Exclusive Interview of Hina Atlaf

VOICE OF R: For those who don’t know You– can you tell us a little about yourself? Who is Hina?

Hina Altaf: Hina is a very family orinented girl, I dont hang out much. When im done with the shoot,all I want to do is go home have food and sleep. Im always active on my fanpage I make sure I reply to my fans. I love my work, I love what I do. I have worked really hard. I was a part of vj hunt. I did not win,but then again I went to give my audition on the other channel. I finally got selected at the age of 18, and here I am.

The Beaches of Karachi

Posted by: VOICE OF R Posted date: 5:07:00 pm Beautiful Pakistan, Beauty of Pakistan, Heaven on Earth, My Pakistan


Amongst the hustle and bustle of being a megalopolis, Karachi is also known for the sandy shores that it offers to its residents and visitors. The development of infrastructure along the various beaches of Karachi has made this gift of nature more valuable than ever before. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned Karachiite or a guest to the city, the diversity of sand, water and even wildlife on the different beaches must not be missed out on.

Here’s a list of the more popular beaches in Karachi and what they have to offer. Wherever you go, make sure you arm yourself with sunscreen, a towel, change of clothes and prepare to get wet!


Clifton Beach





Clifton beach is not like a normal beach as Hawksbay or Sandspith, but a beach that entertains thousands of people every day. People in Karachi have no other place of entertainment except restaurants or the beaches, and Clifton beach happens to be the most accessible one within the city, all crowded with people especially during weekends.

People come here to enjoy, alone, with friends and with families. We get to see families enjoying the waves barefooted, children enjoying to swim with the waves, some people sitting on the benches and enjoying the cool breezes while some group of people dance with full rhythm, usually on their typical Balochi, Sindihi or Pashto music.

Five Must-Visit Locations in Pakistan

Posted by: VOICE OF R Posted date: 3:52:00 pm Beautiful Pakistan, Beauty of Pakistan, Heaven on Earth, My Pakistan

 “If there were 3 places in Pakistan you would recommend for travel, which ones would they be? And why?”

More than twenty people in my network (which I believe to be broad-based) were asked this common question. This Miss Universe Pageant/Contest approach to a travel poll did wonders! People virtually dove in to vote for their favorite locations in Pakistan.
‘Heaven on Earth’
‘A meet with the clouds’
‘A rendezvous with the fairies’
‘A date with colors’

These were just some of the words with which people described their most treasured outdoor memories.

Anyway, based on the survey’s results, here are 5 Must-Visit locations when you’re thinking of traveling in Pakistan:



Kaghan, also called the ‘Himalayan Hide-out’, is a valley in the north-east of Pakistan’s NWFP province. Kaghan’s scenic marvels include a village which can be reached through Balakot: Shogran. At a height of nearly 7000 feet above sea level, the immediate reaction of those fortunate enough to visit Shogran is a gasp of wonder!

Nueplex Cinemas Karachi Launch

Good news for all cinema lovers in Karachi. The Place Karachi presents you Pakistan’s largest silver screen cinema “The Nueplex Cinemas”. Nueplex Cinemas is a purpose built revolution in technology and atmosphere. Nueplex Cinemas features 3 of the largest silver screens in Pakistan. All digital 4K 3D in 7.1 surround. It is the country’s largest cinema complex ever built and houses 5 cinemas.

Housed on the second floor of The Place (Opposite Creek Vista) is first of its kind, designed by world renowned cinema Architects Mesbur & Smith of Canada, cutting edge, state of the art cinema complex, Nueplex Cinemas. Comprising of 5 theaters, totaling 1200 seats and home to the 3 largest silver screens in Pakistan, Nueplex Cinemas is set to change the face of the Pakistani cinema trade forever.

Nueplex Cinemas has been outfitted by Asia’s top cinema integration company i.e. Eugenetek Corporation and is the crown achievement of years of planning and implementation. Boasting the latest 3D technology, custom designed sound systems and complete digital control of all theater functions, Nueplex is years ahead of any other cinema nationwide.

The event PR was handled by Catalyst PR & Marketing. The event was attended by top notch celebrities of Pakistan film & music industry. So far Nueplex Cinemas had a great opening, with a hope that Nueplex Cinemas will make waves in the film entertainment industry.

