Style Files

Sleeves in action

This season sleeves are the new erogenous zone for fashion. The hottest action is anywhere between your shoulder blades and the wrist. So what are you waiting for? Blow them up, add ruffles, create volume, tuck up with brass buttons or little knots. Sleeves are getting attention like never before! Here are some shapes that are simply trend setting right now:

Puffs
Designers across the world are getting worked up with volume. You can definitely invest in this trend with a white or light hued shirt. They simply look great in fluid fabrics like tulle or chiffon especially with peasant sleeves. Another silhouette that looks feminine is the short puff sleeve that a Bengali belle flaunts so well. The shirts look soft and delicate in style.

Delicate cuttings
White is the colour of the season and looks best in delicate cutwork, frills and laces. Use them to hem or add an edge to your sleeves. These look better on muslin or organza. Fine crocheted lace in all widths is available in local markets. Use them to create a romantic Edwardian elegance.

Fluid harmony
Softness is in and so are easy flowing sleeves. You can choose from petal sleeves which have two flaps one over the other, much like a wrap around skirt; the bell sleeves in a half arm or three-quarter length for greater volume; or the kimono sleeve which is straight and squared for an adventurous formal oriental look.

Manly cuffs
The cuff is where the action is this season. Double or single, narrow or wide, cuffs are getting dressed with laces, boxed or inverted pleats, rich thread embroidery, silver buttons, etc. Cuffs are looking very chic this season. Make the styles effortless and casual. Roll back your sleeves. Keep it trendy by wearing sleeves just over your wrist or below your elbow.

Hide body imperfections:
Jelly arms
Camouflage them stylishly by wearing batwing sleeves.

Heavy bosom
Avoid any puff or volume in your sleeves. It will be too top heavy. Try to stick to fitted sleeves.

Pear shaped or bottom heavy
Add volume to your shoulders by sporting petal, bell, or dolman sleeves cut right from the neck point. This will balance your silhouette. This way you can bring out your best profile.

Heavy arms
Camouflage with tapered sleeves running just below your elbow. Slits can run on the side to keep your sleeves looking narrow on the hem line.

Sleeves are an integral part of style. You can very easily dress them up or down. It finally rests on individual tastes. I recommend you stick to shapes that fit you best or that stick to your comfort zone.

What is a cheque? How many kinds of cheques are there?
A cheque is an instrument that depicts payment instruction by the customer to the bank. In other words, through a cheque, a bank makes a payment to the beneficiary if the apparent tenor of the cheque is okay.

Cheques are primarily of two kinds, 'bearer' and 'order'. A bearer cheque is a cheque that can be paid to the payee or the bearer of the cheque. The payee/beneficiary can allow payment made to a bearer. The right to the cheque is freely transferable from one person to another.

An order cheque is payable to the payee or to his order. This means the customer wants the bank to make a payment to the named payee or to the order of the payee. The payee will write his intention with a signature (endorsement) on the back of the cheque. The bank will pay on identification and regular endorsement to ensure that the true holder has received the payment. This mode of payment therefore, is safe and secure.

What is the benefit of payment in a cheque?
Any kind of payment if made through a cheque instead of handing over cash is secure and ensures payment to the party intended. It also restricts circulation of cash that in turn reduces pressure in handling cash for any monetary transaction.

Why should one issue an order cheque and not a bearer cheque?
An order cheque restricts the payment made to a particular beneficiary. For that reason the chances of any fraudulent attempt on an order cheque is less likely. An order cheque also gives the comfort to the issuer that payment has been made to the intended beneficiary.

Is a crossed/order cheque payable over the counter?
Banks will not allow payment of a crossed/order cheque over the counter for the mere reason that the order cheque is only payable to the beneficiary /payee mentioned by the issuer. Therefore the ways for payment of an order cheque is through internal transfer or clearing.

Which cheque is payable by the bank?
Under normal circumstances, if the tenor of the cheque is not ambiguous, the cheque is not post-dated or out of date, amounts in words and figures do not mismatch, alternations are authenticated by the account holder (drawer) and the drawer's signature agrees with the recorded signature with the bank and funds are available in the account, the cheque will be paid.

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Under A Different Sky

By Iffat Nawaz

Rethinking our routes

I arrived yesterday. It was hot and humid and I could smell the sea with a plane full of Germans, Brits and Turks and a token me. A few Turks covered in hijab and a few more liberal than Paris Hilton in Paris. It took long, a stretch of eight hours of flying and another two to complete the whole way. And I arrived, without a visa, but with a 20 dollar bill ready in hand with my passport I stood in line with other tourists to get a stamp of approval that I was legal here for the next 90 days (only if I could stay that long). I looked up to see the different rates according to the country you are coming from that you have to pay to obtain a visa. And Bangladesh was not up there; neither was India, or any other countries that we claim to be part of the “subcontinent”. Do South Asians not visit here, I wondered. Before the end of that thought I reached the end of the line. The man took both, my passport and the $20, and with a smile greeted me, “Merhaba, welcome to Turkey.”

Like a pretentious fool, before hopping on the plane from DC, I picked up a book called “Istanbul” by Orhan Pamuk, a man with a Nobel Prize in literature. It wasn't really my fault. That really was the first book my eyes set upon when I walked into the book store at the airport. And I held on to it for the next 15 minutes trying to decide which book I should buy while I head over to Istanbul. “Istanbul” competed against a few others, and won. So I tried to let go of how obvious I was seeming and I started reading “Istanbul” and within the first few pages I found out the author and I shared the same birthday, except he is 26 years older than me, and for some reason (well because sometimes the superstitious, searching, confused part me still looks for signs behind things that might just be a coincidence) I was convinced, this book and this trip will have a greater meaning to me than I imagined them to have.

When I got on the taxi to head over to the hotel, I couldn't help but compare Dhaka and Istanbul. The road really looked so much like our airport road from Uttara leading into the city. But then again, I can't ever help myself from stopping and comparing Bangladesh with any place I visit, from the dark corners of DC to the bus stations of Russia. So I told myself maybe this time, I won't compare as much as I will try to learn. So far I have not been successful. Dhaka keeps coming back to me, through the history of Istanbul and the history of the people and the narrow roads with broad smiles.

I had a high profile dinner last night. I am going to go ahead and sound more pretentious this time, perhaps intentionally. There is a point, no seriously there really is. It was a dinner with a few congressmen from USA and their wives- a US delegation currently visiting Turkey to work on some international relation, government affairs issues. I sat in front of a congress man's wife- a high maintenance lady with still a bit of southern sweetness, and they spoke, all of us, around me, in front of me, about Turkish Rugs, the Prime Minister, horses that race and horses that don't, Turkish tea, a good piece of meat, cancer and diabetes. And I realised strangely all of this hubbub that we all carry around, around the world, around the country, around the house, the talk of international relations, and government and war, in the end, are only us trying to figure each other out. It's about human relations and complexities. Maybe I was jet lagged. I surely was, and I couldn't tell where I was when I looked out of the restaurant towards all the green, Dhaka? DC? Istanbul?

I am sitting in front of the Bosphorus now, finishing up this below average column, but I will still keep writing, because today will be better than yesterday, I promise. Although, if you asked me yesterday, yesterday was still the best and I want to write, more…from this city by the sea that defines me, for now…just for a bit…