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Sri Lankan fashion, to a great extent, followed Indian movie trends till about the mid-seventies. It was then that the concept of costume designers took hold and a Sri Lankan style of dressing evolved. Fashion designers such as Keerthi Sri Karunaratne, Chula Herath and Dharmasena Hemapala worked on films. Sadly though, the trend took a turn for the worse from the start of this century. With Sri Lanka emerging as a major supplier of cheap garments to the western world, copying western trends in proletarian fashion became the norm. In addition, the drop in the number of people seeing films due to economic hardship; ensured that girls and boys from the garment factories dictated fashion trends. In turn, film makers began to copy dressing styles of the masses. The fashion designer for films went out of fashion. People no more look to Sinhala films to enforce their tastes of dress. However, Hindi films are still watched by the female of the species for style check.
Nepal elite followed the European fashion, while the youth followed the Bollywood fashion till ‘70s. After which, it was a mix of Hollywood and Bollywood for Nepali youth. Currently, it is the Korean film style that has gripped Kathmandu. There is a disconnect between Nepali movies and the urban youth. Fashion industry is in a developmental stage in Nepal. In recent past, couple of good fashion schools have come up, and two fashion weeks are organized. Boutiques have sprung up a lot. However, in absence of strong demand for indigenous fashion, the prospects look grim. Although, Prabal Gurung has received huge success in the West, and designers like Tarunika Mahato are doing well in Kathmandu, it will still take some years before the industry to really take off.
Bangladesh makes nearly 100 films per year. Some of the films are critically acclaimed and released in many countries. Bollywood movies were banned till recently, but from rickshaw-pullers to students of English medium schools, everyone keeps abreast of newly released Hindi movies. Bangladesh has nearly 5,000 boutiques, with an estimated annual turnover of Tk 6000 crores. However, the filmy fashion is not very refined. Bibi Russell’s name is quite well known in fashion circles across the world. The former international model now runs her fashion house “Bibi Productions”.
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