Day Fourteen: Holiday Dresses (26 June)
on From Banglatown to Bangladesh (Bangladesh), 14/Jul/2010 03:34, 34 days ago
I have a holiday coming, only weeks away. Which means I am now officially allowed to get excited. And, as I will be going to a country slightly more liberal in its dress sense than my current one, I have an excuse to visit the tailors.These tailors are different from the Marma tailors. Up narrow steps, off one of the town’s main market streets, its Bengali men and women sit behind several neatly spaced sewing machines, stitching shirts and salwar kameez, with finished products hanging proudly on display. The boss is clearly identifiable: dealing with customers, measuring tape around his neck, and observing the movements of his staff.A week ago I walked up the stairs, clutching my rough, out-of-proportion drawings of what I wanted, scribbled on pieces of paper torn from school-style exercise books. I carried old salwar kameez too (whose colours and patterns I still love, even if the cut was never quite right), with the hope of their transformation from baggy shapes into something holiday-worthy.The first visit was in the afternoon: the boss was away, and my convoluted communication of what I wanted was all a little too confusing for the staff there. The second visit was that evening, and the boss man was present. On this visit, I spent time discussing with one of the tailors, identified as the one right for dealing with strange bideshi requests. In broken Bangla I explained my drawings, showed the salwar, and offered a sample dress for size and cut. Eventually we reached a conclusion, and I left, wondering how exactly the dress would turn out.So, today I went again, on my fourth visit. I was told on my third visit that they had‘forgotten’ about the dress, and I should return in a few days. And today, I collected the completed dress, which looked impressively like the vague image I had stored in my head. After paying a bargain price of one hundred Taka (one pound) for the privilege, I took the dress home, tried it on, and discovered that, amazingly considering the nature of my drawings and communication, it both fit and was what I wanted.But despite my happiness at my newly-made holiday dress, that’s not actually the point of today’s positive. Instead, it’s being here, in an environment which allows anyone to discover their inner fashion designer. And it’s the fact that the environment extends to someone as creatively-challenged as me that is the real positive.