What it takes to run a clothing brand in Pakistan - Musings, Journey and Tidbits from behind the scenes action! Ep. 5

4 July 2026

Episode 5: The Chaos of Shoot Prep, Pure Cotton Co-Ords, and Planning Ahead

We sat down to write this episode on Sunday, the next day, rather than at the end of the workday like we did the previous two days.
It was an incredibly hectic Saturday at the studio. Our remote marketing team member came in, and our newly onboarded head of content—who joins us three days a week—was also at the office. So, expectedly, the energy was a bit chaotic.

Locking in the Aangan Fits
When we arrived at the office, we sat down with our very tiny but mighty design team: Fatima, our fashion designer, and Daniyal, our textile designer. We reviewed, one by one, all the changes made yesterday to the shoot samples. We finally locked in the fits that would go into production for our first-ever Aangan drop.
This upcoming launch was all about organic, comfortable, pure cotton two-piece co-ords. Because of the natural, breathable material, these pieces were perfect for the peak of summer but could easily be worn year-round. Naturally, we planned to pair them with our summer-friendly, everyday scarves. We also reviewed the fit of a new co-ord sample in a gorgeous peach tone.
Our designers wanted to step out for field research to finalize materials for the custom tassels and buttons for these cotton sets. Unfortunately, our merchandising and sourcing guy wasn't in today. We moved this task to Monday, especially since it wasn't a massive delay. Immediately after sourcing, the designers would take the finalized materials to a sampling unit. Since our in-house team was still very small, we outsourced the sampling for tassels and buttons to the same unit that did the intricate adda work for our Zarminay Kaftan—our first-ever piece featuring hand embellishments.

Styling the Chaos
Then Subhan (our photographer/videographer) and Hamza (our marketing lead) came in, and we started showing them the finalized samples. We pictured our pure cotton co-ord samples styled with the scarves so we’d already have a clear visual idea before the actual shoot day. The goal was to make the shoot day completely stress-free. With so many of us in the room voicing different opinions, things got a little loud and chaotic, but we soon had everything sorted.

Structuring Our Collection Calendar
Next, we sat down with Hamza to discuss our trimmed-down collection calendar and prospective launch dates. With Hamza's experience, we made a few adjustments and added a line of embroidered lawn outfits right after Eid-ul-Fitr ’27.
This collection would officially launch before Eid-ul-Adha ’27 as Aangan-Elevated. It was designed as a practical, affordable addition for patrons who couldn't easily manage the signature extra-volume 500+ inch flares and 30-kali pishwas and anarkalis we were known for, especially during the intense summer heat. It is worth mentioning that this was the first time we were doing proper, structured planning. Now that we had a proper—though tiny—design and production team, we didn't just have to roll with the punches. Previously, we managed by releasing two Eid collections and one formals collection each year. Alhumdullillah for our growth. Having a structured calendar put us in a much better place beforehand and made us even more excited to work on new things.

Thoughtful Scarves & Campaign Ideas
We also discussed marketing ideas for our new Aangan co-ord sets and our new scarves. InshaAllah, we know you are going to love them. We designed them keeping the global hot weather in mind—we were absolutely not going to discomfort our patrons with stiff poly-cotton blends.
Our scarves were divided into thoughtful mini-collections. We were producing eight scarves in total, with four specifically designed around cats! Instead of just rolling out random prints, we wanted conceptual, heartfelt pieces. We were exploring campaign ideas like "feed a stray" with every cat scarf sold. We were also developing a trio of Sabr, Tawakul, and Shukr scarves, along with another design featuring hearts. These everyday scarves could be bought separately, as discounted bundles (which we were currently working on), or paired directly with the cotton co-ord sets.
It was a tiring, somewhat chaotic, but incredibly fruitful and hopeful day. We can’t wait to share these things in more detail with you as we go forward.

See you next week on Monday. It’s the shoot week so it’s gonna be busy!

Read Next Episode Here

Read Previous Episode Here