Maria B is a Pakistani clothing brand which was founded by Maria Butt. It is based in Lahore, Pakistan. The clothing includes ready-to-wear, unstitched and haute couture. In 2017, they announced to incorporate Swarovski's crystals in their embroidered chiffon and lawn collections.
History
The business was started by Maria Belal Butt who is graduate of Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design in 1999 in Lahore, Pakistan. A Fashion magazine called Maria Butt Coco Chanel of Pakistan. In start, she only had one shop and few stitching machines. She started her business with few thousands of investment. With aim to expand the brand, Maria B is now largest fashion designer brand of prêt a porter, couture, formal wear, lawn, embroidered fabrics, linen and cottons.
Expansion
In October 2017, it was reported that Pakistan is one of the countries whose middle class is growing speedily. It is among the 18 largest countries of the world by middle class number. It is expected that Pakistani middle class will continue to grow as their population increases. With that number in mind it is one of the attractive markets in the world. Most of Pakistani businesses are trying to target that middle class and same is true for Maria B. They made clothes of ever variety from couture to pret and made their clothes cheaper so they can increase their sales and therefore revenues. This enabled their business to grow from small shop with few tailors to one of the largest retailer in Pakistan.
In 2016, Maria B became the first designer who incorporated Austrian-based global leader of crystals Swarovski in their embroidered chiffon and lawn collections. They signed their deal in 2014 with Austrian giant. The collection was launched on 27 August 2016.
On 22nd March 2020, Maria B’s husband Tahir Saeed was arrested by Lahore Police for allegedly sending his cook – who had tested positive for coronavirus – to his village in Vihari, Punjab in a crowded bus. After the arrest, Maria B posted a video on her Facebook page in which she was seen crying and appealing to Imran Khan to take notice of the arrest and release her husband from custody, claiming no wrongdoing on their behalf. “Last night they raided my house like I was the biggest drug mafia don,” Maria said in the video. The police confirmed the arrest on their official twitter account and said that the police action was justified as they conducted raid to arrest Tahir Saeed, the husband of Maria B, to save others. He and his employee both tested positive but they both avoided to quarantine themselves to in order to save others. On 24th March 2020 her husband was released and Maria B made another video in which she, along with her husband, thanked the Prime Minister and the Army for intervening and leading to the release of her husband. She claimed that her and her husband were mishandled by the police. The videos quickly went viral and spawned many internet memes. Particularly a still from the video in which Maria is seen in stress holding her hands to her forehead and her husband is seen coughing into his hand. Most of the memes were ridiculing the couple for allegedly being elitist and irresponsible during the pandemic.