  

  

  

   

Rana Noman Collection at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013

Fashion presentation by fashion designer Rana Noman gathered accolades at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013 for bringing such a meticulous and charismatic formal and bridal collection.
Rana Noman Collection at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013 included formal and wedding dress collection for both men and women. For women, there was a glittery showcase of formal long frocks, long shirts and trousers, traditional lehengas, shararas, saris, and frocks with flared trousers.
For men, there was a range of sherwanis and kurta pajamas which every man will love to wear on his wedding.
Use of soft greys and tones of beige made the entire collection more mesmerizing and then some dresses in sharp colors of navy blue, pink and purple created a good contrast over fabrics like chiffon, jamawar and velvet.
The makeup of fashion models for Rana Noman Show at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013 was done by Tanya Khan; hair styling was done by Reena Janghard & Sonya. Shahid Malik did the photography and Riwayat Ltd London organized the PFW4.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gul Ahmed Collection at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013

Famous brand Gul Ahmed showcased a fabulous range of floor length dresses under its G-Pret Collection 2013 at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013.

Keeping up with demand, Gul Ahmed presented latest variety of fully embellished floor length dresses for women at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013.

Gull Ahmed G-Pret Collection 2013 included bold and beautiful long shirts, and frocks paired with churi pajama, gharara and flared trousers, detailed maxi gowns, fluid jump suits and super elegant lehengas. The collection was adorned with sequins and stone work at neck and borders of shirts and also with striking prints at front panel of shirts.

Use of colors such as blue, sea green, orange, yellow, grey, and fawn in way to make shirts and trousers visible sharply was the prominent feature of Gul Ahmed Collection 2013.

The makeup of fashion models for Gul Ahmed Show at Pakistan Fashion Week London 2013 was done by Tanya Khan; hair styling was done by Reena Janghard & Sonya. Shahid Malik did the photography and Riwayat Ltd London organized the PFW4.

Add Luxury with Luxurious Furniture

Add luxury and lavishness to your home with the marvelous luxury furniture. Luxury furniture gives your home a rich and elegant look.
There are times when you get fed up with the monotonous environment around you. You want to change the area and give it a new look. One of the good ideas to do so is to change the furniture and add some luxurious pieces to your home. Luxury furniture would definitely add a wow factor to your home. It will enhance the decor of your room and be the cause of envy for your neighbors. It will not only add to the elegance of your home but it is also a status symbol.
Luxury furniture needs more maintenance than the usual wooden or wrought iron furniture. Luxury furniture pieces are heavy and need to be handled with utmost care. You do not want to damage the pieces due to manhandling. Cleaning them might be a time taking activity since you need to clean the curves and designs of the pieces very delicately.
The most popular variety in luxury furniture is the French and Italian furniture. They are different in style and design but both add a class and elegance to your space. Thanks to the furniture companies, they can re-create the whole look of luxurious French and Italian furniture within the budget of many people. These pieces are beautiful and they would add the rich and lavish look to your home. A king sized bed with a canopy can be your first choice while giving your home a new look with the luxurious pieces. You can add a large mirror in your room as well.
If you are planning to change the look of your living room, a large chandelier in the middle of the room would add lavishness to your room. Adding heavy textured fabric to your furniture would also give it a luxurious look. Try using pastel colors; beige would go just about right with your luxury furniture.
Adding a beautiful end table with a mirror in the corner of your room would lit-up the space. Add heavy and beautiful lamps to it to give a wow look to that corner.
Keeping in mind a few tips and handling techniques, you can give your home a luxurious make over with the luxury furniture, adding style and elegance to your home.

Coca Cola Beverages Pakistan Launches “Coke Tow”

Coca Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited launched “Coke Tow”, a nationwide initiative that is premised on CCBPL’s commitment to inspire innovation and collaborate for success. This project will build the capacity and develop the skills of thousands of Coca-Cola retailers.Coke Towwill partner CCBPL employees with retailers,to provide them with business development trainings as well as soft-skills coaching. This project will help retailers grow their business;increase profitability;provide relationship-building exercises; and teach customer attraction and retention techniques. By developing its retailers’ skill sets, Coke Tow will not only ensure that its retailerscan sustain regular growth but also strengthen their business for the future.
The Coke Tow mobile fleet was launched as a pilot project in May 2012. It travelled across Lahore and Faisalabad to conduct sessions andtrained over 1,000 retailers. When asked about their experience, retailers described it as “a great initiative by Coke – it has given us a brilliant insight into retail techniques and will definitely help us grow our business and connect with customers.”
After the success of the pilot project, CCBPL has developed 7 mobile training fleets that will travel across the country. Coke Tow will begin its journey from Lahore and travel on to Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Islamabad, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and finally end in Karachi. As these fleets make their way across the country, CCBPL will train over 10,000 retailers and shop-keepers.
Speaking about the Coke Tow initiative, CCBPL’s General Manager for Pakistan, John Seward, said: “At Coca Cola we firmly believe that the business can only grow if our business partners continue to grow with us. This belief is an integral part of our Corporate Social Responsibility ethos, ensuring that whoever Coca-Cola touches has the opportunity to grow his business and prosper.”
Coke Tow is a unique project that will have a far-reaching positive impact upon Pakistan’s small business owners. With these newly acquired skills, retailers will not only be able to effectively retail Coca-Cola products, but also all of the other consumer products they sell in their shops and outlets. In addition, Coke Tow will benefit consumers by enabling trained retailers to provide more efficient and courteous service.

