design with great usefulness.

“Warp essentially means to twist, so I wanted to re-interpret handbags in a contemporary form,” states Babar, the founder and creative director. “Good design is something that evokes the five senses… – the shape, for instance, is so important, it should pique a potential buyer’s interest. A handbag needs to have its own character.”

The pieces have been shown at a number of major trade fairs and fashion weeks over the years, and include a range of ‘hexella’ purses in Warp’s characteristic, stylish geometric design. Warp was chosen by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion to exhibit its items at Mipel (a prominent leather handbag and accessories event) in Milan in 2018, and to showcase at Trano (a leading trade expo) at three seasons of Paris Fashion Week in 2019 and 2020.

“I’ve experienced many challenges with growing and sustaining Warp because I’ve been dealing with a lot of firsts working in this region,” Babar states, “We had no competition when we started out and had an open playground. Whatever mistakes we made initially were also somehow forgiven because there was no one to compare us with in the local context. Pakistan is one of the largest leather exporters in the world and it’s sad that we don’t have a single commercial brand that’s selling high value goods overseas.”

Warp’s items are sophisticated, seductive, and edgy, with prices ranging from $80 to $500. While not cheap, Babar admits that honing the quality down to perfection during her start-up’s early phases was an absolute nightmare.

This, according to Babar, was primarily owing to her desire to have her handbags labelled as “100% created in Pakistan.” Babar, on the other hand, realised as she progressed that she needed to teach and educate her craftsmen in order to produce products that not only met, but exceeded, worldwide standards.

“I wanted to mobilise local resources. It was the driving force for Warp. I wanted my pieces to be made locally and sold globally,” she says. “But it was challenging because no one had demanded better quality from the craftsmen and therefore they didn’t know how to improve their craft. They do an amazing job, considering how much they know, so initially, it was quite a trial and error process. I didn’t want foreign customers to get a bad impression or question our craftsmanship.”

Babar used the example of an international order that not only went horribly wrong, but also inspired her to refine Warp’s quality down to the last stitch.

“We had our first retail order for a concept store in Seoul, South Korea, for fifty bags. This was the first time we were shipping such a big order overseas,” she states, “But when the bags arrived, the shop owner was absolutely furious. ‘Is this the quality you want to send us?’ she’d said. I was so taken aback when I learnt how they had carried out the quality check – with a magnifying glass, literally! It was such an education for me to begin to pay attention to all those little nooks and corners of the handbag. I shared the feedback with my craftsmen and ever since, they’ve improved a lot. There’s definitely an appetite to learn and do better, it’s just that no one has ever guided them before. Where a design took us six months to master, now it takes us a week to finalize.”

Babar notes that she travels to continue learning the skills of the trade, stating that Warp has had to remain adaptable and in a “continuous learning phase” since its inception.

“I think that is what has helped me in moving ahead, we have more knowledge now than we did six years ago.” After the initial design has been agreed on, a 3D paper prototype is given to Warp’s craftsmen, led by Muhammad Afzal, a master craftsman who Babar met in Lahore in 2016.

“He made some really nice samples for us in his first few attempts,” the entrepreneur recalls, “Then, when he came on board, he set up his own workshop and hired apprentices and craftsmen. Afzal’s always very curious and keen on learning new things and bettering his craft. He used to further research the techniques we’d speak about by looking up videos on YouTube. He understands the work that we’re doing and we work more like partners. It’s a shared learning process that’s built on a foundation of mutual respect.”

Babar says she’s working on spearheading exhibitions in the Middle East, which, interestingly enough, is where the majority of Warp’s clients are based. She hopes to take Warp to Paris Fashion Week in September this year.

“As an entrepreneur, nothing makes me happier than holding a completely functional product that was once just an idea or a notion in my hands.” It’s at that point that you forget everything about the sweat, blood, and tears that went into creating it. Building a business takes a lifetime, and I want young entrepreneurs to understand that the first few years are spent figuring things out. Expect to wait a while for the findings.”