Hi All!
As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I told you I would be recounting a behind-the-scenes peek into some of the fashion pictorials The House of Arsalan Iqbal recently orchestrated and shot.
There is one thing that Fayez, the Head Designer of ‘AI Femme’, our women’s wear line, and I have in common: We each have OVERSIZE ideas and larger ambitions for the brand. Zurain, our Creative Consultant attempts to bring us down to earth occasionally but usually fails, knowing that we both believe that where there is a will there is a way! =P
So was the case with the most ambitious, extensive and most expensive shoot that The House of Arsalan Iqbal has ever planned! This was an exercise in coordinating numerous super-busy female models, male models, actors and celebrities to converge at one venue to photograph the theme-based shoot.
We wanted to shoot AI Femme’s sumptuous, jewel-toned pure silk jumpsuits with accompanying decorative headpieces from the line’s Luxury Prêt capsule. The concept was to posit several strong women in an arena partially inspired by the bravado of the women from the hit TV series ‘Desperate Housewives’ and merge it with the verve and vigour of mythical Amazonians to ostensibly create a bevy of Glamazons.
Uber-model Iraj Manzoor “played” the Queen of the Amazon to perfection and was accompanied by Ayesha Toor; designer Sanam Agha, actress Zhalay Sarhadi; journalist Kiran Haroon; model Marvi Sarfaraz; model Maha; model Tatmain and newbie model/actress Sayeeda each sheathed in distinctly coloured jumpsuits and accessorized with jewelry created by Fayez and each carrying a weapon of her choice from saber swords , sword gauntlets and daggers and from axes, poles, bow and arrows to Executioner’s swords and knuckle dusters ETC.! Make-up was done by Aku Apa (Nighat Misbah) and her team at Depilex.
Along with the fierce line of women who were shot both in a group and separately for stunning solo shots, a posse of 12 random male models were procured to play…. massacred, splayed corpses dressed in army fatigue trousers, white or black Ts, with the more buff models deciding to go bare-chested with a mixture of grease and shoe polish smeared on their clothes, faces and bodies by Zurain to render an army feel. They convincingly played dead corpses some with open staring eyes and were surrounded by a medley of antique looking Roman soldier’s Galea helmets.
It was a glorious and macabre fashion tableau photographed by Fayyaz Ahmed which will be published in a leading magazine after our stint at Pantene Bridal Couture Week in late November.
Look forward to it as much as we are!
Below are a couple of astonishing pre-production images to show how amazing they all look together.
Group Formation
Super co-operating and talented boys!
dead corpses formation
Ciao!
Arsalan I.
Arsalan Iqbal 