Top 5 World Affairs x Fashion Moments: May 15, 2024

It’s Day 20 of my Spring Challenge!

As a reminder, this challenge means that either you get an email in your inbox 5 times per week until May 31st (which means I get a set of luxurious, vintage jammies) OR I have to donate $5 to a charity I hate for every week that I miss the goal.

Series #3: Top 5 World Affairs x Fashion Moments

Today’s pick: Regency Dresses x Colonialism

This is a topic I’ve gone over with my friends over brunch, with dates over coffee, and with fellow fashion enthusiasts over social media. And now - you get to be the lucky one to hear me wax on about a topic that gets me reallllly mad.

We’ve discussed the international nature of Regency fashion before, bringing in France, England, and America. However, the threads of Regency dressing go far beyond the Western world. Those really popular white, delicate dresses were made from Dhaka muslin, a special type of muslin from Bangladesh - that, thanks to colonialism, doesn’t exist anymore.

This muslin was so delicate that it was called “woven air.” It was rumored that one piece, “one yard wide and ten yards long could pass through a wedding ring.”

The Spread of Dhaka Muslin

Dhaka muslin was used the world over before the British arrived in India. We see it mentioned in ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman records, as well as in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. The cloth was so fine, it was used to dress statues of Greek goddesses, as well as royalty across the world.

Around the late 1700s, with the rise of the British East India Company and the popularization of trade, this muslin began entering Europe and it immediately found a huge following, especially with rich Europeans and aristocrats.

Queen Marie Antoinette and Empress Joséphine Bonaparte of France fell in love with the fabric. Since the muslin was imported from England, France’s traditional enemy, and did not favor the French silk industry, the populace was outraged. Muslin stayed in France anyway.

Popular papers made fun of both the cut and the transparent fabric of Regency dresses, calling them provocative and indecent since they displayed more of women’s shapes than fashion trends of the past.

Yet, muslin stayed.

Creating Dhaka Muslin

The creation of Dhaka muslin was a laborious and expensive process. The single flower from which it is made bloomed twice a year. Plus, the fibers of this flower were delicate to work with and snapped easily.

While they were useless for cotton, a community came up with a 16-step process used to weave it into delicate muslin. In fact, spinning the yarn was so delicate that it could only be done at certain times of the day, especially by younger people, since older folks couldn’t see the threads well enough to spin them.

The resulting fabric had a thread count between 800-1200 - most cotton today ranges between 40-80. Higher thread count = softer materials that last longer.

And then…the British East India Company Attacked

By the 20th century, Dhaka muslin had disappeared entirely off the map. Not only was it impossible to find current clothing made with it, weavers no longer knew how to make the fabric.

And, as usual, we can blame the British East India Company.

Upon its entry, the British East India Company began to replace the traditional buyers of the muslin with their own customers. Then, the pressure increased: they began to force weavers to produce more cloth for significantly cheaper rates.

A cycle of debt ensued for the weavers: while they were paid for the cloth up to a year upfront, they’d have to pay the entire amount back if the final fabric wasn’t up to par.

At the same time, the British tried to make similar fabrics closer to home. Using cheaper cotton and Lancashire weavers, lower-grade imitation muslin was made for Londoners.

With demand killed off by the East India Company, plus the advent of poverty through debt cycles, as well as famine and war, weavers either became farmers or began to make other, easier, fabrics. Millennia of technique and skill were lost - and as the specific plant stopped being harvested, it too stopped growing.

Dhaka muslin has never been created since.

Making a Comeback

Efforts to bring Dhaka muslin back have been underway for 10+ years now. In 2013, UNESCO protected the art of jamdani weaving as an “intangible cultural heritage”.

In 2014, Bengal Muslin was founded by Saiful Islam to recreate the fabric and to bring Dhaka Muslin back to Dhaka. Currently, while several English museums hold thousands of pieces of the fabric, Bangladesh itself holds none.

Right now, Bengal Muslin produces pieces with up to a 400 thread count - and are aiming to go even higher. They already have pieces for sale!

Dhaka muslin has been something I’ve been staring longingly at for years and is still a hot topic of discussion in the fashion industry. The moment it’s back, you bet I’ll be hopping on the next plane to Bangladesh!

Note: This series does not aim to give a comprehensive view of any one garment and its history, only an overview.

However, if there’s interest, I’m happy to write out a whole series just based on one garment (whether it’s Regency muslin dresses, jeans, or something else). So email me and let me know!

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xoxo,

Simran