For us, the first night at Lahore’s Expo Centre belonged to Durefishan Saleem’s arrival. The best clothes that night came from a label most phones barely filmed. We covered LAAM Fashion Week Season 2 in person, from 23 to 26 October. Our verdict is simple enough. The designers carried this season, and most showstoppers just rode along. MIHHA, the PIFD graduates, Parishae Adnan and HSY gave the week its real moments.
Quill Quest Magazine filmed reels on the floor and checked feeds after each show. What we saw and what Pakistan clicked turned out to be two different lists. That gap is the story.
Why LAAM Fashion Week Season 2 belongs to the designers
LAAM pitched this as Pakistan’s first runway-to-e-tail fashion week. In plain words, runway-to-e-tail means you can buy a look online while it walks. Every show streamed live on the LAAM app and on ARY Plus. HSY was the Event Director, according to the organisers’ press release.
LAAM Fashion Week 2026 came back bigger than its first edition. Season 1 had 37 designers earlier this year. This time, 41 brands showed across three runways, with a student showcase on top. The organisers put the total at 43 shows.
Size on paper doesn’t mean much, though. A longer guest list only counts if the clothes deserve the cameras. Across four days, they mostly did. A lot of the best work happened where the phones pointed somewhere else.
MIHHA walked in as a debutant and walked out as night one’s winner
MIHHA made its ramp debut on Day 1. You could feel the room shift. The label sent out bridal lehengas in gold, with very little jewellery. Some cuts were bold for a bridal line. Still, nothing tipped over into loud. Durefishan Saleem led as showstopper and carried the collection with calm command.
We shot the walk for our Instagram reels, which run with this report. Gold was the theme, but restraint was what stayed with us. Nothing on that ramp begged for attention. It held it anyway.
We weren’t the only ones paying attention. Google Trends picked up “mihha” as a breakout search in Pakistan that week. A first-timer outshone houses that have been on runways for decades. A few of them should be worried.
Did Deepak Perwani just turn the ramp into a baraat?
Deepak Perwani’s Legacy collection sent couples down the ramp like a wedding procession. The men wore pagris and long haars, full dulha mode. The brides beside them came in bright colour and heavy bridal work. Even the solo looks had that shaadi energy.
Legacy leaned on codes Perwani has used for years. From where we sat, that wasn’t a weakness. Familiar can feel fresh when the colour hits this hard. Pakistani wedding season runs on exactly this palette, and Perwani knows his buyer.
Is the PIFD Hot List where Pakistani fashion’s future starts?
The PIFD Hot List gave ten graduates a proper professional runway on Day 1. All ten belong to the Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design’s Batch of 2026. Let’s be honest, nobody made any of this for your cousin’s mehndi. You couldn’t wear most of it to class or the office. And that was the point.
Every silhouette here chased an idea first and a buyer second. Sarah Kamran showed The Insect of Madonna. Zainab Fatima called hers The Anatomy of Discomfort. It lived up to the name. Komal Asif brought Mechanica, and Muhammad Badar brought Rustem e Punjab.
Getting names right matters as well. PIFD’s final list on 26 October included Muhammad Omer’s Layers of Strength. These students worked too hard for anyone to get their names wrong.
The PIFD Hot List deserved a lot more airtime than it got online. We could find only one full show upload of these ten collections. That silence hurts the industry more than it hurts the students.
Parishae Adnan put Ikhtiaar on the ramp in black
Parishae Adnan opened Ikhtiaar on Day 2 with a video about being stalked. It was hard to watch, and I think that was the idea. Then came black and charcoal looks about a woman’s right to choose for herself. Her final look was a pichhal pairi, the backward-footed spirit from Punjabi folklore. Dananeer came to support her.
Black is the easy choice on a ramp. Parishae gave it a modern edge and an argument to go with it. She built her name at home and abroad by taking risks like this. Quill Quest Magazine already covered that rise in a dedicated feature. Ikhtiaar shows those risks keep paying off.
Sadhbarg, Rici Belion and Aidah Sheikh gave Lahori glamour a rewrite
Sadhbarg showed in the LFW Edit and mixed Punjabi heritage with modern tailoring. Models wore caps and shamla style turban crests, straight out of Punjab’s ceremonial wardrobe. Jewellery stayed minimal, so the headpieces did the talking. Some designs pushed boundaries, but they never lost the grace Pakistani audiences care about.
