Indigenous Costume Color of Bangladesh: A Traditional Context for Cultural Revival

In today’s consumer-driven modern society, the meanings of cultural elements and costume practices are transformed, reproduced, and generated in the marketplace through the symbol of production and consumption [1,2,3]. The production of a commercially successful cultural product is becoming more and more important in modern life. Successful cultural products are referred to as modern cultural products with a cultural and commercial significance that can adapt to the global market. Hyun and Shin mentioned that the traditional textile elements often contain cultural and historical significance reflecting the cultural revival, and the color is one of the most important elements in the design and clothing that is related to culture and religion [4, 5]. In this paper, we theorize and investigate Bangladeshi costume colors and preferences relating to personal appearance that is linked to general perceptions of the aesthetics of culture. Our theoretical approach integrates and goes beyond recent work by researchers on the aesthetics of costume color, culture, Bangladesh perspectives, and identity formation. In our empirical study, we used a modified ZMET method determined by visual images, which is an analytical technique that uses data from questionnaires.

In Bangladesh perspectives, researchers are now doing in-depth studies on patterns, functionality, aesthetics, culture, and other topics. In the realm of color, they have only explored the surface color component and only few localized color characteristics, but not the traditional color identification and protection. Each country has its own unique traditional culture and costume culture, which represents historical culture through different periods of precipitation and development. In the context of traditional culture, contemporary fashion designers can often draw inspiration from these traditional cultural elements and take inspiration from historical traces, inherit, and reshape traditional clothing elements in a modern way. Fashion is a silhouette of history, from which we can learn a lot about how people of different ages dressed and decorated themselves [6]. Bangladesh is a nation of immense influence and a mixed cultural ideology and heritage, with a unique history and tradition. The People’s Republic of Bangladesh became independent in 1971, and its cultural background has a long history. Cultural representation is the reflection of social behavior and has important significance. Social representation is the reflection of cultural existence, which has a new meaning and helps to promote social behavior. As a symbol of behavior, cultural ideology represents motivation, emotion (i.e. emotion and expression rules), and evaluative significance [7, 8]. It mainly explores the roots of cultural and traditional elements from different imperial periods to the present. Culture can be described as a reflection of history, etiquette, and tradition. Under the influence of the British governing period and the political and economic development, Bangladeshi culture showed a trend of diversification. Culture is related to history, and its attitude, communication, and interactive learning methods tend to cultural development, while cultural and social symbolic, procedural, and communicative knowledge enlightenment [9, 10].

Today’s popular cultural costumes, color concepts, traditional elements are mainly reflected in various social events, festivals, etc. [11]. Bangladeshi people like to keep their traditional lifestyles (Figure 1), and we can see the prevalence of traditional clothes in most rural areas of Bangladesh. There is a strong correlation between philosophy and cultural history, and culture has a vast natural potential and dimension that can enrich itself through cultural exchange and dissemination. If we allow only one space for cultural sustainability, this will help shape unique new dimensions and have a profound impact [12].

Fig. 1

Because it is plain, especially casual, and expresses the significance of history, the historical mind differs from inherited traditions and customs of culture. Tradition is a hidden and profound ideology in the field of culture, which usually divides all cultures into three categories: material, social, ideological, and the fourth kind is art, which has the dual characteristics of material culture and ideological culture. Material culture includes human-made products, such as technology. Social culture belongs to the organization of people - how people interact and organize in groups. Ideological culture refers to people’s thoughts, values, beliefs, and ideals. The arts include activities and areas of interest such as music, sculpture, painting, pottery, drama, cooking, writing, and fashion. Anthropologists study the differences in the size and complexity of these cultural categories in different societies [13].

