By: ANSAR AHMED ULLAH
A campaign called “Bangalir Biyete Bangladeshi Poshak” to encourage wedding wear from Bangladesh was announced at a press conference held on 13 December at the London Bangla Press Club. Campaigner, and cultural activist Cllr Syeda Choudhury of SyedaC, said, “I am here to share with my Bangladeshi community living in Britain a very important issue which I think generally touches every one of us at some point in our life. That is Weddings!”
Syeda Choudhury informed the press conference that Bengali weddings are getting bigger, and the number of weddings taking place is far greater than ever before due to the growth of the Bangladeshi population in the UK. The budget for a wedding has become a considerable expenditure. She stated that a wedding currently costs around 40k to 50k on average. Of that, a substantial amount of money, like about 20% to 25%, goes towards purchasing wedding attires for the Bride, Groom & families matching outfits, including Gaye holud and reception wear.
However, while the Bangladeshi community spends 20% to 25% of their wedding budget on clothing, that budget is spent on products from other countries, not Bangladesh.
Amongst many other fabrics, Bangladesh is well known for producing Muga silk, Tasser silk, Eri silk and Mulberry silk. In addition, Bangladesh has Dhakai Jamdani and Muslin and Mirpuri Katan/Banarasi. These fabrics are perfect for creating high-quality wedding wear. These fabrics are seen as sustainable fashion and not fast fashion.
Sayeda Choudhury said her future plans include organising Bangladeshi exclusive wedding dress exhibitions in the UK, seminars with fashion designers, exhibitions with wedding service business coordinators and regular conferences on investment in Bangladeshi wedding dresses.
Introduced by Taysir Mahmud, General Secretary, LBPC, former president of the British Bangladeshi Teachers Association, Mostafa Kamal Milon read the written statement at the press conference. Others who spoke at the event were Bengali Wedding Fair Managing Director Ahad Ahmed, Ariana Banqueting Hall Managing Director Thofail Ahmed, senior journalist Syed Nahas Pasha and British Bangladeshi entrepreneur Atiq Chowdhury and Pride of Asia Managing Director Wazed Hasan Salim.