Actress Sarwat Gilani walked for Sadhbarg on Day 3. People in the comments kept calling her look simple and different. The label describes its approach as modern luxury with South Asian nostalgia. On the ramp, it delivered on that.
Rici Belion, the new label from Rici Melion, sent out black tie menswear. Picture a young guy in a sharp three piece, cane in hand, off to work. That’s the feeling. It was the week’s most wearable menswear, and probably the most modern.
Content creator Aidah Sheikh walked barefoot for Souchaj in a bridal lehenga. She won Digital Trendsetter at the 2025 Lux Style Awards. One TikTok of her walk passed four lakh views by 28 October. A barefoot bride on a fashion week ramp is a small rebellion. We loved it.
Fahad Hussayn turned the Lahore Fort into a map
Fahad Hussayn Print Museum showed An Atlas of Empires on Day 3. The collection traces beauty that moved between Central Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and the subcontinent. That beauty travelled long before anyone drew today’s borders. He split it into three parts. QUTLUGH sat under his Alta Moda line, and ATHDARA under Casbah. KHANZADA closed it out under Signature Weddings.
His starting point was the Lahore Fort and its layers of architecture. Fahad pulled those layers apart and put them back on cloth. Geometry became geography. Flowers became a story of migration. By the end, the couture itself read like a map.
For a Lahore crowd, this one hit close to home. Plenty of us have walked under those arches on a school trip. Seeing the Fort turned into prints felt personal, and a little proud. It is easily one of the smartest concepts of the whole week.
Why did HSY Venus own the LAAM Fashion Week 2026 finale?
Aiman Khan came back to the runway on Day 4, about six years later. She walked for Erum Khan Couture’s The Returns while Muneeb Butt cheered her on. She moved like someone who had never left.
@mag.quillquest A show-stopping finale to remember. ✨👑 Aiman Khan (@aimankhan.official) takes center stage for Erum Khan Couture (@erumkhancouture) at LAAM Fashion Week Day 4, bringing elegance and glamour to the grand finale runway. A fitting closing moment for a celebration of Pakistani fashion, creativity, and couture. #AimanKhan #ErumKhanCouture #LAAMFashionWeek #LFWS2 #FashionWeekFinale ♬ Jashn-E-Bahaaraa (Instrumental – Flute) – A.R. Rahman
Then HSY Venus closed the season, and nothing that week topped it. Hassan Sheheryar Yasin built Venus as luxury pret in metallic tones. The pieces had a modern, slightly fantasy feel, but the structure stayed clean. Mehreen Syed walked last, and the hall marked HSY’s birthday as well. Venus aimed for something new and elegant, and it didn’t waste a single look.
Quill Quest Magazine’s feeds saw celebs win. Who watched the clothes?
Quill Quest Magazine tracked LAAM Fashion Week 2026 on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Celebrity clips won almost every feed we checked. Aiman Khan’s comeback walk spread fast on TikTok. Her comment sections filled up with praise for her poise and her return. Nameer Khan’s Edenrobe short beat every designer’s full show on YouTube. MIHHA’s full show pulled a fraction of that crowd. The PIFD graduates hardly registered.
Search told the same story. Google Trends shows Pakistani interest peaking on 27 October, the day after the finale. The season’s exact name had just one related query, and it was “analysis”. People want someone to judge the clothes now. Another red carpet list won’t do it.
Most of the online conversation stopped at the red carpet. Very few people talked about the clothes themselves. The celebrity clips aren’t the problem here. The trouble starts when they push criticism out completely.
LAAM Fashion Week Season 2 ran at Lahore’s Expo Centre, 23 to 26 October. Its strongest work came from designers rather than celebrity showstoppers. MIHHA’s debut, Parishae’s Ikhtiaar, the PIFD graduates and HSY Venus set the bar. The celebrities got the views, but the collections did the real work.
Season 3 needs braver audiences, not bigger stars
LAAM sold this week as runway to cart. That only works if shoppers look past the showstopper. On 28 October, we found no fashion week shop on LAAM’s homepage. The promise still needs proof.
So here’s our challenge to the people behind LAAM Fashion Week Season 2. Put the PIFD Hot List on the app next to the celebrity looks. Push MIHHA’s lehengas as hard as you push a viral clip. Let HSY Venus sell because of the craft.
The audience has homework too. Designers will keep booking stars for as long as we only click on stars. So the next time you share a runway clip, ask yourself something. Was it the dress you liked, or the face?
