Good conversation and an elegant personality are greatly influenced by a person’s clothing. In the modern world, fine and high-quality attire plays a vital role in enhancing one’s personality. In this context, those who prepare clothes, known in civilized societies as tailors and now as designers cannot have their importance and usefulness overlooked.

Sarfaraz Akbar, who is the CEO of Sartorial Di Ambassador, recently won a medal award in the Arbiter Tailoring Contest held in the city of Milan, Italy.

Sarfaraz Akbar entered this field in 1998. In fact, he received training for this profession at home. His father, Muhammad Akbar, opened a shop named Ambassador Tailors in 1971 on Tariq Road in Karachi. Following in the footsteps of his brothers, Afzal Shehzad and Sajjad Akbar, Sarfaraz Akbar also stepped into this field.

I met him through Dr. Kashif Ansari, the head of the Umair Sana Foundation. Sarfaraz Akbar is not only one of Pakistan’s well-known designers, but also a refined and graceful personality.

During COVID-19, when people were shutting down businesses and laying off employees, he with faith and trust in Allah took care of everyone associated with him. He kept them at home and paid their salaries for several months.

Sarfaraz Akbar says that every business comes with its own challenges. His field is somewhat different because he continued and advanced the craft of his father, Muhammad Akbar.

He believes that making sherwanis and suits is no longer particularly laborious, but people who come to them once become loyal customers because they specialize in hand-crafted work rather than machine work. They provide proper training to their craftsmen. In reality, it is quite a demanding task what you envision and how the artisan delivers it is difficult to master. But, Alhamdulillah, they do something truly different.

A few years ago, when Dr. Kashif Ansari brought West Indies cricketers Curtly Ambrose and Michael Holding, along with ICC umpire from Australia Simon Taufel, to the city of Karachi, Sarfaraz Akbar designed their outfits in an excellent manner. They highly praised the professional work of Sartorial Di Ambassador. Whether it is Javed Afridi, the owner of Peshawar Zalmi, or Atif Rana of Lahore Qalandars, both admire the work of Sarfaraz Akbar.

Sarfaraz Akbar, who also designed outfits for West Indian Two T20 ICC World Cup wining captain Daren Sammy, who played for the famous Pakistan Super League franchise Peshawar Zalmi,had the opportunity to design clothes for U.S. President George W. Bush as well.

These days, Sarfaraz Akbar is quite busy preparing costumes for the historical drama “Salahuddin Ayyubi,” being produced by Dr. Kashif Ansari and Dr. Junaid Ali Shah.

I asked him how he manages to take out time to work on a drama being produced in Turkey, and why he is not seen as a designer in Pakistani dramas.

Sarfaraz Akbar says that good dramas and quality work are indeed being produced in our country. However, the problem is that the limited budgets make it difficult for designers like him to work within the industry.

Sarfaraz Akbar is a professional designer who loves his work, and this is the second consecutive year that he has won a medal at the Arbiter Tailoring Contest held in the city of Milan, Italy.

He has been participating for the past two years in this competition, which is organized by the Tailoring Association and includes contestants from 20 countries. By winning medals, he continues to prove that not only is he an excellent designer, but he is also emerging as a symbol of pride for Pakistan in this field.