London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025 - Omar Mansoor

Omar Mansoor inaugurated the 20th presence in the London Fashion Week with his collection titled, ‘Meluhas’.

The word Meluhas originates from an ancient civilisation of the Indus Valley that existed during the Middle Bronze Age. They were known for their crafts including seals, pottery, sculpture, gold jewellery & terracotta figures. Plain pottery items are found generally made of red clay, with or without a fine red or grey slip.

Mansoor chooses a colour palette of red-orange terracotta with embroidery in yellow-orange ochre. These earthy tones are used to depict the pottery from the era whilst symbolising simplicity, cosiness, elegance and authority.

Terracotta, ochre, indigenous motifs embroidery all elude to ‘Meluhas’ collection indicative of trade during Indus Valley Civilization during the Middle Bronze Age.

Once more Mansoor collaborates with Kaarvan Crafts Foundation who organised the beautiful hand embroidery by rural artisans of Pakistan. The embroidery is of traditional Pakistani practices creating contemporary motifs.

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s UK Aid Match fund these skilled women from Kaarvan Crafts Foundation and the British Asian Trust.

As a campaigner of sustainability in fashion, Omar uses fabrics made up of a mix of new and recycled fibres in this collection as a means to care about our planet and a step towards shifting fashion from linear to a circular model.

The collection consists of elegant full length gowns, whilst his knee-length and midi dresses would be perfect for a day at the races and comply with the Royal Ascot dress code.

Kaarvan Crafts Foundation was established in 2004 as a Not-for-Profit company. Since then, it has successfully carried out diverse projects in remote villages of Pakistan to empower and provide autonomy to women artisans by strengthening their skills, providing business capacities and market linkages. Thereby facilitating them in accessing better economic opportunities and improving their quality of life and that of their families.