Traditional costumes have been collected and preserved in museums over the decades of modernization [14]. Despite the fact that the pattern and process of traditional clothing have no preservations in present wear, the visual recognition of traditional colors continues to influence Bangladeshi people’s preference of contemporary clothing colors in an imperceptible manner, introducing a pervasive and well-hidden situation. As a result, the study of current traditional clothing color may help us better understand the evolution of traditional color and the opinion of modern-era citizens color aesthetic [15]. As a result of the psychological system of traditional Bangladeshi color aesthetics being formed following the spirit of traditional Bangladeshi culture. The spirit of culture influences people not only in terms of a specific way of thinking but also in terms of inclination. It also has a huge and far-reaching impact on a deep cultural aesthetic inclination as well as the value of social psychology and behavioral tendencies [16]. As a result, not only should the standard color picture be searched, as well as the conventional methods of thinking within the context of the color structure designed to investigate the origin. Bangladeshi color appearance is the result of many civilizations, interpretations, thoughts, and shades that are different between regions. Clothing and color appearance have received a lot of attention in the realm of culture and clothing as a technique to distinguish the aspects of creation that includes dress, clothes, and costumes. Furthermore, scholars have tended to concentrate on advancements in the reception of representative sources.

Traditional clothing’ unique colors and motifs will always be inspirational as well as viable for fashion creation. Traditional culture and art may provide a plethora of style possessions and innovative ideas for current costume design. Ethnic clothing emphasizes beautiful colors, innovative design, and uniqueness. Because of regional and personalized differences in many ethnicities, cultural clothing has a variety of designs. The traditional costume appears to be simple, mysterious, and gorgeous, yet it is a key source of modern-day art design and conveys complex thought. The remarkable traditional national costume is both the core of civilization and a crucial component of contemporary costume design. The mood embodied in Bangladeshi culture is something that modern people seek for and strive for in terms of clothing. As a result, in order to develop innovative costumes, current designers must dig for and merge excellent local clothing components into contemporary clothing design, which is the most effective way to preserve and inherit national costume culture.

Because traditional color in Bangladeshi dress is more prevalent in women’s clothes, this research concentrates mostly on women’s costumes. Women’s costumes are more vibrant and have a wider range of designs, making them a good representation of traditional color preferences. The sari (a one-piece long cloth wrapped around the body) has been the predominant costume of Bangladeshi women since the beginning of the costume studies. Contemporary costume design focuses mostly on economization, expediency, and industrialization, which is unknowingly modifying modern people’s aesthetic attractions. Nowadays, a plethora of manufactured things have replaced the lovely costume fashioned by hand. Although the highly colorful material may improve the efficiency of Bangladeshi clothing manufacturing and give it a new style, it also causes countrywide costume products to be imitated, which contradict that simple and natural aspect that is intended. Bangladeshi clothing is now influencing contemporary style. It is good to re-recognize national cultural norm as well as to transmit and expand national costume society by incorporating national outfit elements into modern style costumes. With the increasing number of tourists and the continuous improvement of social interactions with foreign nations, the vibrant attire of all inhabitants is increasingly attracting people’s attention, particularly the attributes of variety, unusual design, brilliant color, and also attractive pattern. Numerous national and international costume designers draw on the value of the country’s culture and combine native outfit features with current costume design to create modern costumes with greater personality. By inheriting custom and using significant qualities of traditional Bangladeshi costumes to contemporary outfit design, new designs for outfits with traditional color concepts may be created, as well as the imagination of current-day outfit style to make more sorts of costume works.

The ZMET is an original aesthetic exploration study platform. It is a technique for eliciting both cognitive and hidden ideas by examining people’s semi or imaginative phrases. It was developed in the early 1990s at Harvard Business School by Dr. Gerald Zaltman. ‘A lot happens on in our thinking that we’re not aware of,’ Zaltman stated. The majority of the factors that impact what we say and do take place beyond those sense of awareness. That is reason we require a novel approach to accessing hidden understanding in order to gain insight to what individuals are unaware of [17]. Academic scholars as well as commercial professionals have utilized the method to investigate a number of topics related with either branding as well as the cultural anthropology. While in Nepal in 1990, Zaltman began to consider the value of employing pictures in research. He gave semi digital cameras to locals in the area and asked them to snap pictures that would illustrate city life. The visuals revealed ideas that might be proven difficult to express verbally [18]. This realization spawned a brand-new topic of study: using pictures to enhance deep penetration of people’s genuine ideas and emotions. ZMET develops the framework for this study and continues to alert Olson Zaltman and the market in general to fresh initiatives. Participants in scientific studies are frequently requested to gather a group of photos which reflect the ideas and feelings about the matter of enthusiasm.

