Tag: fashion

Mehendi For Weddings, Brides, and Friends

M's Adventures

Getting Mehendi, or henna, is usually associated with Bangladeshi wedding holuds (bridal shower), but it can also be done for other celebrations. Sometimes the celebration is the celebration of friendship bonding.

Mehendi flower on the palm.

Mehendi is a temporary tattoo of curling designs done on the feet, legs, hands, and arms. The ladies who do it are quick and the talents vary just as with any craft. The actual tubes they use are long thing cones made of foil paper. Depending on how much Mehendi you get done, it is fairly quick. A hand can take fifteen minutes. What takes a long time is waiting for the dye to dry. The Mehendi can be all natural or synthetic and it comes in several colors. The paste is usually a dark vegetable green but the resulting color may be orange, brown, or black. Once the Mehendi dries, the paste cracks and it will itch. The best way to remove the paste is with olive oil. I found using a spoon also helped.

Scraping the Mehendi paste off with olive oil.
Mehendi hands of friends.

A few weeks ago, a friend was departing for the U.S. and she wanted Mehendi. It would be clear that she had arrived from the ‘desh! Deshi style!

Mehendi on the feet of friends.

Jewelry for Your Neck and Furniture

M's Adventures

Even your furniture can wear jewelry. Dhaka is the place to get it made. In Gulshan, an expat, makes bead necklaces from her own designs, and to custom made. Many of the beads are from Nigeria, India, and Ghana. Some beads are made by women who have been rescued from a life on the streets so if you buy a necklace with these beads, then you can feel like you have done some good in the world. While still looking pretty.

A necklace for every neck in your home.
The jewelry maker.
Every color under the sun.
Mirror glass long necklace.
Necklace for the table. Why not?

Lungi, the Traditional Dress of Bangladeshi Men

M's Adventures

Traditionally, Bangladeshi men wore (and still do) a sarong called a “lungi.”  This plaid cotton tube of cloth can be worn in many different ways and the knot can be tied as distinct as the neighborhood that you grew up in (West Bengal, Dhaka, etc.).

For fun, we had a lungi party and were fortunate enough to have expert knot-tiers able to provide us with an education in how to wear a lungi. Some of the guests at the party chose to wear a “dhuti” which is a different style of sarong, made most distinct by the front folds being tied between the legs and hitched into the back of the waistband.

My lungi cost around 325 Taka ($4) so it was about double the cost of what a Bangladeshi man would pay for it.

My Favorite Tailor in Dhaka

M's Adventures

***Update September 2013: Jewel is no longer my favorite tailor but back when I wrote this blog posting, he was (I have since found someone who makes house calls and delivers on a more reliable schedule — I think we may have inundated Jewel with our orders and he fell behind during the Ramadan season). Please see my map of 99 expat places for some of the tailors I now like, plus other postings on tailors. *** My favorite tailor in Dhaka is a man named Jewel (well, it may spelled “Jhul”). He does not speak much but his smile is sweet and he can tailor shirts, dresses, sarees, shalwar kameezes, etc. It’s best to take a sample of what you want or look through his books of necklines for what you want. He usually measures me although now I’ve got a good relationship with him so he knows my style and measurements. He gives you a receipt with snippets of your material taped to it (and he tapes the other snippets in the big book of work orders). One week later, clothes are usually ready. Unless it’s wedding or holiday season. The cost is around 250 Taka ($3) per yard of material and 600 Taka ($8) to make a shirt.

Jhul the tailor with his big book of orders.

Jhul works at Aadita tailor shop in Gulshan One market. The shop is about the size of two king sized beds with a myriad of material stacked neatly from floor to ceiling. The shop owner is also a fine gentleman and he has another shop around the corner called “Fit” where they specialize in menswear and western style business suits.

If you spend a long time choosing “ribbon” (edging), cloth, and patters, the staff boy will run and fetch you sweet cha (chai). The five or six guys working here will always invite you to take a seat (stay a while) which can be necessary since some trips to the tailor can take three hours. The time spent will also depend on how “insistent” you are. The ladies buying sarees usually push their way to the front. You too should show your eagerness.

Bengali New Year

M's Adventures

Wear red and white… see THE tree… join the parade down by Dhaka University… The new year is a time to clear old debts and start fresh! Everyone is merry and enjoys the carnival atmosphere. It was great fun. Truly festive.

The most photographed girl at the parade.

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As a foreigner here in Bangladesh, YOU may become part of the parade. I would guess that I had my photo taken, overtly and covertly, at least 100 times in five hours. I let many people take photos of me… Just as I took many photos of them.

Release Your Inner Clothing Designer

M's Adventures

Custom-made clothes (for about $10). As mentioned before, it’s another great thing about Dhaka. Release the inner fashion designer and design your own clothes!

Fairly sedate designs.

Clothes can also be copied.

Clothing cloned.

New Prints on the Block

M's Adventures

Designing your own tablecloth (or material for any use) is another fun thing to do in Dhaka.

Spray painting design

You pick out the block pattern from giant pattern books, choose the cloth (dyed or untreated), choose the colors and pattern. You can even have your own blocks designed if you want something specific put on the cloth. If you don’t want block printed designs, you can get a spray painted design.

Hand applied paints.

An eight foot long tablecloth costs around 3,000 Taka ($33). Get it while you’re here!

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It Takes One Tailor

M's Adventures
A small shop in New Market.
Only tailor in the field.

Bangladesh is known for its garment industry. There are large factories like Beximco (producer of clothes for H&M, Zara, etc.) but there are also small shops like these one or two man shops… it only takes one tailor to open up the field.

How to Get Tailor Made Clothes in Dhaka

M's Adventures

One of the splendid things about life in Bangladesh is having clothes tailor-made.

Block printed vegetable dye cloth and made in Bangladesh.

You can select every detail of the clothing and they can make it for you (or better yet, give the tailor a sample to copy). Or if you want to be on the cusp of fashion, you can shop from a fashion designer.

Buy the cloth. Let them tell you how much you’ll need. Take the cloth home and wash it to allow for shrinking. Buy decorations, edging, trim which is called “ribbon” here.

Western-style shirt made from popular saree material.

Take to your favorite tailor and have them sew it for it. If you take a sample of something you would like copied or a print out from the computer, the tailors will have an easier time of copying your design. Some can turn it around in a week. Others take four. Keep trying out different tailors or stick to one that you like. It costs (for an expat/foreigner) about 600 Taka ($8) for the tailoring. The cost of the cloth depends on what you buy. For a business style shirt (like at Banana Republic or Ann Taylor) of high grade cotton from India, it would cost around 800 Taka ($10) for the material itself.

So, economically speaking, you can buy cheaper clothes (even here) ready made. But it’s much more fun to design the clothes yourself!

In another posting, I will show more of what expats are wearing here in Dhaka.