Sartorial trends in men's wear

Lately new trends in men's attire seem to be in evidence in the city. Normally in our country, there are no distinctive features in dress, formal or informal, for our males. In a country where the climate is hot and humid for most of the year, the general preference is for a dress that is light and loose, allowing ventilation of air in the body. This requirement is fully met in the present trends in male attire. The notable thing is that these trends are getting highly popular in the field of casual wear. This relates to the males' steady preference for punjabi (kurta) and pajama in the summer.

Gone are the days when men used to wear sherwani and chost pajama for formal occasions with, of course, some exceptions. Now their place appears to have been taken by the knee-length kurta during religious festivals particularly. This new trend is noticeable almost everywhere.

Indication of the present popularity of kurta is available in almost all city shops dealing in ready-made garments for males. When a big religious festival arrives, the buying spree for this item of dress is set in motion. Lately there is such a big variety of designs on the shoulder and front portion of the dress that making a selection for purchase is not an easy thing. Lately a number of fashion houses have come up displaying attractive varieties of this wear. They are made from various kinds of dress materials: cotton, silk, grameen check with embroidery work of eye-catching designs. They carry price tags ranging from a hundred taka to several thousand taka. Punjabis with special designs were lately seen in the market. Such newly designed punjabis are known as Pathan punjabi, Nawabi punjabi, Zamindar punjabi. There is a variant of this dress known as Peshwari or Kabuli suit with loose flowing shirt reaching down below the knee and loose shalwar. Although this dress is sometimes worn for formal occasions, it doesn't enjoy much popularity because it is more expensive than the embroidered kurta.

The over-all impact of this dress with elaborate embroidery work is that it is now elevated almost to the status of a formal dress. We find evidence of this in gatherings where Western dress is taboo. For some religious functions particularly, this dress enjoys predominant preference.

It is a pleasant development that this new trends in casual wear offer vast scope for colourful designs and styles, free from the straight jacket of convention within affordable financial limits for most of the male consumers.

The kurta for the males, however, stands behind in comparison with the so-called three-piece for the females, which is more variegated and gorgeous in colour and design and more expensive. This kind of female dress is also getting very popular because of its greater functional facility.

The main shopping centres for the male punjabi and pajama are located among other places, at Bangabazaar and on Mirpur-New Elephant Road junction and the shopping complex opposite Dhaka College.

A change has come over in the wedding dress for the males. Previously for such occasions, sherwani and chost pajama used to be worn by the groom. Nowadays 'prince coat' is more in fashion, because this can be worn for formal occasions in subsequent period, as against sherwani, which after use on the wedding day, is rarely made use of subsequently.

A status symbol implication is involved in the use of suit and tie for the males, though these are not suitable to our hot and humid climate. Yet in order to maintain formal decorum in dress, bankers, bureaucrats and multi-national company executives wear suit and tie. The younger generation, however, prefer casual wear in the form of jeans trousers and sports shirts. The brand names of such clothes fascinate them nonetheless. The fascination with brand names goes to such an extent that unscrupulous businessmen cash in on almost exact replicas of the imported clothes and their labels and sell them as originals with a big margin of profit. The original brand items face stiff competition from designer items. Leve's and Wrangler jeans are generally in great demand. But anyone with an eye for fashion and a wish to establish sartorial superiority buys designer jeans at exorbitant prices.

The sartorial changes, as noted above, are the result of the fast changing outlook in a developing society and help in the burgeoning consumer market. Their economic implications seem, on the whole, to be favourable in the free market economy.