NABEEL & AQEEL, the brand, shot into the limelight in 1999 when its stunning collection of contemporary shalwar kameez with black velvet mandarin collars became a huge hit. With its stylish collections for men and women, the brand continues to impress customers from all over the world.
 “We want to make Nabeel & Aqeel one of the most desired label for men and women all over the world, by creating designs which are unique, desirable, durable, affordable and most importantly, wearable.â€
In their pursuit of perfection, the brothers behind the brand have worked day and night and traveled thousands of miles to make the best products for their customers at affordable price in collaboration with the finest and latest production facilities in the world. They are famous in introducing novel and unique products that render their brand apart from others in the same business; thus, being the only one, which always comes up with something different.
The only brand in Asia that makes cigars comparable with any top brand in the world, this is Pakistan’s first designer brand to make perfumes and the country’s only designer brand with such a diverse product line up. Across the board, the brothers, co-founders and partners impress everyone who loves fashion and appreciates finer things in life.
Let’s hear it from Nabeel & Aqeel themselves.
What are you passionate about right now?
It can be anything that inspires and motivates us from walking in the rain to visiting an art gallery, and from a particular colour shade to a person. It’s important to understand why this thing/person is so inspiring to you.
Right now, we are passionate about merging different heritages and cultures, old and new, east and west. The solid, timeless, grandeur of the Badshahi Mosque and the modernity of Kennedy Space Centre are both inspiring and motivational for us. We love Pink Floyd music for its depth, and Van Gogh’s art for its vibrancy. We revel in touring the world, and exploring new avenues, but we always love coming back home to our roots.
It is this attraction of opposites that invokes thoughts and ideas in our minds; it allows us to appreciate the best of everything; it also makes us value time because it never lasts.
Give us your background.
We come from a close knit family. Our father is an educationist, management consultant and a former bureaucrat. Our mother is a home economist and the key person to guide us on the path of fashion and style since our childhood. With the combination of our father’s academic attitude and our mother’s encouragement of fashion, we grew up in an atmosphere, which was very conducive to get our creative juices flowing from an early age. When we were in school, we used to save our pocket money to buy select designer accessories, and were always the source of envy in our friends’ circles. Hence, our tastes were refined at quite an early age. We decided to get our MBA, which provided us with the essentials of setting up our first business. We also obtained formal training in Fashion Design. Nabeel did his diploma from FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), NYC, and I did an internship at Armani, UK.
Having strong family ties, we rely a lot on the guidance we receive from our parents to plan our paths, and I think it is this attitude that has helped us get Allah’s blessings and amde our path easier.
Tell us about your new collection?
We want to instill comfort in every detail of our collection. Once you try, you will buy.
In our 2107 collection, we tried to redefine comfort; we hope our new collection will change your perception for fashion. Everything changes, we change, fashion changes, what will never change is our passion for our work, to make everything with love. Elegance, style, superb fashion design, attention to detail, perfect wearability, fabric research, value and technological innovation are the most important elements that characterize the Nabeel & Aqeel collections.
What is your fashion philosophy?
We are doing some very new things. It’s all about evolution. What you’ll see is our response to what we have observed going on in the world. It’s about being positive, optimistic and personal. The zeitgeist? We’re on it. Our philosophy is to create things that reflects personality and individuality. It’s all about you. Anyone can dress up in designer uniform and express a certain economic status or trendiness. What’s really interesting is using your clothes to reveal who you really are. Express yourself.
Our aim is to provide you special items that will become a part of your life, garments and accessories you’ll wear in a completely personal way. It’s about being uniue. It’s all about attitude, texture, intelligence, versatility and personal style.
Tell us about your new perfumes collection.
This signature collection of fragrances is inspired by perfumery’s glamorous past when only best ingredients were gathered from around the world to create one-of-kind fragrances of sophistication and luxury. Featuring 11 aromatic new fragrances for men and women, they are a result of sculpting, refining and finishing the best ingredients with magical fragrances, all redolent of adventure and spice.
Tell us about your much talked about perfume INSANITY. Why did you choose this name?
We named it Insanity because of its power to seduce. It’s energetically earthy and sexually explicit. The rose lies at its heart note. Not your old auntie’s rose, but a raunchy rose.
