Aath Pehar at LAAM Fashion Week
Lahore · 26 October 2026
Mohtaram makes its runway debut at LAAM Fashion Week with Aath Pehar and gives the final bow to its karigars
The Islamabad house’s ceremonial menswear collection showed on the season’s closing night. When the last look had walked, the artisans who made it and the house’s new junior designers took the walk normally kept for the designer.
Mohtaram, the Islamabad luxury menswear house, made its runway debut at LAAM Fashion Week Season 2 on Monday 26 October with Aath Pehar, a ceremonial collection that follows a groom through the eight watches of his wedding day. Mohtaram showed in the final Designer Showcase of the closing night, alongside Ali Xeeshan and Erum Khan and ahead of HSY’s grand finale, at a four-day fashion week of 43 shows and more than 50 labels in Lahore.
When the last look left the runway, the designer did not walk out. The show was closed instead by the people who made it: Mohtaram’s karigars, the master tailors and embroiderers of its Islamabad atelier, and the house’s new junior designers, who took the final bow in place of the customary designer’s walk.
The collection
Aath Pehar means “eight watches.” Across the subcontinent, a day and a night were once counted in eight pehar of about three hours each, four by day and four by night, and most ragas still belong to one of them. The collection follows a groom from the first light of his wedding day to the small hours, and asks what a man looks like as the light changes around him.
By day the clothes are cut in pale shades of ivory, cream, peach and pistachio, finished in tonal embroidery by hand and by machine. They begin close to tailoring, with embroidered jackets and suits, and lengthen into sherwanis as the day turns. After hours the palette breaks into jewel-toned brocades and warm browns: the wedding after the guests have thinned, when the house belongs to whoever is still awake in it.
Throughout, Aath Pehar sets ceremonial dress beside contemporary evening tailoring rather than choosing between them: one wardrobe for every event of a wedding, from the nikah to the walima. Sixteen looks walked, every one cut, stitched and embroidered in Mohtaram’s Islamabad atelier.
The lookbook · first light to after hours
14 looks · swipe or scroll to browse
Aath Pehar on the runway at LAAM Fashion Week Season 2, Lahore, 26 October 2026.
Why the karigars closed the show
A fashion show traditionally ends with the designer’s walk. Mohtaram chose to end its first one with the people whose hands are in every garment: two karigars from its Islamabad atelier, walking beside the house’s new junior designers.
Every season the designer takes the bow for work that has passed through dozens of hands. This was our first time on a runway, and it felt wrong to begin with anything other than the truth about who makes the clothes. Pakistan kept the skill. Somewhere along the way we stopped telling the story of the people who have it. For one minute, on one runway, they were the story.— Fahad Saif, Founder and CEO
“The junior designers walked beside them because they are the next generation of that same skill,” he added. “They should start their careers knowing exactly where it comes from.”
How it was received
- The official recap described the showing as “moving from ivory and peach sherwanis to sharply tailored suits and richly embroidered jackets.” Watch
- Host Moeed Shah in conversation with Fahad Saif: “Menswear with a point of view.” Watch
- Foha Raza called the stitching “incredible”: “come wedding season, these sherwanis will find plenty of takers.” Read
- “Exploring contemporary menswear through a considered mix of ceremonial and evening dressing.” Read
- Show video. Watch
- “The question was not which form of formalwear should prevail, but how much room a man’s wardrobe could make for both.” Read
Availability
Aath Pehar is made to order. Pieces can be commissioned to measure through a consultation at Mohtaram’s Islamabad atelier, or by video for clients in other cities and abroad. For winter weddings the house recommends starting eight to twelve weeks before the first event. Selected pieces will also be availabe on LAAM.
About Mohtaram. Mohtaram is a Pakistani luxury menswear house founded by Fahad Saif and based in Islamabad. Its name is the Urdu word for a man deserving of respect. For a decade the house has made bespoke and made-to-measure tailoring, ceremonial and groom wear, ready-to-wear and accessories, and it trades unstitched cloth as Mohtaram Fabrics. It reaches clients through its appointment-only Islamabad atelier, a wholesale network of more than 200 retail partners across Pakistan, and online orders from the UK, US, Gulf and EU. In 2023 it was one of about 60 enterprises selected by the Pakistan Innovation Fund to build MTMx, a virtual-fitting and made-to-order system.
About LAAM Fashion Week. LAAM Fashion Week is the runway-to-e-tail fashion week of LAAM, the Pakistani fashion e-commerce platform. Season 2 ran from 23 to 26 October 2026 in Lahore.
Press enquiries. pr@mohtaram.com · +92 312 2266666
