An opportunity for fashion designers

By Thulasi MUTTULINGAM

Applications are pouring in for the Sunday Observer Fashion Designer of the Year Contest. This year too, Colombo will be exposed to a fresh load of extraordinary talent if the sketches coming in from applicants are anything to go by.

The show originally started with 10 applicants and because the level of entries was so high every year, Chula increases the number of allotted contestants by badgering the organisers until last year, it was brought up to 20.

However, even she does not think it would be advisable to increase the number to go beyond 20, no matter how much she could wish it otherwise.

She has a word of advice to all applicants and would be contestants: "Most of you have a genuine flair and great talent for fashion designing. Do not lose heart even if you are not selected as it is not a reflection of your lack of skills but simply that we do not have enough space to accommodate all the deserving talent. Keep on with your dreams and you will succeed one day."

Sri Lanka is not well known as a Fashion Design hot spot but if the entries to the Sunday Observer Fashion Designer contest are any indication, then we have an amasing amount of human resource out there to turn the country into one. On a side note, there might be some glitches with the dates of the semi-finals and finals, at the BMICH. Keep a look out for the fixed dates as it is to be pushed back due to unavoidable reasons.

This week's personality to feature in this series is 25- year-old Sheruka Mahakumarage, second runner-up at the Sunday Observer Fashion Designer of the Year 2009. A bubbly and happy personality, Sheruka has just started work as a designer for Daya Apparels. She was freelancing as a designer till then and says most of her commissions were for bridals which she found profitable.

But she didn't want to be confined to one category and so she is happy about joining the Daya Group as she can try out her creativity. Sri Lanka is still not considered a very conducive country by most up-and-coming designers but for Sheruka, who left a good job in India because her parents wanted her to comeback, "The Sky's the Limit".

"I had a good start. I knew I was going to make it in Sri Lanka when two days after I arrived back here, I saw the advertisement in the Sunday Observer and applied. I became the second runner-up, won the best sportswear category and got much needed exposure to the Sri Lankan fashion industry", said Sheruka.

Sheruka had already completed a degree in Fashion Design in Bangalore, India and won the All India Upcoming Designer 2008 title. "It was a nationwide competition in India," she points out, justly proud of having won the coveted title. She had been working there for more than a year, with every prospect of making it in the industry over there when she was recalled by her parents who wanted her to be with them.

"It was my parents who have their own textile business, who encouraged me to do fashion design", she said. "This wasn't exactly a burning ambition of mine from childhood although I am very happy to be doing what I am doing now. They certainly knew what was best for me."

Considering the Sunday Observer Title that she won so soon after her arrival in Sri Lanka an auspicious omen, she went on to participate in many more shows, getting noted for her creations.

She was again the second runner-up behind Gihan Ediriweera in the Lanka Woman Fashion design contest, held later in 2009 and this year, she was the winner of the Choklaate Mother-Daughter Fashion Design contest where her designs for mother-daughter duos were adjudged the best.

She is very positive about the future of fashion Design in the country and her own role in it. "Of course there is a very good future for fashion designers in Sri Lanka. The sky is the limit. I am very excited to be a designer and have a stimulating job where I have to constantly learn, update and reinvent myself."