Daily Times

One of the top 50 most influential celebrities of Pakistan, fashion designer and consultant Hassan Riaz of Gogi while giving an exclusive interview says, “The journey is a very mixed one! No matter how good you are or skilful, you need to have sleepless nights to contain yourself in this fashion industry otherwise they do not even let you breath in this industry. To be very honest. Social media plays a very vital role as said these day in any brand’s development but I have different prospect about the use of social media. It has destroyed the real value of better brands or any skilled person. Because of social media, the worth of a brand is judged through the number of followers, etc. Secondly one needs to know the consequences of social media as well especially in this industry as socialites or bloggers who are considered to be the leaders of social media had become a mafia as without any screenings they promote the stuff which doesn’t even have any value to be there. However, yes, the connection with long distance clientele has gotten better with social media and reaching out to them has gotten easier.”

“As a fashion designer, you believe in building a perfect design for your brand’s development but as fashion consultant you believe in the development of true fashion for the betterment of the industry as whole. While as fashion consultant you learn the reverse of fashion which as fashion designer you don’t come across. As reverse of fashion means the hidden true culture of fashion,” Hassan Riaz says.

Answering a question about how he would describe his fashion aesthetic, Riaz says, “We live in a world which is full of inspirations and it’s your mind set how you conceive from that inspiration. When it comes to my fashion aesthetics, I believe in something unusual, experimental, odd and more impactful. Something that is noticeable and undefined as that allows you to be a trendsetter not a follower.”

Riaz says he caters to people who believe in fashion as life. Fashion as skin, fashion as personality, people that believe in fashion that’s noticeable, fashion that is like an art. So that makes his market very niche. And caters to more of fashionistas and people who are bold in their approach.

Riaz is currently working on a couture collection for a while now that is called Blind, something never seen before and new approach to the art of fashion. Along with that another project that totally is Gogi’s as brand idea of training village girls as stylists, designers and fashion marketers.

“To be honest, coronavirus made all of us realise that one needs to be very versatile in their skills as the world is progressing very rapidly and inflation has caused shocks to many. So apart from fashion designing, I am the art director and creative director for many national and international theme based events as well, which is also part of my bread and butter,” he says.

When asked why his brand is called Gogi, Riaz said that this is so close to him but at the same time it makes him very happy and proud to share as firstly his brand name was run by my own name Hassan Riaz but after the death of his father whose nick name was Gogi who was one of very famous entertainment producers of Pakistan. So in order to keep the blessing of his name and his legacy around him, he proudly kept the brand name Gogi.

Riaz says today it gives him pride and energy when people call him Gogi or when someone takes the name of his brand.

Saba Qamar, Mushk Kalim, Hania Amir and Sarwat Gillani are his favourite muses.

“I always feel very honoured to take these names as mentors like Saeed Tamimi who always pushed me seeing my skills in this industry and guiding through important things. The inspirations of Umar Sayeed, Rizwan Beyg, Banto Kazmi etc really highly influenced me to be part of the industry,” he said.

“We as a brand, don’t believe in having unhappy clients. As our brand policy says, we are not a brand if our client is not happy with us and with the grace of Allah, we never had unhappy clients as we believe in client relationship not inky business,” Riaz says.