Grazia Pakistan got to know the uber talented man behind LVGHARI - a streetwear brand that has an interesting concept behind how it came about! Here's all that we got to know.
Asad Laghari is a Pakistani-American and the co-owner as well as the creative director of a New York based eco-friendly streetwear brand LVGHARI. He launched his brand in November 2019. Recently, the brand captured the NYC scene and created a lot of hype with his latest shoot which shot his streetwear line alongside exotic cars such as Rolls Royce Wraith and a Mercedes Brabus G Wagon for his Cyberpunk themed products.
Nine months in, the brand is doing really well even when the world has been hit by a pandemic. Their Instagram looks impressive and they seem to be active in collaborating with influencers both in the US as well as in Pakistan. Being primarily a US based brand at the moment, they are collaborating with mostly US based influencers and micro influencers. They have collaborated with Celine Farach, an LA based model who has over 1 million followers on IG. The brand has also collaborated with Pakistani actresses such as Iqra Aziz for a giveaway and Anzela Abbasi. They did a shoot with Anzela Abbasi at YBQ’s Artist Commune back in 2019 before the brand had launched. They also featured Anzela Abbasi in their music video, directed by the uber talented Asad Laghari himself. They have done their first official photo shoot in Madrid in an abandoned Church with 2 Spanish models, following a dystopian philosophy which seems to be the vision that Asad Laghari follows in all his product themes. The themes that you tend to point out are : Dystopia; Grunge and Cyberpunk. In fact, facemasks were also part of the product shoot, and it was way before COVID-19 hit the world.
The philosophy and ethos of the brand seems to be very well thought out. This is probably due to the fact that Asad Laghari doesn’t just design the clothes but is also a director and musician which enables him to have a much larger concept and vision for the brand image. He seems to be very passionate about the philosophy, history and culture of streetwear, having numerous blogs on their website about this very topic. He claims to be inspired by fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, one of the first pioneers of the movements of streetwear from post–war Japan. We were intrigued, so we did a little reaearch on the creative director and the history of the brand.
Asad Laghari was born in New York but spent his youth growing up in Karachi, Pakistan and eventually moved back to the US. After finishing his studies at New York Film Academy in Film Making, he received a recommendation letter from his professor Andi Deliani, also a French Film Producer. He went on to shoot a music video for a song that he was working on. The music video was mainly shot in NYC with a few scenes later shot in Karachi featuring the Pakistani actress Anzela Abbasi. That’s the first we saw of the brand before its conception.
“I was very particular about details such as the locations, the mood, the lighting and colors so I thought I’d design some tracksuits too. I had gotten a lot of positive feedback for the song and video, but also for the clothes. I wanted to continue to work on my portfolio for film, but it’s expensive to keep shooting videos and takes a really long while to build up your portfolio, so I started working on the idea of a brand.”
After creating several themes and designs in his room in Brooklyn, Laghari travelled to Spain to do his first photo shoot with a few friends who seem to be active in the high fashion scene in Paris and Milan.
“They helped me a lot with the business model. Even for the name, I remember I was considering a few options like Dystopia, The New Millennium and also Laghari, because I had already used it in my music video and they loved the name. They thought it sounded exotic. And I liked the idea of repping a cultural name, so I went with it.”
After returning to Paksitan, Laghari worked out the final details including finding an eco-friendly manufacturer which is a huge part of the brands philosophy.
After launching the brand in November 2019 when he was back in NYC, the designs and styles really caught on, with the push from both Pakistani and US influencers. Right now, all the shoots seem to be taking place in the US, but they are hoping to shoot in Pakistan.
The brand is primarily US based, but very limited stock is available in Pakistan.
