International Journal of Textile Science

p-ISSN: 2325-0119    e-ISSN: 2325-0100

2016;  5(6): 145-153

doi:10.5923/j.textile.20160506.04

 

Development of Wedding Costume from Bengal to Bangladesh

Sharmin Shoukat, Md. Ariful Islam

Fashion Design & Technology Department, BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Correspondence to: Sharmin Shoukat, Fashion Design & Technology Department, BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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Copyright © 2016 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Abstract

Wedding costume is a major part of fashion. It is a vital part of a fashion industry. Each costume has its own custom. Wedding costume is the clothing worn by a bride or bridegroom during a wedding ceremony. In Bangladesh, we have a very colorful wedding occasion where we use Saree and Punjabi, which is made of with various attractive and artistic designs. Saree is most beautiful, unique, and traditional dress in sub-continental area also. Generally, fabric, texture, color and style of wedding costume may vary from religion and culture of a particular country. Some people want to stick with the tradition and cultural attire, but new generation want the new and stylish costume, which influenced by other countries or culture. It seems that day by day our culture and tradition changes rapidly. The purposes of the research are to find out the changes of wedding costume throughout 1958-2016 from Bengal to Bangladesh and find out the development of bridal fashion.

Keywords: Wedding costume, Fabrics, Bridal fashion, Saree, Tradition

Cite this paper: Sharmin Shoukat, Md. Ariful Islam, Development of Wedding Costume from Bengal to Bangladesh, International Journal of Textile Science, Vol. 5 No. 6, 2016, pp. 145-153. doi: 10.5923/j.textile.20160506.04.

1. Introduction

The wedding is viewed as very special & it held with great enthusiasm in every country. It is very common custom & ritual also. In Bengal, it is also considered as duty & destiny. It is a civil contract also. British India was divided into the independent states of India and Pakistan was created in 1947; Bengal region was divided along religious lines. The Muslim eastern half of Bengal became the east Bengal (East Pakistan) state of Pakistan and the Hindu western part became the Indian state (West Bengal). Again in 1952 through Language movement & 1971 liberation war we got independent Bangladesh. From 1958-2015, there was a huge change in culture as well as costume also. [1] Though our main wedding costume is Saree & Punjabi/Sherwani (Coat) but it changed day by day like the style line, color, fabrics, design etc. In wedding, a bride wears beautiful & gorgeous Saree as a wedding dress. Saree is the term used actually a draped garment & the groom wear a unique but elegant dress called Sherwani (Coat) with a pagri (Hat). In some culture, bride may choose red, maroon which is the symbol of love. Red is the color that Bengalis affection & flaunt on every special occasion, but with the passage of time it has been changed. Now a day’s every bride wants to look different that’s why they choose a different & uncommon color for Saree. The Bengali bride wears benarosi or Silk with heavy embroidery work and bead decorations in the wedding. It is widely used, common & popular. Our culture is so rich in ethnicity, costume, art, festivals that reflect in our wedding. In Bangladesh, Bengali Muslim weddings have some distinctive religious rituals that can span over several days (3-4 events). If any country wants to keep up and improve competitive place in global fashion markets, the challenge should serve as a enliven call for the fashion industry for forming a new position for any developing country. The bridal costume fashion is the most important part of the cultural fashion industry. The research is a complete record of each period tradition for bridal costume. [2] The dress, fabric, color information, style information and the total bridal fashion is being researched in this research journal. The research is to show a development of bridal costume fashion from Bengal to Bangladesh. In our research, we have seen how people day by day changes their fashion & style.

2. Objectives

1. For the urbanization day by day, our traditional fabric and clothes are changing rapidly. The study will increase awareness about traditional clothes how it protects and increases use of local fabric.
2. The research will help people to understand about Bangladeshi bridal costume & also able to know our past bridal history.
3. The research will make easier to find out the changes of bridal costume, so it’s a new way for bridal costume history.
4. The research establishes the proper background evidence of bridal fashion and it also finds out the development of bridal fashion including color, fabric, and motif.
5. The research give a new dimension in the fashion industry of Bangladesh and this work will introduce new perspective and scope for our upcoming bridal fashion inspiration, young fashion designer, costume designer and costume manufacturer.
6. It will develop a fashion cycle and the research can open a great opportunity for a museum research and we can create an archive on bridal costume history.

3. Limitations

There are some limitations which held in the research process. They are-
1. Most of the families do not want to share their family pictures.
2. Many pictures might have been lost, after our liberation wars
3. The internet has lack information in this regard for secondary sources.
4. We don’t get available data related to our topics.