The objective of the ZMET interviews and analysis is to reveal the pertinent fundamental structures that assist individuals’ thinking of a subject. These deep frameworks are unconscious, standard orienting frames of human thought that affect how people procedure and react to details or a stimulus. They materialize themselves in surface area allegories utilized in everyday language as well as conversation; when grouped they point to the deeper structures or structures an individual is making use of to comprehend a topic. Because the use of metaphor stimulates the relevance of semi perceptual representations, the author uses this study approach to develop Bangladeshi costume color from aesthetic thought.

Discussions on Bangladeshi culture would be focused on historical studies and archive resources, field research, books, journals, museums, interviews. ZMET analysis will be done based on two cultural activities: (1) Traditional festival/Social occasion, (2) Traditional art to analyze Bangladeshi culture-inspired color concept. Under each part, images will be analyzed beside theoretical discussion.

4.1

Traditional festival/Social occasion

4.1.1

Pohela Boishakh (‘First day of Bengali New Year’)

‘Pohela Boishakh’ is the first day of the Bangladeshi New Year and is celebrated throughout the country to maintain cultural traditions through festive features and color decorations. To inherit and carry forward traditional historical culture, people decorate themselves with traditional patterns, colors, and costumes with cultural characteristics (Figure 2). These distinctive forms of color and clothes are of inestimable importance for Bangladeshi people and their native culture.

Fig. 2

The Bangladeshi New Year is an important holiday for the people of Bangladesh to pray for their hopes and dreams. People in both urban and rural areas celebrate the first day of the Bangladeshi New Year calendar, ‘Pohela Boishakh’, and pray for a better, more prosperous future. It is a pleasant and colorful cultural festival, and for those who pray for family happiness and success, their wish is a pious one, a perfect ritual for family unity, happiness, and prosperity. In 1965 Chhayana (organizer of cultural festival) [19], celebrated the historic value of the day in Bangladesh as a memorial. ‘Pohela Boishakh’ is held in Dhaka as one of the most colorful festivals in Bangladesh with its special festivals and local traditions, and is celebrated throughout the world with the traditions and enthusiasm of Bangladeshis who live in hope and dreams. White is the prettiest color, symbolizing positivity, innocence, and simplicity, that is, a new beginning, and the rebirth of Bangladeshi culture [20]. Red is the color of blood and fire synonymous with passion and appetite and it symbolizes life and vitality. It is difficult to find the exact time in history, but the color from the analysis of clothing color in the picture can provide us with reference concepts (Figure 3). Also, different shades of yellow and green are used as part of clothing or as decorative elements.

Fig. 3

4.1.2

Pohela Falgun (‘First day of spring’)

‘Pohela Falgun’ is the first day of spring in Bangladesh - warm sunshine, free-flying birds, and budding flowers, a youthful start, are symbols of life and hope, not only in nature but also in the lives of all people of all ages. Showy yellow and red are the main colors of ‘Pohela Falgun’. Flowers are the emblematic symbol of ‘Pohela Falgun’, and the image of a woman is incomplete without a floral decoration (Figure 4). The ideal ‘Falgun’ appearance is to highlight the eyes with eye shadow, and the lips have a hot red or fuchsia tracing [21], to keep the simplicity and freshness of the sense of vitality, and match the nature of the season. Finally, people exchanged heavy and dull wool clothes for the typical yellow, orange, and red. Owing to the importance of heritage in Bangladeshi society, the people of Bangladesh took the opportunity to connect themselves with the traditional culture they were proud of. Women wear traditional clothes and local dress materials, Jamdani-(‘Bangladeshi fabric’) in ‘Pohela Falgun’, and people want to use their hands to draw elaborate floral designs and Bengali letters on their cheeks and hands. As the national center of higher education, Dhaka University plays an important role in political and social affairs in Bangladesh. It is for this reason that the university remains the center of all cultural activities related to ‘Pohela Falgun’.

Fig. 4

It is an important festival for the culture of Bengali, and the people of Bangladesh keep this opportunity to identify themselves with something traditional. The costume, which ranges from milder colors of yellow to the fullest range of orange, is not as strong or intense as red, but it does serve as an expressive motivator. Orange, like yellow, is a cheerful and generous color. It’s bright and fun, and the combination of these two colors creates a distinct vibe to welcome springtime. All of the colors of the clothing are meaningful, and they serve as messengers to the next era, reminding them of the culture and heritage.

