SUNDAY OBSERVER Fashion Designer 2010:

Designing in style

By Thulasi MUTTULINGAM

The coupons have started pouring in for the People's choice of the Sunday Observer Fashion Designer of the Year 2010. Whoever garners the most votes will win the Most Popular Contestant of the Year title. The grand finale is on October 16 and the last day this coupon will be published is October 10.

Those who missed it, please refer last week's article to see samples of sketched designs by the contestants, along with their names so that you can decide whom to vote for. It will also give you an idea of the kind of talent we have in store. You can see the contestants as well as their lovely designs on October 16.

Meanwhile, to get to know the contestants and what makes them tick, here are some short profiles. (Due to space constraints, we are publishing only five. The other fifteen will be given their due space over the next two weeks.)

Gayathri Wijebahu	Graham Anderson	Raffealla Fernando	Umani Baduge	Shashikala Cooray

Gayathri Wijebahu: Gayathri has 'always been interested in fashion designing' but things fell into place for her only two years ago when she enrolled for the Diploma in Fashion Designing course at the Lanka Institute of Fashion Design (LIFT).

She is currently a Key Account Manager at American & Efird Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, of the Brandix Group. She celebrated her 30th birthday last Wednesday.

Graham Anderson: He is 19 years and just finished school in the Commerce Stream at St. Joseph's College, Maradana.

His interest in fashion goes back a long way to the time he started drawing as a small child.

He has been designing clothes and been giving fashion tips to his mother, relatives and friends for a few years now.

He aspires to do his higher studies in the field of fashion design.

Raffealla Fernando: She is 19 years and considers herself an 'artist' in precedence of being a designer. She draws and paints a lot and has also completed a diploma in jewellery designing, along with a Higher National Diploma in Fashion Design from the Academy of Design. She is currently working on her own men's and women's wear label to launch next year and is also the official designer for Ms Lanka for Ms Asia, this year.

Umani Baduge: She is 27 years and studying Interior Designing at the University of Visual and Performing Arts. She has been interested in fashion designing from childhood and has opted to improve her technique through self study as she hasn't studied it professionally.

She aspires to be a fashion designer one day and does a lot of designing for relatives and friends.

Sashikala Cooray: She is 23 years and working at HSBC as a banking assistant. She says she has no formal background in Fashion Design although she has designed her own clothes from a very young age and been designing clothes for friends for a few years now. She is 'very much into art and creativity' and would love to be a fashion designer one day.

20 contestants

Here are the names of the 20 contestants, make sure you write out their full names on the coupon, when voting for them: Gayathri Wijebahu, Raffealla Fernando, Amanjanee Nilaweera, Umani Baduge, Graham Anderson, Mekala de Silva, Anusha Samarasinghe, Supuni Adeeshika Rodrigo, Sashikala Cooray, Dharshanika Ekanayake, Prabudi Dissanayake, Dilum Sachindra, Udya Fernando, Keshini Munaweera, Krishan - Galle, Niluka Kaushalya, Dimithra Sahabandu, Akshari Punchinilame, Dumila Chandrasena and Juliet Rajasingham.

Singer Sri Lanka is the Official sponsor of the show while Ranjan Dedigama of Gems and Jewels (Pvt) Ltd, Maharagama is the sponsor for the office wear segment. Khalil Masood, CEO of SKM Lanka Holdings (Pvt) Ltd will be the sponsor of the Sports wear category while Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd is the Beverage Partner.

Ramzi Rahaman is the show's official hairdresser/make up artiste. Chula Nannayakara Ariyaratne will also be presenting a segment on the show and the hair dresser/make up artiste for her segment will be Saroja Anthonis of Salon Saro.