Pageant News Bureau - Bangladesh

By Prabir Barua
Special to PNB

CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH -- Though fashion shows and beauty pageants are not very common in Bangladesh, particularly in Chittagong, some shows do really make spectators fascinated. The evening of 9 Sept. 2001 possessed one of them at the Institution of Engineers.

Creat Advertising of Chittagong arranged a fashion and music evening on that day. A number of male and female models displayed such designs as the saree, the punjabi, the salwar-kamiz, the blazer, the sherwani, the lehenga, the summer dress and the nakshi kantha. The saree (often spelled "sari") is the most common dress of Bengali women in Bangladesh and India. Sarees of various designs were displayed in three queues by attractive female models.

Salwar-kamiz

A model in a salwar-kamiz

A model in a summer dress

Specially designed punjabis are worn by Bengali men on special occasions, but they are also sometimes worn as usual dress. The salwar-kamiz is for young girls, though some married women prefer it as a way to look young. Lehenga is another dress like the salwar-kamiz. Sherwani is worn by Muslim bridegrooms during marriage ceremonies.

A model in a saree

Nakshi kantha is not a dress at all. It is an artistically decorated blanket. It was displayed in the fashion show by some male models.

There were 10 queues in total, and the dresses were designed by Julekha Khan of Eridanus Boutique, Kamrun Ahmed Nilu of Kaanchi Boutique and Shimul Khaled of Charu Chattagram.

Models in summer dresses

The other dress sponsors were Nishu, Collection and Lovely Tailors.

The fashion show was choreographed by Raju and Titan. A musical program by the band Soft Touch followed. Graphics designers of this program were Pranab Das Gupta, Sajedur Reza Sohel and Raju. Web designer Subrata Chakraborty made a link of this show possible on the Web site www.cybercafectg.com.

It was a wonderful evening in Bangladesh.

Show time in Chittagong