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| Sunday, 30 April 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Bust and boom -
Show of hands: How to help Costume dramas are keeping Sri Lanka's struggling lace-makers in business, reports James Vaughan
The way she is achieving this minor miracle is through her novel Jane Eyre, which as well as being the BBC's big costume drama this autumn, also has a drama connected to the costumes. Step forward actress Christina Cole, who plays Blanche Ingram, Jane's rival for the hand and heart of Mr Rochester. Blessed with beauty and breeding, Blanche has another asset (literally) up her sleeve, in the form of the sumptuous lace frills that adorn her outfits. Actress Christina Cole models a lace wristband by Power Of Hands Delicate yet showy, this riot of frothy handiwork symbolised, during the 19th century, the wealth and status of those who could afford to wear it. But the real-life, 21st-century person who made the lace is a 65-year-old widow called Leela Wathi, who lives not in Derbyshire (where Jane Eyre is being filmed) but in the tsunami-flattened town of Galle, south-western Sri Lanka. And until recently she described her economic situation as "desperate". She's just one of a growing network of women whom the celebrated UK costume designer Andrea Galer (Bleak House, Mansfield Park, Withnail and I) has taken under her wing as part of a project to repair the region's lace-making industry, destroyed by the giant waves of Boxing Day 2004. "Ever since lace-making was introduced by the Portuguese in the 15th century, Sri Lankan women have been able to supplement what their menfolk earn from fishing," says Galer. "But the tsunami not only destroyed the fishing industry, it destroyed the lace-making industry, too, by frightening off the tourists who bought the lace. I didn't realise the full extent of the problem until I went there last year."
"As far as we could see, absolutely none of the relief money had got through to them," says James. "That said, there was still this enormous sense of pride and self-reliance; they were insistent that they weren't looking for continual hand-outs; the men just wanted boats, so that they could go out fishing again, and the women only wanted help finding new markets for their work." And in Galer they found the right woman to provide that help. She has been back to Sri Lanka twice since her original trip (which she undertook during a one-week break in the filming of Bleak House). Each time she has returned to Britain more determined than ever to promote the virtues of Sri Lankan lace and to make use of the material in her productions. She has certainly got her way in Jane Eyre. 'We've been encouraging lacemakers to produce things for which there is a real demand' "All the well-to-do characters wear lovely jabots (ruffs) made out of Sri Lankan lace, and most have lace frills on the ends of their sleeves," she says. "And I've put lace all round the collar of Jane's wedding dress." Already, the orders generated by Jane Eyre have provided 20 Sri Lankan lace-makers with two full months' work and, in conjunction with the charity Adopt Sri Lanka, Galer has now set up a lace-making workshop inside the fort at Galle, which was one of the few buildings not destroyed in the tsunami. "We call our enterprise the Power of Hands," she says. "We've got eight craftswomen working on a regular basis at the workshop, while 30 others work from home." And those long hours spent on film sets have presented the ideal opportunity for recruiting actors and actresses to her cause. "I've got to know a lot more about Power of Hands during my costume-fitting sessions with Andrea," says the actress Christina Cole, who was a willing volunteer for our Telegraph photo-shoot. "I think it's a great cause - the best thing is that it's working towards providing a sustainable future, rather than just a one-off donation." Next step is to generate orders from the rest of the UK entertainment and fashion industries; the English National Opera, the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House have all expressed interest in using Power of Hands lace, while another designer, Alexandra Byrne, has used copious amounts of it on the costumes worn by Cate Blanchett in Golden Age, currently being filmed in Cambridgeshire, in which she reprises her role of Queen Elizabeth I, opposite Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh. Now, in a bid to spread the lace-wearing habit still further, Galer has persuaded her Sri Lankan women to create special handmade wristbands at o5 a time. "For years, these women have been making the same sort of old-fashioned lace doilies and tablecloths that Western tourists no longer want," says Galer. "Instead, we've been encouraging them to start making things for which there is a real demand, like lace belts and these wristbands. "The aim is to generate income that will enable them not just to survive but to put a little back into the business as well, enough to buy themselves stools to sit on, electric lights to work under, or glasses to help them with close-up work. "It's my hope that, with help from the entertainment and fashion world, we can prevent a beautiful, traditional handicraft from disappearing for ever. Show of hands: how to help You can support the Power Of Hands by buying one of the hand-made lace wristbands shown above, which are available to Telegraph readers for o5 (including p&p). Send a cheque, payable to the Power Of Hands Foundation, to: POH, The London Film Fashion Centre, 6 Angler's Lane, London NW5 3DG (020 7485 6976). To see other designs and lace products, and to find out more about the Foundation's work, see the website on www.powerofhandsfoundation.co.uk. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
A century and a half after her death, the Victorian novelist Charlotte
Bront% is still hard at work, helping tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka. 
She was accompanied on her journey by the actress Geraldine James, with
whom she had worked on the BBC's dramatisation of Trollope's He Knew He Was
Right. The pair made a mini-documentary on the lace-makers' plight, and were
both shocked and inspired by what they found. 
