Everyone wants egg before chicken: Nabila
Sadia Malik

ISLAMABAD—Twenty years ago, I was less experienced, much younger and newer to this field, says Nabila now every inch the style diva with her immaculate hair and still beautiful face. When she started out during the barren years there was no fashion industry and things had just started to shape up. “It was difficult then. Hair and makeup artists were looked down upon, and there was hardly anyone from a good family coming into the field.” And then always candid she admits, “I was ashamed to be in the field at that time.”
Coming from a person, who has played a major role in the fashion industry, the statement may surprise, indeed shock, many. But then again this was twenty years ago. That’s the way it was, people in this business had to work their way through battling the norms of society and changing perspectives. “I took on this battle, to get acknowledgment and a war to change the perception of society,” she says. Makeup artists faced other problems in those days. There was hardly a concept of ‘hair and makeup artist’, beauty parlours were the commonly used term for anything related to makeup and hair. Nabila highlights “Credit was never given to makeup, makeup artists were never employed for commercial shoots, there were no budgets for makeup, fashion coordinators would do the styling themselves, there was no niche for them (makeup artists),” she informs. She also puts the blame on the lack of professionalism in the early days of fashion. “There was no concept of punctuality and no commitment, people here would not deliver on time and if they were not able to do so, they would never call and inform beforehand,” concluding wryly that with a few exceptions the situation is the same. According to Nabila, the lack of professionalism prevails in the industry and she asserts that she still struggles – training people, teaching them professionalism and the basics of the industry, which are a given anywhere else in the world.
“After 20 years now that I am bigger and I stand here, I find myself engaged in the struggle even more. I haven’t stopped to enjoy what I have achieved,” says Nabila matter–of–factly.
One can’t help but agree with what she has to say about the industry wallahs’ behaviour. To an extent, lack of professionalism comes with the package in our industry but things have changed and are getting better, agrees Nabila. “Things have certainly changed since the time I started,” but begs to differ on whether the change is for the better or worse. “I can’t say whether the change is good or bad. The industry has certainly grown, just like anything else would grow in twenty years. It has increased in volume but that’s it. There are more production houses now, more makeup artists, hundreds of designers, fashion schools have opened up, I’d say it’s spread more like wildfire,” she points out hinting that the emphasis is more on quantity than quality. The industry is churning out a lot of mediocre work but that doesn’t mean there is no good work happening. Though, in her opinion there are no standards kept and believes that the structure of an industry – even twenty years later – is absent. “I wish that the way we have mushroomed, we’d have also set some standards for ourselves. So we could blame ourselves for the right and wrong than putting the blame on the government, the industry, and how it works. We have to first stand accountable to ourselves.”
Another obstacle on our way to progress, according to her is the obsessive following of Bollywood and it’s over the top fashions. She thinks that a lot of mediocrity and crassness has been brought in through Bollywood trends. “I condemn the Indians for the lack of their style sense. This has infected our aesthetics and we are blatantly following them,” she voices her concern on the invasion of Bollywood fashions in our fashion scene. Bollywood is big and the world is bent on following their trends.