4.1.3

Holud (‘Part of pre-wedding function’)

It’s part of the pre-wedding ceremony, for the bride and groom, and the bride uses turmeric and other aromatic elements as a pre-wedding beauty ritual [22]. In Bengali culture, marriage symbolizes not only the sacred union of two people but also the union and the extended relationship between two families. In the past, the marriage of the bride and groom was decided by the family, the opinions of the two families decided who to marry, and the bride and groom saw each other for the first time on the wedding day. These customs and trends gradually changed in urban areas, and today, the younger generation has a better say in choosing life partners. The day before the wedding, the bride uses turmeric and other herbs to exfoliate and soften her skin, as a pre-wedding beautification ritual. On this day, the marriage gifts and candies and dowries are well prepared and are wondrously packaged and express clearly the theme of the wedding.

The whole process is enjoyable, and red is the most popular color when it comes to choosing a bride’s sari, but other than red, colors such as maroon, magenta, and pink are also popular. The Benarasi saree (‘One type of Bangladeshi traditional costume’) is decorated with heavy gold or silver beads work and embroidery which only adds to the beauty of the charming bride. The costume colors are mainly yellow, red, and shades of orange and white (Figure 5). In Bangladeshi history, this ritual has continued as part of the pre celebration for the benediction of both brides and grooms with specific clothes for this occasion, particularly for outfits with significant colors [23]. From the interview and analytical views, this type of social occasion keeps the Bangladeshi traditional way of wedding and revives the cultural splendor from history.

Fig. 5

4.2

Traditional art

4.2.1

Alpana (‘Vibrant motifs, religious art, or painting done by hand’)

‘Alpana’ is a popular folk art associated with Hindu women’s celebration of religious festivals and wedding festivals. The ‘Alpana’ patterns of the Muslim functions are very distinct and the pattern can be conveniently transferred to the costume design with the traditional color concept. It is painted during the celebration of Bangla New Year, birthday, Holud (pre-wedding occasion) in the marriage ceremony, and on the altar of martyrs’ memorial including the adjacent road during the International Mother Language Day on 21 February [24]. The main colors of this design are white, red, yellow, orange, and a shade of blue that came from the history of tradition to the present. It is an intensely personal ritualistic practice that continues to be an integral part of Bangladeshi culture today. In this cultural festival, the emphasis is not just on the nature of the artwork, but on the colors and representations of the object and the meaning behind them.

4.2.2

Mask painting

Pohela Boishak-(Bengali New Year) is celebrated with grandeur and colors in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh. The celebration starts with a traditional colorful procession wearing different symbolizing colorful masks to express the joy and happiness of New Year with different representing characters [25]. The colors of the mask are diversified, but the main representing colors are red, yellow, arrange, green, and white (Figure 6). The interview shows that people like to be more colorful on this type of occasion and their most prominent colors are red, yellow, and green to focus their cultural feelings as well as the attraction towards Bangladesh.

Fig. 6

First, ZMET visual analysis technique was used to analyze Bangladeshi traditional costume colors from the elicitation of the related picture. An interview group was constructed for ZMET analysis. Then, for this research, a question was asked about Bangladeshi traditional colors for specifics of the view, as well as a further query to suggest one or two main traditional colors to make the color concept more precise. The result of 200 person’s thoughts were took after information surveys from their 140 design students, 15 designers, 30 educationalists, 7 businessmen, and 8 journalists. From the data t-test, One-Sample Statistics and descriptive statistics were performed. After that ANOVA test was performed to analyze the significance value of traditional costume colors.

