Dhaka Vintage giving fashion a new lease of life by upcycling and recycling vintage pieces

Thrifting, upcycling and recycling clothing might be concepts that are gaining momentum in the world at large now, but traditionally, these ideologies have been enshrined in the culture of south-east Asian countries, be it Bangladesh or India.

For generations, people in these regions have sought to lend a new life to old and used clothing by giving them value, be it by repairing them, reusing them as a cloth for cleaning purposes around the house or upcycling scraps to create an altogether new piece.

In an effort to further the ideology and create a community that supports the circular economy by shopping sustainably, Fathia Tamanna launched Dhaka Vintage – a second-hand clothing label that embraces Bengali culture, all the while providing a solution to fashion’s notorious waste problem.

“Sustainability has been in our culture for a long time, even though now it has become a very trendy word. Unlike Western culture, Bengali culture already inherits the practice of reusing unwanted clothes,” Fathia Tamanna, Founder of Dhaka Vintage told Apparel Resources (AR)  in an exclusive interview, further adding, “Dhaka Vintage aims to take this ideology forward by offering custom-made and one-of-a-kind outfits by upcycling vintage pieces and rare finds.”

ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE

Fathia has turned heirloom benarasi sarees into suits, cotton sarees into jumpsuits, using the pallu (border) of old, ruined sarees as patchwork over jackets and curtains and blankets to make sofa covers.

Growing up, Fathia and her sister would take pride in wearing upcycled clothing and vintage clothes bought from the streets of Dhaka. From a young age itself, both sisters were passionate about curating vintage, rusting and undervalued jewellery and sarees found in local shops or by rummaging through their aunts’ wardrobes.

“I was always inclined towards visual arts, fashion, photography and graphic designing, and as a kid, I would be in my head most of the time imagining things that I would bring to life through the scribbles on all my notebooks,” Fathia explained. She then stated, “We always had this connection with undervalued things and my sister and I have always been asked about the clothes we wear. This made me wonder about a demand in the market for such products and I thought it would be nice for me to show people how giving life to an old garment is actually, if anything, ‘cooler’ than buying new fast fashion items.”

After studying Business Studies, Fathia took up her first job as a graphic designer before joining a garment manufacturing company. At that time, she didn’t even think of doing more than just filling her wardrobe and house with curated items, but eventually, the sisters decided to use the opportunity to highlight the artful curation of the vast Dhaka street market scene, thus birthing Dhaka Vintage.

Fathia has turned heirloom benarasi sarees into suits, cotton sarees into jumpsuits, using the pallu (border) of old, ruined sarees as patchwork over jackets and curtains and blankets to make sofa covers.

Dhaka Vintage is a first-of-its-kind label in Bangladesh. When they entered, Fathia and her sister thought the market to be tricky because culturally, Bangladeshis have looked down upon ‘old’ clothes. “Even though in our culture, we do not waste and promote the re-use of garments, the ‘buying’ of second-hand clothing was still kind of looked down upon. Dhaka Vintage broke that stigma and made it ‘cool’ to do so,” Fathia asserted.

Having lived in different countries all their lives, Fathia and her sister have the advantage of multi-cultural exposure to multiple and varied tastes, colours, scents and music, that continuously impacts their design language and brand ethos.

Most of their inspiration comes from old family photos and records of how Bengali aunties used to dress while growing up, coupled with vivid memories of Dhaka in the 1990s. The familiarity and nostalgia that the photos evoke allow them to channel those feelings through their fashion and creative direction. Both the sisters have very different styles, and because of that, they have attracted a wide spectrum of people. They don’t follow any particular era or a trend, nor do they just sell anything and everything they find on the streets – which makes their pieces stand out as timeless and distinguishes them from other vintage shops in the market.

MANUFACTURING AND SOURCING

Using second-hand pieces, Dhaka Vintage creates tailored suits, jackets, bombers and tricky items which other thrift stores don’t provide. Their pieces also feature high on functionality.

