Dhaka shops in layers: wholesale cloth streets from the Mughal city, artisan lanes where bangles are still sawn by hand, fixed-price craft flagships funding 65,000 village weavers, and 20-floor malls. Cash, patience and hard bargaining carry you.
A 400-metre lane of narrow 18th-century Hindu artisan houses where shakha bangles are still cut from Sri Lankan conch shells with hand and foot-powered saws. Workshops open by 08:00; carved pairs run ৳800–4,000.
Old Dhaka's jewellery district: roughly 300 family-run goldsmiths in a few packed lanes, working 22-karat filigree, antique-style nose pins and bridal sets. Gold sells at the daily BAJUS rate plus making charges.
The wholesale fabric artery running inland from Sadarghat, with hundreds of shops stacked floor to ceiling in silk, katan, georgette, velvet and lining cloth. Retail buyers are served after 11:00 once wholesale trade eases.
Three interlinked bazaars behind Dhaka College: New Market (built 1954) for luggage, shoes and books, Chandni Chowk for fabric by the yard, Gausia for ready-made kameez and children's wear. Closed Tuesdays.
BRAC's craft retailer sources from around 65,000 rural artisans. Four floors of nakshi kantha throws, jamdani stoles, terracotta, jute, leather and Taaga label clothing. Fixed prices, cards accepted, 10:00–20:00.
Design shop built on Bangladeshi folk print: rickshaw-art painted trunks, hand-lettered tin signage, block-print kurtas, recycled-sari quilts and enamelware, with the Jatra Biroti café attached for lunch between browsing.
The natural-dye house founded by Ruby Ghuznavi: handloom cotton and silk coloured with indigo, lac, turmeric, myrobalan and pomegranate rind, each label listing the plant used and the weaving cluster it came from.
Twenty floors on Panthapath holding roughly 2,500 shops: levels 1–6 for Bangladeshi labels such as Yellow, Ecstasy and Sailor, level 7 for electronics and phones, upper floors for the cinema and food court.
Around 400 weaver units on the Shitalakshya river bank, producing jamdani on pit looms entirely by hand without jacquard. The Friday dawn haat, roughly 05:00–09:00, is where wholesalers buy directly from the weavers.
Several hundred stalls of reprinted paperbacks, academic textbooks, Bengali literature, old maps and photo books, with binders stitching custom covers on the spot while you wait. Trade runs until about 21:00.
The indie fashion block behind Shahbagh: small labels including Nitto Upohar and Nagardola selling screen-printed tees, Bengali-typography posters, handmade notebooks and rickshaw-art prints. Most shops open 11:00–21:00.
Charity-run shop trading Tangail handloom cotton saris, nakshi kantha embroidery and hand-stitched table linen, with proceeds funding the Kumudini Welfare Trust's hospital and nursing college at Mirzapur.