4. Methodology

The research was designed to collect information directly from individual person of a family about their experience & demand for future. It is very important to our research to collect data from survey. The main methodology of our research is to protect our traditional bridal costume and the art of our hand-loom weaving techniques. The study based on primary and secondary data. Our research focused on the rapid changes of bridal costume in Bangladesh.

4.1. Primary Data

We collected data from survey. We try to talk with people by phoning or personally. We make questionnaire, which was given to the target people and hearing answers from them. For this research, we interviewed different families and Fashion designers and textile designer.

4.2. Secondary Data

To strengthen theoretical background of the research we study different local and international published books and articles, websites, which can represent past and present. Bangladesh Fashion industry now needs to hold the cultural root & survive through the fast development of fashion. Bangladesh’s major sector fashion is recently looking for the ancient fashion, motive, trend which is the most inspirational popular fashion in Bangladesh. This will be only possible when we can create a chronological development of costume & fashion. The reason represents the bridal costume, which is a major part of costume. This work will introduce new perspective and scope for our upcoming bridal fashion inspiration, young fashion designer, costume designer and costume manufacturer.
This research will serve the purpose of stick tradition & culture as well as develop a new horizon of fashion sense. The questionnaire is developed for different type of people to make sure fulfillment to face the history & future challenge in fashion industry. The questionnaire is available in English. However, all results are kept anonymous when presented. Afterwards the result are analyzed and discussed in details as a research report. The research is organized in such a way, which will enable the reader to grasp the subject matter of the study from top to bottom. It also provides the image of bridal costume on different period & find out the change of fashion through period.
The research was designed to confine the current status of the bridal fashion, trends, earlier style. Interviewed person shared their perspectives on current & past trends and practices.
The research consisted of three major methodological components:
(1) A literature review of information about bridal costume fashion in Bengal to Bangladesh.
(2) A survey of the people of different age & gender of Bangladesh.
(3) Consultation with fashion designer & textile designer in the field.
The literature review part was designed to collect information about bridal fashion such as color, fabric, motif, trends and style. The purpose was to find the current state of what was available to the present and find the changes through year. The types of assessments used to measure peoples past of bridal fashion and what they feel is needed to improve the design sector for bridal costume.
4.2.1. Wedding Picture of 1958
In 1958 wedding picture shows us the traditional costume of wedding in East Pakistan. In that time, marriage was held in bride or groom’s house. Bride looks beautiful with red Silk Saree, golden selvedge, medium pan pata (betel leaf) golden zari (metallic thread) motif and light ornaments. Groom wear semi long white cotton Sherwani (Coat) (coat) with loose Pajama (Pant) and Pagri (Hat). The groom keeps a handkerchief as a sample of shyness.
Figure 1. Wedding picture of 1958
4.2.2. Wedding Picture of 1965
In 1965, we see that brides wear Benaroshi (Silk) Saree with small dot motif. The Saree contains medium golden selvedge. The groom wear white cotton Sherwani (Coat) with narrow fitted Pajama (Pant) & white turban like Pagri (Hat). He looks beautiful with flower garland.
Figure 2. Wedding picture of 1965
4.2.3. Wedding Picture of 1971
This marriage ceremony held after liberation war at independent Bangladesh in 1971. Bride wears red Silk Saree with zari garland & beautiful ornaments with traditional look. The groom wears fitted Sherwani (Coat) with medium fitted Pajama (Pant). He looks full traditional with zarir mala (garland) & zarir Pagri (Hat).
Figure 3. Wedding picture of 1971
4.2.4. Wedding Picture of 1975
This marriage ceremony held in 1975. Bride wears red Saree with polka dot all over, zari garland & beautiful ornaments with traditional make-up. This is the period when brides started wears veil. This time the fabric of Saree became weighty. For this reason it’s hard to cover up the brides head with Saree. The bride use tissue fabric veil with zari border.
Figure 4. Wedding picture of 1975
4.2.5. Wedding Picture of 1981
In 1981 Bride wears red Silk Saree with zari garland & beautiful ornaments with traditional look. This Saree contain repeated floral motive all over the body and wider designed selvedge. The groom wears white loose fitted Panjabi (coat) & zarir Pagri (Hat). The interesting thing is, the bride’s and groom’s zari garland color are different. This garland also changed with each other and this called “malabodol”.
Figure 5. Wedding picture of 1981
4.2.6. Wedding Picture of 1985
