Solah Singar
2001
Duration: 47 Minutes
Karachi
Sola Singhar was Amin’s second runway-based show with clothes created by Sonya Battla. It was inspired by the traditional sixteen adornments women in the subcontinent undertake to beautify themselves, particularly for their weddings. These include the application of make-up, flowers and henna and also the donning of jewelry on their foreheads, ears, throats, arms, hands, ankles and toes. Amin’s interpretation of the centuries-old tradition of sola singhar, whose name has its origins in Sanskrit, was a distinctly feminist one. The 47-minute-long visual tale, which unfolded at was then the Karachi Sheraton, presented itself as a series of receding muslin screens simultaneously narrating the stages of a woman’s adornment and defiant awareness of self. Amin’s point of departure was the piercing of a girl’s earlobe for her first piece of jewelry: Female fashion models both embraced and empowered themselves with this needle. Wielding shields fitted with long prongs, they pierced the first barrier from behind until it was shred apart. They then stepped through the torn fabric, spikes radiating from their helmets and backs, confronting the seated audience. Backlighting gradually revealed the silhouette of the classical dancer and political activist Sheema Kermani behind a second cotton sheet. Like a shadow puppet, she ritualistically bathed with fluid movements. A third curtain slowly rose and Sheema, boldly visible, performed a brief, almost aggressive choreography of her own that was redolent of bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form. The fourth and final partition lifted, revealing the celebrated Pakistani fashion model Vinnie Ahmed wearing wings with a pregnant-looking stomach in gold strapped to her waist. Nadia Hussain, another high-profile, Karachi-based model, strode onto the runway and smashed a series of tall, vertical mirrors with a spear. Sola Singhar, although months in the making, took place just days after September 11, 2001, a time of uncertainty for Pakistan. The day after the performance, an evening newspaper routinely hawked at traffic stops appeared with a banner headline condemning the show as obscenity.
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