Deepak Perwani

Pakistan Fashion Week may be over but CNN is still getting mileage out of it. Two weeks after they posted video coverage online, the network is still running promos of and shots from it on television. The collage of footage shows more than beautiful people and unwearable clothes: it shows that the world of Pakistani fashion is not without its “attitude,” with Deepak Perwani lambasting the CNN reporter for his fashion ignorance (see video below).

Besides being a killer soundbite used for sensational purposes, it epitomised Pakistanis frustration with the rest of the world. Replace the word “fashion” with the word “Pakistan” in Perwani’s rebuke and it reflects what many denizens here feel about what other countries think about us.

As Newsline‘s Nadir Hassan already noted in an earlier post, the international headlines on Pakistan Fashion Week re-enforced this notion with dingers like this: “Dresses, not suicide vests, parade at Pakistan’s fashion week.”

Of course, Pakistan comprises much more than the Taliban and terrorist factories, but these days it is impossible to subtract these truths from the current Pakistani equation. They are the biggest factors affecting every part of society: law and order, democracy, education, the economy and foreign relations.

Given that things are unlikely to improve dramatically in Pakistan anytime soon, let’s hope that Pakistan and not just CNN gets some serious mileage out of Pakistan Fashion Week (and Deepak Perwani’s comments) too. Because however it comes across in the news, it is better than the regular imagery emanating from these shores.

Click to watch the video.