Young Collective Artists: Your Home – Your Style Statement

While many fashion designers change their collections every season to create a look that is on trend, interior designers focus inwards to dressing homes and spaces; after all one’s home couture speaks volumes about one’s style statement.
This concept of having your home or space ‘dressed’ by specialists is relatively new in Pakistan, as many people tend to follow the DIY notion when it comes to selecting furniture choosing colors and fabrics.. However with time, as more and more people are engaged with longer working commitments, family and so on, there is less time and skill, to conceive and execute entire spaces.
Hence people are now more than ever looking towards professional interior designers and designer furniture houses for their spaces, with the realization also that interior design consultancy and high quality furniture are as important as hiring an architect. Consequently this evolving need has led to the introduction of furniture houses and interior design consultancy houses both big and boutique.
One such company is the Karachi based home couture brand YOC’A or Young Collective Artists. In order to further promulgate this relationship between Fashion and interiors, the Young Collective Artists are working on presenting a collective series of exclusive furniture pieces with Pakistan’s top artists details of which will be unfolded soon. The brand also created exclusive furniture pieces for the L’Oreal Paris Lounge at the PFDC L’Oreal Paris Bridal Week October 2012.

  

Sania Maskatiya Introducing her second store at Dolmen Mall Clifton, Karachi

Following the success of their recently launched flagship store in Lahore and two prestigious Lux Style Awards nominations in the Luxury Pret and Pret a Porter categories, the team at Sania Maskatiya continue to expand the outreach of their brand through the introduction of a second Karachi store to be launched on Saturday June 29th 2013 at Dolmen Mall Clifton.
The Sania Maskatiya Dolmen Mall store will stock a diversity of collections from the label, in a range of attractive prices starting at PKR 4,500 and ranging to PKR 9,500. Patrons can also expect a brand new collection based on Sania’s colourful summer hues stocked exclusively at the new store, as well as printed and embroidered lawns, cottons, linens & voiles. The brand will also retail a line of accessories priced at PKR 1,000 and above along with their critically acclaimed Naqsh and Aghaaz collections. The interior of the store has been designed by the young collective artists at YOC’A.
On the launch of the brand’s second store in Karachi and third store nationwide, fashion designer Sania Maskatiya said “2013 has been a busy year for us so far. This year has already featured the debut of our lawn collection, our participation in two of the nation’s most prestigious fashion platforms, at FPW5 with Naqsh & PSFW with Ahgaaz, the launch of our first Lahore store and recently being nominated in the 12th edition of the LUX Style Awards in 2 categories. As a brand we endeavour to continue with this dynamic approach to fashion and our second store launch in Karachi is a manifestation of this objective. For our second Karachi store, we deliberately chose to establish our presence in a mall in an endeavour to make our brand more accessible to a wider diversity of people both in location and price point – therefore what is available at our flagship store and at our mall store, won’t necessarily always be the same.”
The Sania Maskatiya signature aesthetic has come to be defined as a balance between elegance, comfort and practicality with designs that often take imaginative inspirations, manifest across three main lines including prêt a porter, diffusion wear and haute couture, for women of all ages. The Sania Maskatiya design house uses only pure fabrics cut and draped in a range of silhouettes creating versatile looks across all their fashion lines.

