The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) announces its collaboration with six leading Pakistani fashion retail brands Deepak Perwani, HSY, K for Karachi, MAHGUL, Mahin Hussain, and Polly and other stories for a limited-edition series titled ‘Product CAP: The History Collection’. This collaboration aims to showcase the history and culture of Pakistan in a unique way and instill pride in Pakistani citizens about their heritage.
Each of the six designers will give their own interpretation of Pakistan’s heritage from CAP’s archives and create limited-edition pieces as part of their ‘History Collection’. The collection will debut in an exhibition on 3rd August at the HSY Store in Dolmen Mall Clifton, Karachi. Each purchase will help CAP preserve Pakistan’s history through the Oral History Project.
Speaking about this, Swaleha Alam Shahzada, Executive Director of CAP said:
“This is an initiative by the Friends of CAP that will allow the creative and innovative use of the CAP archive. We are always looking for different ways of making the history and culture of Pakistan interesting and accessible to everyone. We hope to continue Product CAP and encourage other designers to become part of this as well.”
The designers had the following to say about Product CAP:
“We are both proud and honoured to have been asked by CAP to produce a design piece for them. We greatly admire them and are inspired by the work CAP does and have hugely enjoyed creating something that represents a small piece of the rich history of Pakistan.” – Polly and other stories.
“I chose four Pakistani product advertisements which were soap, sewing machine, beauty cream and the Peshawari chapal. These were starting points for the eventual play of retro imagery, treatment and witty text. All four subjects used are close to my heart.” – Mahin Hussain Accessories
“I’ve mostly manipulated sections of old Pakistani postage stamps/flags and memorabilia to create the designs for the new K for Karachi limited edition CAP line. The Philosophy behind these designs is nostalgia and patriotism. The piece of jewellery you wear can serve as a statement or to remind one of the basis on which Pakistan was founded and what we need to do to revive that sentiment.” – K for Karachi
“We thought we’d take inspiration from the happening city that Karachi used to be so we’ve taken shots of the nightclubs, cinema posters and culminated it into a loud screaming kitsch scarf.” – Deepak Perwani
“We are taking inspiration from the currency used before partition and juxtaposing it with new age cinema and celebrities which we find very interesting. Our focus is the promotion of Pakistan so we are taking the past and bringing it to the future in terms of cinema.” – HSY
“We’ll be looking at Iznik and Suzani patterns in embroidery and juxtapose them on top of photographs from CAP’s archives.” MAHGUL
The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to cultural and historic preservation operating in Karachi and Lahore. CAP seeks to educate the community, foster an awareness of the nation’s history, and instill pride in Pakistani citizens about their heritage. CAP has three main goals: to preserve and provide access to it’s archive, to build and support educational programmes, and to develop educational products based on the testimonies collected with the vision to develop CAP as the foremost museum and heritage centre of Pakistani history, photography, culture, literature, and historical documentation demonstrating the strength and spirit of Pakistan from the perspective of a citizen.
Leave a Reply