This marriage ceremony held at 1985. Bride wears maroon katan (Silk) Saree with all over small floral motif & beautiful ornaments with traditional look. The Saree has significant wider golden selvedge. The bride use beautiful veil made of tissue fabric.
Figure 6. Wedding picture of 1985
4.2.7. Wedding Picture of 1987
This marriage ceremony held in 1987. Bride wears red katan (Silk) plain Saree with narrow selvedge zari garland and beautiful ornaments with traditional look. The tissue fabric veil used by bride is so bright with red & golden color and sequence work. The groom wear fitted Sherwani (Coat). He looks traditional with zarir mala (garland) & zarir Pagri (Hat).
Figure 7. Wedding picture of 1987
4.2.8. Wedding Picture of 1993
This is an event of Christian marriage in 1993 of Bangladesh. Their cast is Roman Catholic. From this picture we see that the bride wears white Saree with red & golden color wide selvedge. She looks beautiful flower crown, flower garland & simple veil. The groom wears white fitted suit with wide lapel collar & bell bottom pant. He decorated himself nicely with a flower garland.
Figure 8. Wedding picture of 1993
4.2.9. Wedding Picture of 1997
This marriage ceremony was held in 1997. Bride wear red katan (Silk) Saree with a very little repeated motif with all over the body section & contrast achal (front section) colored with green & golden. The bride looks beautiful with simple red color veil with golden selvedge, flower garland & beautiful ornaments with traditional look. The groom wears white Sherwani (Coat) with fitted Pajama (Pant) and sequence designed Pagri (Hat) with flower garland.
Figure 9. Wedding picture of 1997
4.2.10. Wedding Picture of 1999
This marriage ceremony was held in 1997. Bride wears red georgette Saree with a very bold sequence design & the red veil also embellished with golden zari. In this time the fabric of Saree is changed. This change happen for cable TV connection & influencing by India and Pakistani’s culture from serial & cinema. The groom wears golden color Panjabi (coat) and same color fitted Pajama (Pant) with embroidered red dupatta (veil) like Indian groom. Both bride & groom wears beautiful zari garland.
Figure 10. Wedding picture of 1999
4.2.11. Wedding Picture of 2002
This marriage ceremony was held in 2002. Bride wear majenta color Saree with all over design & the same color net veil also embellished with beautiful floral design. The bride looks beautiful with flower and nice ornaments. The groom wears white shirt, black coat and pant with red tie. This type of fashion may be influenced by western culture.
Figure 11. Wedding picture of 2002
4.2.12. Wedding Picture of 2013 (Hindu Wedding)
This is an event of Hindu wedding of 2013 in Bangladesh. Bride wears red katan (Silk) Saree with a zardousy design & the red tissue veil also embellished with golden sequence work. The bride looks pretty with trendy make-up by Indian inspiration. The groom wears off-white Panjabi (coat) and same color fitted Pajama (Pant) with embroidery. Both bride & groom wear beautiful garland and topor (headdress) as followed by Hindu culture.
Figure 12. Wedding picture of 2013 (Hindu wedding)
4.2.13. Wedding Picture of 2014
This marriage ceremony was held in 2014. Bride wear red georgette Saree with a cut work design & the red veil also embellished with golden and green zari. The bride decorates herself with trendy make-up and ornaments. The groom wears off-white Sherwani (Coat) with embroidery work and nice colored pagri (Hat).
Figure 13. Wedding picture of 2014
4.2.14. Wedding Picture of 2015
This marriage ceremony was also held in 2015. The bride wears golden tissue lehenga with a sequence work design. The red color par selvedge & the golden veil also embellished with golden zari thread sequence work. The bride decorates herself with trendy simple make-up and ornaments. The groom wear off-white embroidered Panjabi with narrow churidar (pant gathered at ankle) and red chundri (tie dye) dupatta (veil).
Figure 14. Wedding picture of 2015
4.2.15. Wedding Picture of 2016
This marriage ceremony was also held in 2016. Bride wears off-white georgette gown with blue embroidery work. The bride decorates herself by nice veil with same color and design. She looks totally different. The groom wears check fabric suit with nice shirt. The style of both bride and groom wear are different.
Figure 15. Wedding picture of 2016

5. The Questionnaire

The survey was valuable to the study in a number of ways, such as conservation about past and present fashion of wedding. Future requirements for their demand, bridal costume, fabric, color, style, the cause of changing, and the effect of it in our country, this important question has been presented to different families. They give us different types of comments. But some questions answers are same like the bridal wear is Saree & Panjabi/Sherwani (Coat) to all most 98% people. The color is varied through the year. We see that color vary from red to maroon or majenta. But all are the shed of red. In the term of fabric it may vary from Silk to katan (Silk) or Benaroshi. They also questioned about the change of fashion in wedding, if it is good or bad, or if it should protect or accept. Most of the people say that they accept this development of bridal fashion.

