With a degree in physics from Oxford University and a career history in steel trading, Pakistani-based fashion blogger Salima Feerasta didn’t take a typical path to her current line of work.
“I haven’t always loved fashion, but I’ve grown to love it,” Feerasta laughed. The 43 year-old is behind the popular Instagram account @karachista1 and the blog “Karachista.” She began the blog in 2013, after teaching herself to code and build the website. Her career shift came after she had three children and started writing a weekly column for Pakistan’s Star Times.
Based in the country’s largest city, Karachi, Feerasta covers fashion on a national scale. She also writes about local food and entertainment, and produces lifestyle content. One of her recent articles, titled “Instagram loses the plot – the new algorithm is taking the fun out of Instagram,” serves as evidence that Feerasta dives deeper than just covering the latest trends hitting the runway. She posts between five and 30 photos and articles each day, and makes money through sponsored posts and advertising on both her blog and Instagram. She also runs a social media consultancy business.
“Pakistan has a reputation for being a backward country, but fashion [here] is quite interesting and cosmopolitan,” she said. “The fashion scene is dichotomized between a small segment, who are very daring and cosmopolitan and wear very western outfits, and the masses who are more conventional in that they won’t wear revealing things.”
We asked Feerasta to share five Instagrams to give us a glimpse into her life and Pakistan’s fashion scene through her lens.
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Pakistan Fashion Week
There are two fashion councils in Pakistan, Karachi and Lahore. This fashion week was run by the Karachi Fashion Council. This designer, Nida Azwer, is one of our most fabulous young designers — she’s in her 20s. Her taste is very classic, and she takes traditional techniques — like embroidery and embellishments — and modernizes them. It’s exciting to see her take traditional techniques and incorporate them into modern outfits that still look to Pakistan’s roots.
On the job
When I first started my blog I’d write about every single show in detail, but I discovered people prefer to see photos, so now I just write snippets. I also live stream video on the edge of the runway so that people feel like they’re there. When I first started, bloggers didn’t get much importance compared to print media; a magazine with a circulation of 2000 would get a front-row seat, rather than a blogger with 50,000 followers — but that has changed. Bloggers, as a rule, have a lot of influence nowadays — it’s a lot deeper and broader than, say, a magazine. (Sound familiar?)
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A photo posted by Karachista : Style In Pakistan (@karachista1) on
Swarovski’s Salt Magazine photoshoot
Swarovski wanted to showcase style from the Middle East and South East Asia region (I was the only one featured from the SEA region) in its print publication. They gave us all these fabulous outfits to wear, and there were stylists and makeup teams. I wore a tweed top and skirt by Victoria Beckham. My shoot was really early in the morning (7 a.m.), which was good, seeing as we were in the desert! It was great to meet the other Middle Eastern influencers — they’ve been blogging for a lot longer than I have, and we were able to talk about geeky things like engagement and coding. And the Middle East is such a vibrant market. The women are extremely fashion-savvy and have a lot of money to spend. It’s interesting, because they’re not interested in following trends; they want to be setting trends, so if it’s too popular, they won’t buy something.
The local blogging community
Magnum did this event to combine fashion and art. They had one of the owners of one of the best galleries curate an exhibition of art by various artists, and they asked six designers to create a capsule around surrealism. It was called a Magnum Chocolate party, but it was a celebration of fashion and art. This is a group of fashion bloggers and journalists from Hello, OK, the blog Secret Closet and Paperazi. They’re my squad.
A photo posted by Karachista : Style In Pakistan (@karachista1) on
A Sunday in Pakistan
Sunday is a family day, and there’s a lot to do in Pakistan. Karachi is on the waterfront, and we live ten minutes from the beach. This day, we hung out with some friends who have a yacht and jet skis, and we just hung out on the yacht while the kids tried out the jet skis. It was a very chill, fun afternoon.
Sunset on the water – #Sunday well spent #karachilife
A photo posted by Karachista : Style In Pakistan (@karachista1) on
