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BRANDS

Local clothes are cool

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
In Westecs’ gleaming new store in Gulshan, sharply dressed sales assistants circle the displays of shirts and suits, dresses and handbags, waiting to catch the eye of browsing customers.
It is the Bangladeshi group's seventeenth store and its twelfth in the capital, and prices match the store’s prestigious location in the heart of the city's most exclusive shopping district, with Westecs' own range of autograph shirts retailing for aroundTk2,500 (USD35).
“People are willing to pay for quality,” comments the eager shop assistant, "we wouldn't have such items in the shop ifthey didn’t sell.”
On Gulshan Avenue Westecs is not the only Bangladeshi clothing brand doing business. Opposite the Ecstasy store is having a sale, a few hundred meters up a new
Cats Eye outlet is preparing to open, while in the Avenue's Pink City shopping mall Beximco's Yellow has been in operation for more than a year.
A generation brought up on the allure on foreign brands, such as Levis, Nike or Gap now thinks it is chic to wear local brands, and moreover they are prepared to pay for them.
For the country's garment industry it is a new opportunity. Developed to serve foreign buyers, manufactures are beginning to realize that there is a rapidly emerging market on their own doorstep that can be just as profitable.
“Middle-class people and the young generation are the target groups of most of the manufacturers of local brands," said Soumit Ranjan Mazumder Sales and Operation manager of Cats Eye.
Cats Eye has been designing and manufacturing in
Bangladesh for the last 27 years, but the market has really taken off recently. Its new outlet in Gulshan will be its thirty-first in the country.
Potentially the market is huge as economic growth has not only put more money in people's pockets but also changed the way they dress, according to Soumit.
The group has even started developing sub brands in order to appeal to different segments of the market. For example its Monsoon Rain label is aimed at executives, while its UNLIMITED brand is targeted at young and 'ultra modern' buyers.
In the Cats Eye store in Elephant Road, Dhaka University student Wahedul Alam is typical of the customers who are pushing the group's growth. “I come to these kind of stores as do many of my fellow students as the brand items are better than you find in normal shops.”
Another brand aimed at youth is Ecstasy that has 10 stores and is to open its largest branch, a 4,000 square feet unit in Dhaka's Elephant Road, next month. Officials said that the knowledge of the local market made it easier to spot trends and produce clothes in line with young people's tastes.
And there are many more, Fit Elegance the suit maker, with showrooms in Dhaka and Chittagong, or the Dhaka based up market fashion group Yellow. All have their immediate focus on the local market.
Shahroom Ali Sikder branch manager of Fit Elegance in Dhaka said: “Previously people thought only the elite class could wear suit blazers and such items had to be imported. This kind of mentality has been changing and the local market is growing up."
His experiences were echoed by Bharat Pratap Singh,
Manager of the Design Studio of the Beximco Group that owns Yellow. "It will take time to develop brands in a country like Bangladesh. But it is happening gradually," he said.
'Yellow' stands for the young, Singh said, adding that his design house also designs and manufactures the 'Gypsy Skirt' and ' Carrot Jeans’ brands that are both available in the local market.
And in an industry once known simply as a “cut and paste” manufacturer for for-eign buyers the new Bangladeshi retailers do not lack ambition. Both Yellow and Cats Eye are now considering exporting their designs and brands and setting up stores abroad. Indeed Fit Elegance is already exporting its own range of suits, blazers and trousers to the UK.
Cats Eye's Soumit Ranjan Mazumder said; “We often get enquiries from foreign buyers but we simply cannot deal
with their orders at the moment as local demand is so high.”
Back in Bangladesh however there are still battles to be fought. Chinese imports flood the market from time to time, and the tradition of looking for international brands at knock down prices is not going to disappear overnight.
In Westecs' new Gulshan store, the smart sales assistants are well aware of the challenge. As well as the exclusive men's wear and a chic range of Bangla-Western fusion women's wear, there are international brands such as Dockers at Tk850 a pair and slightly misprinted hummel t-shirts atTkl95.
"If you don't want to pay for one of our autograph shirts, you can always get an unbranded shirt for Tk450 at the back of the shop, ” the assistant kindly suggests.
reefat@thedailystar.net