Hand-painted dresses are becoming popular

Hand-painted dresses are becoming increasingly popular in urban areas, especially the capital city Dhaka, because of their eye-catching designs and affordable prices.  

As the hand-painted clothes are edgy, fun, and different from the traditional clothes, many entrepreneurs with small capital are now doing brisk business just selling their painted dresses.

Saima Komor Gunjan, a psychotherapist at Nasirullah Psychotherapy Unit of the Department of Clinical Psychology at Dhaka University used to wear sarees very often to attend numerous formal meetings as well as seminars round the year.

She also claimed to have more than 100 sarees on various varieties such as Silk, Georgette, Jamdani, Karchupi etc in her possession.

But, nowadays, she has become fond of only hand-painted sarees on cotton, moslin, khadi and half silk clothes,  among all her sarees.

“It is too light and comfortable to wear all day long,” said Gunjan while talking to The Business Post.

As part of her bid to do experience on different hand-painted designs, Gunjan had bought her first hand-painted saree around four months ago. Soon after wearing that saree, she has become so fond of it that she loves to purchase new sarees every month.

Like the students of Fine Arts at Dhaka University, attire designers also paint on clothes applying their creativity on designing and taking into account the latest fashion trends, said artisans.

While talking to The Business Post, Nasima Akter Nisha, president of Women and E-Commerce said, “There are more than 12 lakh members in the WE group and among them 40/50 members, around two per cent of WE, are well connected with the business of the hand-painted dresses and they are quite successful in their business.”

“Though the number of the current hand-painted entrepreneurs are still a few, many others are joining this lucrative business due to the increasing demand among the customers, particularly women,” said Nisha.

Nusrat Naznin, owner of the online page Bonolota, started her journey as a hand-painted cloth entrepreneur in December, 2019 and now she has become a successful entrepreneur whose yearly turnover is now around Tk. 5 lakh. 

She said, “Being a 3rd year student at bachelor, I started my journey with only an investment of Tk. 3 lakh while I have earned around Tk. 2 lakhs within two months and I am really amazed with my success.”

“Alhamdulillah, I am now a successful entrepreneur with a dream to make my page Bonolota as a brand in near future to create job opportunities for many unprivileged women.”

Like Nusrat Naznin, many women also started the businesses of hand-painted dresses. Most of them are selling their products to the shopkeepers at a cheaper rate while the retailers sell it to the customers with a good profit margin.

Designs can be painted on different types of dresses such as Kurti (one-piece kamiz), T-shirt, saree, punjabi etc.

Among all types of hand-painted dresses, saree and Panjabi are now in tremendous demand. 

The price of hand-painted dresses is not so high compared to other clothes as the prices range between Tk. 500- Tk. 2000, which is very reasonable and affordable to all.

Mehedi Hasan, a job holder at a private company, said, “My wife is very much fond of hand-painted dresses. She becomes wild when she sees painted sarees online and also gets excited whenever she places purchase order for new sarees.”

Sometimes, it is difficult for the small entrepreneurs to make their dreams come true due to lack of funds.

Small and Medium Enterprise Foundation plays a vital role to extend helping hands towards the needy and promising entrepreneurs by providing loans and training which shows them the way to grow in the competitive race.