The 12 Editors Who Built Pakistan's Fashion Journalism
From She Magazine's 'Billy Aunty' to Libas, Instep and Dawn Images — a tribute to the twelve editors who gave Pakistani fashion its voice. After Diva Magazine.
5 August 2026 · A TrendCompare heritage feature
Before Pakistani fashion had hourly price trackers, Instagram drops and AI lookbooks, it had something rarer: editors with the nerve to say what they actually thought. In June 2020, Diva Magazine's Shahjehan Saleem published a tribute to the 12 editors who paved the way for fashion journalism in Pakistan. Six years on, with Azadi-sale banners screaming "70% off" from every storefront, their legacy of honest fashion writing feels more relevant than ever. Here is that roll of honour, retold.
The pioneers
Bilquis Nasrullah — She Magazine's beloved "Billy Aunty", whose editorials are still talked about years after her passing in 2010. Alya Mian edited Fashion Collection, Pakistan's first fashion magazine, and gave the country Umar Sayeed. Samina Ibrahim left Herald for Newsline in 1989 and went on to discover Rizwan Beyg and Sonya Battla — proof that a good editor's eye can mint an industry's stars.
The provocateurs
Fifi Haroon made Xtra the boldest read of the 1990s before taking her voice to BBC Urdu. Mohsin Sayeed at Instep wrote fashion criticism that actually criticised — a radical act then and now (he runs The PinkTree Company today). Arshad Tareen started behind the camera and then wrote men's fashion into existence at Men's Club.
The institution-builders
Sehyr Saigol turned Libas into a launchpad and then built the Pakistan Fashion Design Council itself, which she still chairs. Andleeb Rana became the country's youngest editor at MAG The Weekly and Xposé. Batul Rizvi still runs Visage as Editor-in-Chief. Fareshteh Aslam of Instep mentored a generation of writers before founding Talking Point.
The ones still writing
Aamna Haider Isani — two decades of wit at Instep and the force behind Something Haute — and Maliha Rehman, whose fashion writing at Dawn Images remains the most graceful in the business. Both are still at their desks, which is the best news in this whole story.
Why we're republishing this in 2026
TrendCompare is a data operation — we track 262,000+ products so shoppers know when a discount is real. But data only answers "what"; these twelve spent their careers answering "why it matters". Every price-history chart we publish stands on a tradition of fashion journalism that they built from nothing. Consider this our salaam.
Original tribute: Diva Magazine — "The Final Word", by Shahjehan Saleem (June 2020). All biographical details are drawn from that piece.
Roman Urdu version: yahan parhein.
