Bangladesh exports basic garments at the lowest possible cost, unbeatable by any other competitor country.

Manufacturing clothes is the most basic link of the fashion industry value chain, as discussed in my previous blog. But can the country get more out of it? On the one hand, clothes will always be in demand.

On the other hand, far from being just a garment to keep one warm and safe against the elements, people wear clothes for a variety of reasons— as a form of cultural identity, to signal one’s income status, a form of self-expression, as a medium of protest or celebration, or to “wear” a wide range of human emotions.

Indeed, psychology and anthropology may have as much to do with the purchase of a garment than economics.

Princess Kate Middleton of the UK royal family has made such an impact on the global fashion map that the phrase “Kate effect” was created on her account to describe how items she is seen wearing immediately disappear off store shelves.