6. The Consultants

The questionnaire has the quality of including most relevant overall topics related to the development of bridal fashion. Their perspective to the sudden change of bridal wear, the silhouette, the influencing factor has also questioned. The consultants and the expert provide information about past and give their assessment about what is used in present and what will be the expectation or demand for future.

7. Result & Discussion

In this research, we found a lot of changes. Here we see that, from 1958 to 1971 the fabric, motifs and colors are not that much changed. We try to collect different types of motif and fabric texture and design. Here we are showing the real wedding pictures of those times. We can easily make the difference between the wedding costumes.
Table 1. From 1958-1985
From 1958 to 1985 in every three or four years, we found few changes of Saree motif, some of the motifs were smaller, medium and sometimes bigger and also the salvage or par was wider or narrow. Basically, the motif was floral and geometric shape. Very known Benaroshi Saree with kolka, pan, dot and zari motif work are not changed. Because this entire motif is the reflection of Bangladeshi folk art.
Table 2. From 1987-1999
But after liberation 1971 to 1990, we found more changes. Some wedding pictures we found the Saree had not designed with motifs, means body sections are solid only salvage and the achal (front section) are very bold design with same motif repetition. And also, sometime we found a very simple design with off white color (Body section) and hot red color selvedge.
From 1990 to 1999 we found different types of changes like, Sarees are found various colors which are not seen before. People are demanding different color combination. In this time communication, media, internets are spreading very fast. [3] More than 50 to 60 percent people have cable connections at that time. People are watching different types of programs, movies, TV serials not only national but also international.
Table 3. From 2002-2016
But after 2002 to 2016 it looks like a dramatic change is happens. The silhouette is changed suddenly. In past a wedding costume is Saree but now it is a gown or lehenga. At a glance total view of wedding is changed. Now a days Lehenga & gown is a favorite bridal wear but it is not actually originally Bangladeshi culture but it is accepted by Bangladeshi people. It actually came from India, Pakistan. The wedding fashion changed day by day rapidly. New generations always want something new. Although this comes from another culture, our designers made fusion by designed with traditional arts, motives & culture. Katan (Silk) Sarees have a Silky base with gold or silver zari work all over the Saree. Brides often wear heavy gold ornaments like necklaces, earrings, jewelry, bangles with a nice & colorful veil.
Silk is always the first choice for a wedding wear, though Georgette and crape are becoming popular now-a-days. Bangladeshi brides prefer lighter saris to heavier ones. In this view Georgette, tissue fulfills their expectation.
In Bangladesh Bridegroom, wedding wear is Kurta-Pajama (Pant) or traditional Bangladeshi Sherwani (Coat). In Hindu culture Dhuti-Panjabi or Sherwani (Coat). The bridegroom in both cultures wears a common hat known pagri. [4]
Here we see that, the changes of grooms costume fashion is changing slowly comparatively brides costume fashion in wedding.
In wedding bride and groom wear the wedding dress & the guests who come to the wedding also worn special party dresses. They want to look beautiful in wedding of some beloved one. Saree, salwar-kameez, skirt, lehenga, gown for females and shirt, pant, coat, Panjabi for males are the common view for wedding look. [5, 6]

8. Cause of Changing the Fashion

There are many reasons for changing the wedding fashion. Economical change, Media, information, technology, urbanization also found for the reason by peoples thought. Western culture is highly spreading in our country now-a-days. The young generations are interested into western culture. Highly aristocratic families are also very much influenced by western fashion. In Bangladesh, technology of multi channels TV began & satellite broadcasting also starting with 'lots of channels to viewers'. English movie, song, Serial has a large impact not only in rural but also in urban. Now we are more acceptable and open-minded for the change. Globalization has broken all the borders & conservativeness. For this reason, the new generation of Bangladesh is more challenging, knowledgeable, more aware and more interested in fashion. [7, 8]