“This rose has been up all night, smoking and drinking before staggering home as the sun comes up, loving every moment and looking forward to the next time.â€
“The ultimate seducer….This is one of the most gorgeous floral I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience; A love at first sniff; a beautiful stranger, an alluring beast…a master of disguise.â€
You are a queen and a princess, a lover and a heartbreaker; too beautiful to control and too wild to love. INSANITY is a seductive fragrance made for free and passionate women. It arouses the senses; woman’s hidden emotions and inexplicable passions with an exotic blend of lush florals and deep wood notes. It is not the one for office, we advise, but if you have seduction in mind.
When designing a perfume, what are the key factors you keep in mind?
The focus has always been on quality materials than expensive packaging. We create very special, original fragrances that are unconstrained by the conventions of mainstream scent-making. Our fragrances are designed with the true fragrance connoisseur in mind.
Where do you place yourselves in the world of fashion and what do you think of the fashion industry here in Pakistan?
The fashion industry in Pakistan is definitely on the right track. People are becoming more aware of contemporary global fashion, and their expectations from fashion brands in Pakistan are increasing. This directly puts positive pressure and demand on the fashion providers. It’s healthy for the growth of this industry.
Regarding our place in the world of fashion, I think I will let my work and clientele prove this for us. People have given us a lot of acclaim, and it’s an honor that everyone acknowledges the effort and soul we put in our work. The brand of Nabeel & Aqeel is known for its ultra-modern, futuristic, yet classy vision, blended with delicate finesses into its creations.
How much further do you think you have to go before you reach your ultimate goal in life?Â
We don’t believe in setting a limit on our dreams and aspirations, as this indicates a tendency to stagnate. We like to think that we are progressive and evolving, and this reflects our philosophy of life. As soon as we achieve one set of goals, we have another target to work for. This is how life goes on. The ultimate goal in our life would be to sit back several years from now and know that we have made a difference in the history of Pakistan’s fashion and culture—a positive difference!
Sidebar
You are a queen and a princess, a lover and a heartbreaker; too beautiful to control and too wild to love. INSANITY is a seductive fragrance made for free and passionate women. It arouses the senses; woman’s hidden emotions and inexplicable passions with an exotic blend of lush florals and deep wood notes. It is not the one for office, we advise, but if you have seduction in mind.
What about music?
We love music. It’s everywhere around us. Thanks to our father and elder brothers, we had the pleasure of enjoying a wide range of music at a very early age. We grew up solving math listening to Pink Floyd. We love all kinds of music from Tiesto to Saain Zahoor, cherishing the enigma of versatile echoes from singers around the globe. Soon we are launching NOSTALGIA, a collection of CDs, featuring unforgettable music that we love.
Tell us about your cigar collection?
We are the first designer brand in Asia to make cigars.
Nabeel & Aqeel Cigars are blended exclusively with select fine leaves from the best tobacco regions of the world. Its delicate aroma and delicious taste will make you revel in the unique pleasure of smoking a cigar.
We have two different collections: The Connoisseur collection is from Dominican Republic, while the Imperial Havana collection is from Cuba. Both the series have different sizes of cigars. I love our new cigar IMPIRIAL HAVANA 56 that offers exceptional character and flavour. You will fall in love with its taste.
Who is your target customer for your menswear?
Nabeel& Aqeel is targeting a man that aspires to a luxurious lifestyle, high in its style, fashion and elegance quotient. He is a professional man who looks for tasteful, subtle style, fashion conscious, but never a fashion victim; he expects a good relationship between quality and price.
Your favourite scent?
There are many, depends on the mood and the occasion. We love all the perfumes by Nabeel & Aqeel of course. Besides that Creed Aventus and Santal 33 by Le Labo are among our favourites these days.
The perfume you like on a woman?
Insanity it is!
How did the two of you end up working together?
Knowing that we are brothers, it shouldn’t be surprising that we are working together. We have been best friends for as long as we can remember; we went to same school, same college; we used to share our thoughts and ideas with each other and used to get inspired by almost similar things, which led us to start working together.
We have a good business relationship; we motivate each other to do better. Living in the same house, we get to share our inspirations, thoughts and fashion philosophy with each other constantly. This keeps a sense of coherence in our work and also helps us to bounce our ideas off each other to test their validity.
To keep the balance, however, we distribute and segregate the work load, so that both of us get a chance to see our ideas materialize our ideas. I, Aqeel, am more on a visionary side, the dreamer and Nabeel is the one who transforms those visions into reality.
Belted
