The most high-profile wedding in Pakistan took place recently. Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari daughter of the former prime minister of Pakistan Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto (Shaheed) and former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari tied the knots with Dubai based businessman Mahmood Chaudhry. The wedding had the eyes of the whole nation on it, but the security protocol didn’t do justice to the nation, as no one was allowed to take their cell phones inside, so we didn’t have any kind of spoilers. The pictures on the internet are only those which were shared by the family themselves.
Bakhtawar looked stunning on all three functions, but the details of her mehndi dress got everyone’s attention, The dupatta of her customized dress had these beautiful lines embroidered on it from imagistic poetry “Wo Larki Laal Qalandar Thi” which is a tribute to Benazir Bhutto.
Designer Zara Shahjahan also shared details about the dress of Bakhtawar Bhutto’s wedding dress and also her experience of working with Bakhtawar.
“Bakhtawar was the most easygoing bride that I have ever worked with,” says Zara Shahjahan. “I felt that she had been very close to her mother and wanted her to be a part of her wedding. She specifically asked for the embroidery on the dupatta” said Zara Shahjahan.
“This was the first time that I worked with Bakhtawar. Her team reached out to me on their own and she referred to a recent bridal shoot that I had done, Ghazal. Bakhtawar had liked the design worn by Eman Suleman. Taking reference from it, I customized the mehndi outfit according to her requirements. She wanted it to be colorful and in fact, the entire theme of the event followed a color scheme similar to the clothes that she was wearing.”
Zara shared the minute details about the Bakhtawar’s mehndi dress: “The lehnga had traditional chata-patti on it. I used patchworks of Sindhi embroidery and mirrors to embellish it. While the dupatta and the lehnga were heavy, the shirt had lighter embellishment on it. It was worked with flowers and at the center of every flower, we embroidered Bakhtawar and Mahmood’s names. It was all done very minutely which is why it isn’t easily visible in the photographs. I have never believed in over-the-top statements and even with this design, there were little details, meant just for her, that made it special.”
Zara also shared that she never had a one-to-one meeting with Baktawar while her dress was in making process they communicated online: “I created toiles and then sent them to her in Dubai for trying out. After that, the final outfit was created.” Zara also added a little detail on her own: “There is a pouch with the outfit and when she opens it, there is an embroidered portrait of Benazir Bhutto inside it.”
(Courtesy: Dawn Images)