After choosing which items to curate, the sister duo sometimes have to dry clean (in the case of really old clothing), stitch up tiny tears and replace buttons before upcycling them into something new. The label uses anything and everything in their collections – nothing is deemed as waste – be it leftover saree patches, leftover materials, accessories and hardware from factory floors, etc.

“We create and curate items that are hard to part with. Anyone who buys from Dhaka Vintage can count on the fact that they will only be winners as opposed to other thrift shops which sell anything and everything.” –Fathia Tamanna, Founder of Dhaka Vintage

They once made a jacket by pasting a ruined saree ‘pallu’ (border), which dated back to 30 years and is a memory of one of their friend’s grandmother. “By doing so, I kind of immortalised it or you can say preserved it, by pasting it on the back of the jacket,” Fathia said.

“We create and curate items that are hard to part with. Anyone who buys from Dhaka Vintage can count on the fact that they will only be winners as opposed to other thrift shops which sell anything and everything. The ‘collectible’, ‘curated’ and ‘one-of-a-kind’ nature is our USP which not only helps our clients, but also helps us to attract a certain crowd or people who we believe we can trust with our curated items,” Fathia stated.

Fathia has a keen eye for sourcing the right fit for the label and prefers sourcing from the streets of Dhaka, from backyard sales, from flea markets, wardrobes of countless aunties, from even trash baskets and from leftover material scraps in factories. She has even made clothes from old curtains, believing that ‘anyone’s trash can turn out to be my treasure’.

Even though the label started out in 2019, Fathia has been collecting second-hand products and curating her collection since the last 15 years. She works with a team of three people that include her as the designer and curator, a pattern maker and a sewer – and sublets everything else.

Customers can give their own fabrics or choose from the ones she already has in her collection.

Dhaka Vintage offers sustainable fashion clothes at prices that compete with fast fashion price tags. That being said, price of each product varies with the level of customisation and sophistication involved.

Starting from Taka 500, the price range for pieces at Dhaka Vintage goes up to Taka 20,000 or more. Some upcycled tailored suits may even go above Taka 25,000, while some thrifts go as low as Taka 500.

“An archival fashion item would cost more than a basic second-hand item,” Fathia explained adding, “We have items that cost as less as US $ 3 to something that goes up to even US $ 100 from being just a second-hand item to a highly curated item. And then we have these upcycled products which are one-of-a-kind exclusive items which, if they are to be fairly priced, can cost anything between US $ 50 and US $ 350.”

BESTSELLING PRODUCTS AND THE DROP MODEL

Amongst the label’s bestselling products, pieces such as upcycled bombers, jackets, suits and reversible jackets trend high. The label comes out with limited edition drops that are each based on a particular theme.

For example, Dhaka Vintage’s last drop was titled ‘Identity is luxury’, where they mostly used heirloom sarees to make new heirloom modern items.

Commenting on the drop, Fathia said, “That drop was inspired by my identity, which is me as a Bangladeshi. I grew up seeing shiny colours in weddings. Our people, before they got modernised, were never ashamed of vibrant colours, so the last drop was inspired by all these photos I collected of the Bangladeshi #90saunties.”

Dhaka Vintage endorses a ‘limited edition’ style and aspires to remain a small business despite how big or popular they might get. For them, mass producing, no matter how ‘sustainably” it is done, is not a sustainable proposition.

Commenting on the same, Fathia said, “While it may sound like a bad plan to stay small but we actually retain a faithful tribe and following which makes the desire for Dhaka Vintage stay at its optimum.”

They will soon be launching a website and bringing to life some exciting campaigns. Also, they have recently launched their new line, and promise to have lots of surprises in store for their customers this year.

The label mostly sells online via its Instagram shop and takes appointments for custom-made clothes. It has a stand at Jatra– a multi-brand store in Dhaka and also hosts backyard sales at times when they have too many people giving them too many products in an effort to give a new home to such clothes that would otherwise end up in landfills.