An Evolutionary Historical Perspective of Pakistan Retail Fashion Industry

Abstract

This study seeks to capture the evolution (emergence, diffusion, and transformation) of the retail fashion industry in Pakistan from largely unorganized to modern commerce retail. In particular, it strives to understand this evolution of "collective activity" as conceptualized by Regina Blaszczyk in terms of interactions among enterprise, culture, consumer, and commerce in the context of emerging economies with an emphasis on past two decades 1998-2018. Narrative analysis is built from Project oral histories (16 in-depth interviews from various experts as well as ordinary consumers, who lived through and witnessed the evolution), supplemented by newspapers, magazines, web articles, and archives. The study demonstrates various political, cognitive, socio-cultural challenges and opportunities faced by early designers/retailers. It also establishes popular culture profound influence in the dissemination of fashion and branding the industry despite political upheavals. Although limited to the Pakistani case, this research outlines the founding feature of the flourishing fashion retail industry in emerging economies and the role of popular culture in the nourishment of creative industries. The evolution of fashion retail in South East Asia in general and Pakistan, in particular, has received very little scholarly attention. The historical analysis contributes a unique perspective in understanding drivers of this evolution as not consumers themselves but the ones who played an active role in the creation of the retail fashion industry in Pakistan build through historical narrative.