YOGEN FRÜZ raising curtain on another Outlet in Lahore

Yogen Früz, the world’s largest frozen yogurt and smoothie chain, inaugurated another exciting outlet in Johar Town, Lahore with a fun and froyo filled launch event. The venture has been taken up by Victory Foods.
VICTORY foods has been formed by two very determined and propelling entrepreneurs to establish food and food related business. The partnership of two friends with a long term vision, is bound to perform well and achieve its benchmarks.
The master franchise of the Canadian desserts chain was acquired by MFK Foods in Lahore, Pakistan and this is their “fifth launch in six months“. Premising the official opening for general public, the exclusive launch event created quite some purr among the young urban crowd . The success of such ventures reveals Pakistan’s potential to attract foreign investments.
Yogen Früz offers over 60 soft serve flavors, 7 combinations of smoothies and 50 toppings. Perhaps the most enticing feature is Yogen Früz’s signature “mix it”; which are create-your-own yogurt/fruit mixes made from non-fat frozen yogurt and any of the 16 varieties of flash-frozen fresh fruit. The mixes are made to order and mixed in the company’s proprietary machines right in front of the customer. The non-fat yogurts (as well as the dairy smoothies) are packed with probiotic cultures.
Cheeky Joe’s teaming up with Yogen Früz, is another enticing element for everyone to rush towards this delightful treat. The story of How Joe Got Cheeky began in August 2007 when a young man and a lady got struck with the idea of selling the finest coffee to the countrymen. The magic in taste, being passed down for 12 centuries.
Cheeky Joe’s adjoining Yogen Früz, became irresistible for the young peppy crowd and the bustle during the inaugural event proved this. A nice scrumptious menu including cold and hot beverages along with a mouth-watering range of stuff to eat is going to delight everyone’s palate.
Yogen Früz, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an international chain of frozen yogurt and smoothie stores that also serves healthy alternative food products. Yogen Früz has 1300 locations operating in over 42 countries around the world. Yogen Früz pioneered the frozen yogurt category in Canada when it opened its first store in 1986. It remains a category leader with its broad menu, unique blending system, added probiotic cultures, distinctive store design and more than two decades of global operation. The brand was recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine for its accomplishments and rated the number one Franchise in the World in 1999 among the Franchise 500. Earlier this year, Yogen Früz is rated one of the top 500 Global Franchises over 20 years.

Fahad Hussayn to launch his first standalone flagship store in Lahore

After having recently participated at the PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week, leading fashion designer Fahad Hussayn is set to launch his first ever standalone flagship outlet at 45-L, M.M. Alam Road, Lahore on 17th June 2013.
The new store will carry a capsule collection under the name prodigy starts from PKR 1,500 onwards which is a wide range of Prèt under the label Prodigy that also features a limited edition range in collaboration with Vaneeza’s V Lawn called V Prodigy. Moreover, Praxus will be available for pre order before its launch on Eid. In addition to this, the store is also stocking Fahad Hussayn’s limited edition print museum lawn collection, available both in ready-to-wear and unstitched fabric.
Born in the industrial city of Faisalabad and a graduate in textile design from the Beaconhouse National University, Fahad Hussayn has been a consistently evolving label in the fashion industry. Fahad Hussayn is now one of the most acclaimed design houses in Pakistan, known for its innovative approach towards reconstruction of local embroideries, fabrics and cuts. Fahad produces intricate embroideries, custom woven pure fabrics, exclusive patterns and designs that combine to form signature Fahad Hussayn pieces that cater to the brand’s patrons. In the past, Fahad Hussayn has showcased collections at PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Weeks, PFDC L’Oreal Paris Bridal Weeks and he has also been nominated by the Lux Style Awards for both Upcoming Talent and Best Menswear categories and has designed for several prominent and well acclaimed commercial and art projects.
Speaking about the store launch at the PFDC Boulevard, Fahad Hussayn has said, “I want people to experience the quality and the value for money that Fahad Hussayn as a brand offers. The store features a diverse array of collections at varied price ranges, where there’s something for everyone and an outfit for every occasion.”

  

 

Daniyal Mubarik Collection at PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week 2013

Emerging designer Daniyal Mubarik presented his womenswear collection titled Global Culture at the ZONG Promotes Emerging Talent segment of PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week 2013.
Inspired by the evolution of different cultures, the collection interweaved different cultures and their identities to create a fusion of traditional and contemporary fashion.
Daniyal’s creative design aesthetic was displayed through the bold collection, which featured outfits with British notch collars blended with traditional Japanese kimonos and Indian saris mixed with Arabic turbans and African drapes among many others. Indeed, the depiction of different cultural motifs was demonstrative of the yin yang philosophy and showed how seemingly contrary elements could exist in artistic harmony.