Designer Khadijah Shah took to twitter to justify her brand Elan’s prices and introduced what she considered was an affordable wedding season collection.
A bit of background: an average bridal costs around Rs300,000 – Rs.500,000
A bit about Pakistan’s middle class community who this range is targeted to: while 24% of the country’s population is living below the poverty line, according to Asian Development Bank’s statistics for 2019, 40% of the population is our country’s middle class whose minimum monthly income is statistically Rs50,000.
So a lot of people following me give me grief for Élan being unaffordable. I thought I’d share our newest collection Tresor with you guys! It’s an unstitched wedding season collection. Beautifully hand embellished and quintessentialy elan priced just between 18-20k pic.twitter.com/5G8cUDNzJ4
— khadijah shah (@khadijah_shah) September 22, 2019
It is important to note that an outfit that costs around Rs20,000 is not affordable in a country where the average home is making close to Rs50,000 a month and the local community was quick to point that out:
18k to 20k is NOT affordable for 85% of Pakistan’s population. You need to get your facts right before trying to justify an Elite Clothing brand’s particular collection as ‘affordable. Elan has beautiful clothes, but they are not for the masses.
— ISKIDO (@TheStarRegulus) September 23, 2019
Yeah so cheap and affordable for the Elites .. apna kya lena dena
— Pro Procrastinator (@Rafia_101) September 22, 2019
Ha ha ha …. Loved the Just between 18K-20 K. For max of Pakistanis, their whole month earning is less than this. And for the salaried class, if they get even one of these Clothes, they are screwed for months to come. So NO anyways
— Kashan Ali (@oblivion347) September 23, 2019
18-20K affordable ? #elan trolling is painful and hialrious at the same time. https://t.co/nxda3Npwhd
— Aaam Aaadmi (@NayaPaki) September 22, 2019