5.2

Visual image elicitation

To further understand culture and clothing color notions that govern people’s judgments of costume and aesthetics color, we used a simplified ZMET approach in this investigation. Investigators embrace ZMET because it mixes cultural theories of story comprehension with intellectual theory. ZMET is helpful for diving into key cognitive concepts and providing in-depth interpretations. It is made up of a number of processes that combine several perception methodologies to investigate how people interpret one item. Informants were asked to acquire photographs of traditional Bangladeshi clothes and cultural items. We utilized these photographs to look at topics like costume color and steps people take to seem beautiful. The objective of a pictorial data extraction approach like this is to get a detailed description of the participants, the setting, and the objects in the photograph. Contemporary developments in behavioral science have revealed that the majority of people’s thoughts and emotions occur below the state of awareness, resulting in such ideas and feelings being easily accessible. We anticipate that by enabling sources to explain ideas through photos and changing the attention away from the person and toward the images, we might overcome some of the apprehensions individuals have about addressing cultural costume color, which is fundamental to their concerns. It enables individuals to make connections with buried emotions, concepts, and interpretations. Figure 7, provides the random merge of images that were used by participants and gives a glance of Bangladeshi color.

Fig. 7

The pictures are arranged by the subject group to form a summative image or to artificially combine the emotions of an entire group. ZMET was followed by focus groups, which explored more deeply the emotional responses at the individual level and the connections found through group consensus. As a result, the majority of these respondents had a deeper understanding of Bangladeshi custom, clothing, and culture; in fact, they were chosen because they knew more about the research idea and were more sensitive to the use of visual representations in practice. The participants’ breadth of knowledge provided for a more in-depth comprehension of the participant’s answer, which complimented the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique’s analytical character. The summary of each interview participant regarding their images selection and reasons that refers to the main study are bellowed:

Educationalist 1: Festivals and celebrations are an integral part of Bangladeshi culture. A special sari collection, usually cotton, with white red prints and embroidered saris is sold before the day as everyone dresses up for the day. These festival-related images represent the traditions of Bangladesh, from which we can get a strong reference for the discussion and collection of pictorial representations of clothing colors.

Educationalist 2: The culture and colors of Bangladesh represent the way of life and lifestyle of the Bangladeshi people. It began with the Bengali Renaissance and was created and developed over centuries by various social groups and religions, covering the diversity of cultures and colors. Colors take many forms, including dance, music, drama, religious festivals and celebrations, folk tales and folklore, language, literature, philosophy, and traditional cooking. The images are inspired by cultural terms that represent the traditions of Bangladeshi dress and reflect the heritage.

Designer 1: Bangladesh has a long history of culture and customs that are integrated with religion, nature, and many other aspects. In modern times, wearing traditional costumes keeps a rich national heritage in different cultural activities. The cultural and colorful celebrations in Bangladesh are so different from those in other countries that it would be impossible to describe them properly without a trip to Bangladesh. Each culture has its colors and ways of celebrating. The images collected are taken into account this knowledge to show traditional motivations and can utilize the influence of traditional colors in modern costume design.

Designer 2: The largest cultural and colorful celebration of the Bangladeshi people is the Bengali New Year, known as ‘Pohela Boishakh’. On the first day of the Bangladesh Month ‘Falgun’, young women celebrate with yellow Shari with red trim and beautiful flowers, while men wear traditional Punjabi and Pyjamas. A colorful procession came out, dressed in yellow and carrying flowers. The sense of tradition and costume expression found in traditional festivals and the use of traditional patterns in costumes. Besides, there are so many markets and festivals in this country, which represent traditions and images, and the pictures of these festivals and occasions which represent culture and choices are related to this.

Journalist: Color, colorful, vibrant, and so on are the words used to describe the traditional clothing in Bangladesh. Traditional festivals are all about color, as one can observe from the clothes worn by every Bengali on that day. The tradition of contrasting white and red is unfailing, undivided by class and religion, and unites us all. The selected photos can give us an idea of what Bangladeshis are wearing and their traditions.

To understand the main traditional costume colors in Bangladesh, we collected some opinions, from which we obtained some specific colors as the traditional colors in Bangladesh. In the survey, from the t-test analysis (Table 1) we can see that all participants agree with red color as Bangladeshi traditional costume color, 82% mentioned white, 83% mentioned green and 48% mentioned yellow.

