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For Yolande, couture is a genre of cross-pollination. Of silk, and of fantasy and fashion which is a luxuriant translucence, radiating rich saturated colours of nature's organic and seasonal colours.

Her hottest must-haves for the year are marked by her own elegantly stated opalescent opulence. And a bold and sensual hand-painted shimmer. With Yolande Aluvihare, 'society girl' is the vogue and minimalism is banished to the rear.

Yolande's success story touched yet another peak at Tokyo Hilton early this month when she launched 54 designer haute couture in celebrating the fifty year-drawn friendship of Japan-Sri Lanka. Her fashion fusion with the famous Japanese designer, Mrs. Fujikawa, led to several fashion shows in Tokyo and earned her a 15-minute TV appearance, triggering a 'Yolande-fashion' demand from the Nipponese.

The bored housewife from Horana who experimented with batik to batter the monotony demon, has come leaps since her creativity blossomed at the Non-Aligned conference of Colombo in 1975. "President Kaunda's wife bought from my fashion show," Yolande recalls the rendevouz which spurred her on to the Frankfurt International Trade Fair four years later. Her batik silks have also charmed Paris Villages de Monde Trade Fair and the Canadian International Women's Wear Show.

Yolande won the Silver Award in the Medium Category of the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2000, awarded by the Women's Chamber of Industry and Commerce and moved onto the challenging intricacy of executing hand painted designer silk clothing. And has buyers scattered in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, France, Japan, UK and the USA.

When Femina Magazine featured Yolande in October 1998, the Indian market lost no time in grabbing her potential and snapped her participation at the Asian sub-continent Fashion Show and Exhibition "Bridal Asia" where her entire collection was a sell-out. "Yolande" is now sold at "Kaaya", the designer boutique run by Leena Singh in New Delhi. "My designs have won awards at Madras, Barcelona, and I have been the only Asian to take part in the Muba Fair in Switzerland," Yolande says with modest pride and for Lanka's evergreen "Lady of Silks", the planet is still strewn with a plethora of fashion possibilities. (J.L.)

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