9. Conclusions

For this modernization, both positive & negative impact is happening in our country. When we ask people about their wedding costume most of them told about Saree & Panjabi/Sherwani (Coat) but young people are interested in the western look. They also want different color, motif & silhouette. Old generation doesn’t like fusion or changing cultural root. Even they also want to prevent it. Their perception is India, Pakistan & western country is the curse to our culture & it out-rooted our tradition. As a result wedding fashion of our country has been westernized. According to a textile designer, our textile industry must have been protecting. Because machine loom & Indian Saree took the market of hand-loom Saree as a result wedding fashion has been changed rapidly. The customer wants Benaroshi with different color, motive, cheap rate which is a replica of serial or movies. According to fashion designers, they want to create fusion but with our textile, motive. They say that changes are always good for development but with the hand of tradition. They don’t want to agree that western culture is bad. They think it is good for knowing another country, culture & what are happening all over the world. Actually, what is good or what is bad it depends on people’s perception. We want to be globalized but don’t want to lose our culture. The research, focus about the changes of wedding costume of a certain period of Bangladesh. It seems that now-a-days most of the people want to try different look, various fashion & trend. But as a result we may have lost our identity of culture, tradition & fashion. It’s good to modernize about fashion but still we have to stick our past glorious period of tradition. In these circumstance Government, weaver, designer & customer can roll a great importance. A country without its past can’t develop. Every country holds its own culture for empowerment & pride. [9-11]

Appendix

Saree: Saree is a female garment that consists of a drape varying from five to nine yards that is wrapped around the waist, with one end draped over the shoulder, used in Asian country.
Sherwani: Sherwani is a long coat-like garment worn in the Indian-subcontinent which is very similar to a British coat or frock-coat
Pagri: Pagri is the term used in the Indian-subcontinent. It specifically refers to a headdress that is worn by men and needs to be manually tied.
Benaroshi: A benaroshi saree is made from, a city which is also called Benares or Banaras. This is the finest sarees in India and is famous for their gold and silver brocade or zari work with fine silk.
Silk: Silk is thread or fabric made from the fiber produced by the silkworm.
Zari: Zari is a type of gold thread used decoratively on Indian clothing.
Salwar-kameez: Salwar-kameez is a traditional costume originating in South Asia
Lehenga: Lehenga is an Indian subcontinent skirt which is long, embroidered and pleated.
Dhuti: Dhuti is a long loincloth worn by men in India-subcontinent.
Katan: Katan is a plain woven fabric made of pure silk threads.
Majenta: Majenta is ofen describe as purplish-red or reddish-purple.
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR DIFFERENT FAMILIES OF DIFFERENT AGE & GENDER
1. What is the dress do you wear in your wedding?
2. What was it color, motive?
3. What do you think today’s wedding dress continue our culture from the past time?
4. If traditional wedding costume is changing, why this change happened?
5. What do you think is it good or bad for our culture?
6. What should we do now-prevent or accept?
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR FASHION DESIGNER & TEXTILE DESIGNER
1. What do you think why the fashion of wedding dress has been changed?
2. What do you think which country’s fashion or culture influence us more?
3. How do you accept this?
4. In recent years some fusion we have seen, what do you think, is it positive or negative for our tradition?
5. Is textile, color, motive changed in wedding dress from past to till now, if so, then why?
6. What do you think about this change?
7. Do you have any plan to do change wedding costume fabric according to the past?

References

[1]  M. Rafique Afzal, Pakistan: History & Politics 1947-1971, Oxford University Press, Books google.com, (2007).
[2]  Helen Bradley Foster, Wedding dress across culture (Dress, Body, Culture), Berg Publishers, (2003).
[3]  Md. Abdullah Al Helal, Toward the impacts of Indian drama serials on Bangladesh family system: an overview of people’s perception, Journal of social sciences and Humanities e-BANGI, 2013.
[4]  JG Kim, SS Kim, A study on wedding costume of Korean nationality in yanbian china’, The Costume Culture Association, (1993).
[5]  S Yasmin, Impact of changing bridal selection criteria on women’s empowerment in Bangladesh, dspace.bracu.ac.bd, (2013).
[6]  Shaila Akter, Impact of Western Culture in Bangladesh’, www.academia.edu, (2007).
[7]  Ravneet kaur, Trend in Bangladeshi Wedding Bridal Wear’, http://sensiblematch.com/blog, (2011).
[8]  Yasmin, Shegufta, Impact of changing bridal selection criteria on women’s empowerment in Bangladesh’, URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10361/3039, (2013).
[9]  Joabyedahamed, Bangladeshi Wedding Wear. bdTips.com, http://www.bdtips.com/read/?article=bangladeshi-wedding-wear.
[10]  Riddhi Patel. Getting Married in Bangladesh, M&J Bridal Salon, https://bridalblog.mjtrim.com/2015/03/10/getting-married-in-bangladesh/.
[11]  Traditional Dress of Bangladesh: So awesome in its nature & kind. The Lovely Planet. http://www.thelovelyplanet.net/traditional-dress-of-bangladesh-so-awesome-in-its-nature-and-kind/.