Editor 's note : The staff at CNN.com has been intrigued by the journalism of VICE , an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn , New York . The reports , which are produced solely by VICE , reflect a very transparent approach to journalism , where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process . We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers . Brooklyn , New York ( VICE ) -- When people talk about fashion week , they are usually referring to London , Paris , New York and Milan . When I discovered that Islamabad was having its first ever fashion week , I was especially intrigued . In a country where the majority of women cover up and similar events in the past have been threatened with fundamentalist attacks , this had to be about promoting Pakistan 's textile industry in a strangled economy . The majority of Pakistan 's population wears traditional Shalwar Kameez or Burkha , are vehemently religious , poor and enjoy about a 50 % illiteracy rate . I quickly learned that there are pockets of Pakistani society that have Western sensibilities , which warrants the fashion industry to grow and justifies the need for a fashion week . The British High Commission advises against all but essential travel to Pakistan . After pondering how essential fashion journalism is , against the wishes of my family I flew out to Islamabad in January with the director William Fairman to document an event so incongruous with the Pakistan we see on the news , people thought we 'd made it up . This fashion week represented an exclusive elite of Western-centric Pakistanis . I managed with relative ease to secure carte blanche to film fly-on-the-wall at the event , with the exception of filming people boozing or blaspheming on camera . For example , before we left I was warned I 'd better cover up and wear long dresses , which is evident in the film . As soon as I arrived I realized that I need n't have worried , that most of the girls at the fashion week dressed like Western girls . It was just one example of how Pakistan is misunderstood in the West . See the rest of Pakistan Fashion Week at VICE.COM . For a week I watched relatively scantily-clad models on a runway in a blast-proof basement of a 7-star hotel just a short drive from the Islamic militant hubs in the troubled northwest . There was a latent atmosphere of volatility : fundamentalists do n't have to try hard to work out that these hotels are crawling with Westerners and Pakistani liberals 365 days a year . As a result , the seats at the fashion shows were often half-empty . Social events such as these are few and far between in Pakistan . A young Pakistani rapper we met while out there told us how he struggles to perform live , as live events are often shut down for risk of militant attacks . More than serving as a platform for the textile industry and an attempt at improving Pakistan 's world image , the Fashion Week was predominantly just something for people to do , a distraction from the adversity of daily life there . I spent a week in the care of Pakistan 's affluent elite , and my time with them taught me that Pakistan is an acutely divided country of extremes . There is a great deal of resentment towards this outmoded elite from the rest of the country . There is no middle class as we know it . This privileged community lives in compounds with armed guards at their gates . They employ a live-in staff and a chauffeur . They inhabit a bubble of ersatz Western life . One woman told me she thought that fashion , not drones , was the answer to Pakistan 's problems . Whether this is the case , or not , remains to be seen .
She goes to Pakistan for a behind - the - scenes look at fashion week in Islamabad . Visit offers perspective of Pakistani life rarely seen in the West . She finds the country to be an ` ` acutely political country of extremes ''