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| Sunday, 26 January 2003 |
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Evergreen fashion designer Chula Nanayakkara : She's back in style by Jayanthi Liyanage She is back today, as Chula Nanayakkara Ariyaratne, in the volatile scene of modern haute couture, fusing her own translations into the 21st century dynamics of fashion. To those who remember her award-winning costumes in Sumithra Peries's movie, "Ganga Addara", and how she spelt out her own bold dictates of "style" to the 1980s local elite fashion columns, blending exquisite hand crafted traditions to the modern drapes of Kandyan and Indian sari, it may seem hard to justify why she had to stifle her legacy of talents from the Colombo elan circles for as long as 18 years. Eighteen years. Which would have felt like an eternity to those, who smitten by her fashions, would have ransacked Colombo trying to elicit her whereabouts. But for Chula, quietly and steadfastly carrying on her creativity far from the maddening eyes of the uninitiated, the years would have seemed but a flying moment in which she was rallying all her forces to make a remarkable come-back. The designer who dressed her first bride at the tender age of sixteen is proof that neither tide, nor the wifely grind of household chores, could drown a woman of spirit, determination and genuine talent in oblivion. Chula describes her amazing knack at transforming insipid lengths of cloth into dazzling creations of elitist Kandyan or Indian sarees, as "My desire to turn the wasteful into exquisite and wear different drapes without spoiling the natural beauty of the sari." She emphasises that her come-back is a calling to promote Sri Lankan fabrics to the modern fashion world, enacting her words in the clever patches and appliques she has blended to the Kandyan saree and sleeves she is wearing. "I am self-taught, my inborn talents were very likely inspired by my skilful seamstress of a mother," she declares. "I do my designs from the look of a material and its colour. Even from a small piece of clothing, I can turn out something to suit the wearer." Chula's re-surfacing naturally evokes buoyant memories of her previous fashion achievements. With a career begun as the fashion designer at Velona, she was the only designer to model her designs at "Ceylon Woman" Fashion Show held in the 1960s by Sita Parakrama at Galle Face Hotel. The show propelled Chula into the limelight as a woman designer to reckon with, in an age when males dominated the fashion industry."Bharat Lanka" was her own show, collaborated by the Indian designer, Sabita Radhakhrishna of "Amra Pali" dress boutique in Madras. Chula held another at BMICH, sharing the credits with Femina Editor, Wimla Patel. With Thultex, Chula organised and choreographed the 1984 Fashion Designer of the Year contest, producing 10 new designers to Sri Lanka. She has done costumes for many films, with Kaliyugaya, Yuganthaya, Parithiyagaya and Malata Noena Bambaru among them. Chula became the first local designer to conduct fashion shows in London, first, at the CommonWealth Institute, and then, at the Tea Centre, selling all her exhibits. At the height of her career, she threw it all away to marry Nimal Ariyaratne, a businessman, shunning limelight for domestic bliss. Chula is now back and the offers keep coming. Last September, she travelled to Australia to design and dress a bridal retinue and has already been offered a fashion show in London. Chula dreams of conducting an annual fashion show to pick the ten best new designer talent of Sri Lanka and dedicates her dream to her "dancing guru", the late Sujatha Jayawardena. She also remembers late Errol Jayawardena who, on visiting Chula, was at a loss whether to opt for her culinary triumphs, or her saree designs. Need I harp more about her versatility? |
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