Table 2 displays qualitative data (in percentages) for the primary conventional hues of red, white, green, and yellow. Student, educator, designer, businessman, and journalist were all provided independent analyses. Table 2 shows the primary traditional clothing colors by rating: red (100%), white (25%) and green (21%). The color red was mentioned by all respondents as the predominant traditional clothing color of Bangladesh. Color preferences were established individually from the subjects as follows: Among students, red (100%) > white (28%) > green (21%), among educators, red (100%) > white (17%) = green (17%), among designers, red (100%) > green (13%) > white (7%), among businesses, red (100%) > green (71%) > white (29%), and among journalists, red (100%) > white (38%). According to the total ratio, red, white, and green are the predominant traditional clothing colors of Bangladeshis across all professional respondents, however white and green exhibited considerable variances when compared to red.

After the one-way ANOVA test, based on its result that was shown in Table 3, the overall analysis of Bangladeshi traditional colors was significant. For the red color, the ANOVA test wasn’t performed because all participants supported this color. For white color (F =5.121, **p < 0.01), green color (F = 10.645, *** <0.001) and yellow color (F = 2.685, *p < 0.05) that were significant.

The color of traditional Bangladeshi costumes is a tangible expression of traditional culture, and the changes of various connotations and representations originate from changing ideological concepts, exhibiting periodic characteristics of the times. This paper explores the connotation of costume color from three stages: theoretical definition, the analytical concept of ZMET, and statistical analysis. The practice and choice of dress colors are closely connected to the physical world in which people live. Costumes are not only the embodiment of cultural heritage, but are also the integration of socio-political, technological, and cultural influences. In addition to the abovementioned characteristics, the traditional Bangladeshi color concept is connected to traditional customs and decorations as well as the common preference for a person’s life in the past.

This research examined the traditional colors of the Bangladeshi costume using various empirical approaches. The main purpose is to examine the color preference of wearing traditional costumes among Bangladeshi citizens who had ideas about Bangladeshi costume colors. To achieve the outcome of this research, the traditional costume colors were first analyzed using visual image elicitation techniques to form an interview panel using the ZMET analysis method. From this analysis, four main traditional costume colors: red, white, green, yellow were found that represent Bangladeshi culture.

Second, determine the relationship between the participants who have ideas about Bangladeshi traditional costume colors and their color preference. After that, descriptive findings of the primary traditional colors (in percentage) among red, white, green, and yellow were evaluated, with analysis divided by respondent’s profession: student, educator, designer, businessman, and journalist. These statistics supported the ZMET analysis result regarding costume color preference.

Finally, examining the one-way ANOVA test has shown the significant value of Bangladeshi traditional costume colors. The costume colors that were found from ZMET analysis and statistical analysis are significant for Bangladeshi culture. The use of the ANOVA test during the analytical test emphasized the final result to make this study more significant. Figure 8, showing the explanation of the overall discussion.

Fig. 8

Through ethnology, psychology, and literature, the cultural connotations of Bangladeshi traditional costume colors are extensive and profound. Clothing color culture is a representation of the aesthetic concepts and traditional cultural psychology, a symbol of tradition, expressing people’s consciousness and preferences. This research investigates how aesthetics may be linked to daily situations of people’s life. It refers to the daily outfit color that defines Bangladeshi culture. The use of traditional costume colors makes look very aesthetic. Although this combination looks simple, the combination of technology makes it more interesting. Through the analysis and discussion, we can clearly understand the concept of costume color inspired by Bengali culture. The overall study of Bangladeshi culture was presented from the color analysis of the theoretical discussion and the visual analysis of random image selection. Then, statistical analysis through questionnaires and interviews provided evidence for the discussion, which could make all readers clearly understand. We can historically achieve the color of clothing traditionally represented in Bangladesh. Traditional aesthetics may be revived by using these color schemes and traditional themes in current fashion. The participants of the focus group they thought would be interested in being part of this study. The fact that sensory perceptions and feelings are central to aesthetic judgment also makes the costume color to any discussion of aesthetics. In short, the colors of traditional clothing are shifting towards a diversified multicultural influence. The direction of development is also the phenomenon of the past, but we have to look back and analyze the colors of traditional costumes closely. Although the scope of our research is confined to interview groups and questioners, the outcomes of our study cannot be dismissed when compared to the general perceptions of Bangladeshi citizens. Further research should look at the hues and variations of color in different traditional costumes, which could provide additional information about Bangladeshi traditional costume colors.