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| Sunday, 30 November 2003 |
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Elegance in letters by Umangi de Mel
Sri Lankan fashion has taken a gigantic stride in the ever so hot and happening fashion designing industry. Designers are being born, or rather made, their work spans many genres pushing the boundaries of design beyond the expected. Shameeka Seneviratne, yet another upcoming designer from the Lanka Institute of Fashion Technology (LIFT), is one among the plethora of gifted designers who has given her research an ancient touch with a modern edge. Her line at the show was a fascinating marriage of the modern and ancient era. "When we do a collection we have to have a story board and mine was how the Sinhalese alphabet evolved from inscriptions," she kicks off the conversation showing her story board which reveals a few pictures that have a historical background. "I thought it was something unique and the ancient part of it caught my heart. I've used frayed hems just to depict the old era," Shameeka explains.
Her collection that has apparently won gasps of admiration from the audience, has an underlying theme of timeless elegance. Talking about her designs that shook the ramp Shameeka says the first design which is hand painted is a combination of earthy colours and doll shades, "The second one is in embroidery and I've played around with a shape of a letter. And the third one received a lot of compliments which is a ombinationof the ancient era and the modern era," she says. Each cut seems to have an uneven frayed look and she says she's fused grommets and hems to go with the trend. "The fourth design which is the avant-grade is a blend of the previous three. Basically we look at the story board and determine the collection. There's got to be a connection between the clothes and the story board," she says. Shameeka who works at Bates is into management, "But I've always liked fashion and dressing up and I'm pretty updated about the trends, I love clothes," she says. Having always craved to get her hands on designing and learning the procedures, Shameeka says being fashionable is not just about pretty clothes. Passionate about her career as a designer she says that there's more to every design than meets the eye. "There's a meaning behind a certain design and a certain cut. It's a meaning that you can create once you really study and understand the flow. Manipulating with cuts and fabrics to make people acquire the look they've always wanted," she reveals adding that it's easy to camouflage future problems. She's highly influenced by the cutting edge designs of Calvin Klein and she says that she prefers his simple yet elegant clothes that are not frilly and fussy. "His thinking and style inspired me, he's a designer who's not into ruffles and I'm not either.
"During the time I used to work on launches it was hard and stressful since my working hour were irregular yet I managed to hand in most of the assignments. At the end, there's a huge sense of achievement, the feeling is hard to explain when you see models displaying your clothes on the ramp. Every bit of effort was worth it and it has paid off at the end," she beams. "Especially I didn't want to let go of the social life that I was leading." Shameeka says it's always good to know your basics which will definitely come in handy in the long run where fashion is concerned. "I intend to do my own thing, I really don't know how soon but soon but I hope to put out a collection and launch a label. Taking a look at the local fashion scene Shameeka says that there's a clear difference. "I don't think we're on par with international fashion but our people are very much into fashion and it certainly is good," she says. |
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Her collection which is called 'Alphabet' has been solely based on the
Anuradhapuraperiod, "Well, initially when I told everybody that I was
going to try inscriptions, they thought it would be difficult but the
artistic lines and shapes just inspired me a lot."
My type of clothes are sexy and complement the figure." She
prefers local stuff like Dilly's, she says. "Her cut is really classy
compared to others who put out their clothes in the local market."
Being the busy body that she is doing two things at the same time,
Shameeka says nevertheless she's glad that she didn't quit fashion school.
