Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Trend of wearing traditional footwear of Pashtoon called as Peshawari chappal is gaining popularity for celebrating joyful occasions like Eid and outlets of this product have ran into roaring business, these days.

Unique designs, durability and famousness is the hallmark of the Peshawari chappal which inherited years old history and has made deep inroads into cultures of all strata of society to collaborate special occasions like parties, Eid and wedding ceremonies with it.

“We are besieged with orders for Peshawari chappal which is no longer confined to any specific culture or age group, it is for all now and loved by all to give more colour to festivity of Eid, currently we cannot accept more orders due to shortage of time, power load shedding and above all fasting,” Akthar Munir, a shoemaker observed while haggling with his scores of clients where Peshawari chappal was selling like a hot cake.

He said since Peshawari chappal gives both a traditional look on shalwar qameez and a trendy appearance when worn with jeans, this product is also used by iconic personalities like Imran Khan, thus trend to wear this Pashtoon traditional footwear on such prominent occasion gets boosted.

He was of the view it has indeed become a souvenir for the all citizens and now it is dispatched abroad to their loved ones as a gift for happy occasion like Eid as it could also be worn with jeans which has gained east-cum-west feature as well.

“Last Sunday I visited Charsada to buy chappal for my relatives and friends who are living in UK, they have especially asked for sending Peshawari chappal for this Eid as this traditional Pashtoon footwear is worn by mostly Pakistani community on such occasion,” Kashif Riaz remarked.

Peshawari chappal is also designed for girls in different colours like yellow, black, green, white, plain black with print or plain red with print. These have been embellished with brooches and stones and are giving a different look and individual style.

“Captain’s chappal, associated with Imran Khan, is handmade genuine leather soft and light weight footwear, it is high in demand as politicians and rich people order for this Peshawari footwear,” said Gul Zaman, another shoemaker.

He said his chappal, is rather costly than the rest of the shoes like ranging from Rs 5,000 to 10,000 while other shoes could easily be afforded by common man as one pair of shoes cost was around Rs 700.