Handcrafted Batiks - blended into high fashion

by Prasad Abu Bakr

Darshi Keerthisena is the most recent happening in the fashion circles of Colombo. A fashionable young lady her self, she is a discovering new avenues to revive and blend the art of batikinti high fashion trends.

Batik which was a popular art form once was introduced as a big time export business by her father Buddhi Keerthisena under the branding of 'Buddhi Batiks'. Today Darshi's designs are still marketed under the same branding too.

To her the need to blend the art of batik into high fashion trends has become more of a challenge today rather than a need, if one looks at her background before she emerged as a designer a few years ago.

Growing up within the surroundings of a batik factory may have had a creative affect on her as a child but her educational background which pruned her to become more of a fashion designer, creating clothes most suitable to be worn by today's chic young should have in fact steered her away from an art such as batik, which in fact was considered 'out of fashion' some time back.

But for Darshi it all worked the other way around, instead of sticking it out trying to create fashionable clothing, which in fact is a rat race today, Darshi thought of using the technique of batik to process modern design and sometimes traditional motifs to decorate her clothes.

At a time when Sri Lankans were all going slick and western while the west was drawing its inspiration from the east it all stood in good stead for the young designer, where changing trends in the western world was concerned.

Her knowledge of the limitations that she can not go beyond if she is to please her buyer is actually giving her a big boost in her chosen field. Her ability to experiment in colour and also use batiks within limitations of modern trends that are evolving the world over has made people sit up and take notice of the art of batik all over again, long after its mutilated past both locally and internationally.

The young lady is armed with a Degree in fashion Design from the University of Central England in Birmingham and has gained much experience at a very young age and in a very short span of time, both by working for top level garment factories at the corporate level and lecturing at universities and fashion institutes at the same time.

Darshi Keerthisena has turned around the local lack lustre fashion industry which otherwise depended mostly on the creative abilities of the west, copied and presented by local self taught designers, some of them with the least amount of creative sense.

She has rekindled the interest of the local fashion conscious by presenting a line of trendy wear with the unusual presence of handcrafted batik motifs on them. Today it has become 'THE' thing to be seen wearing a Darshi Keerthisena design at any top level function.

Her saris stand out with a stamp of identity as a 'Darshi Special' and the younger men have started to patronise her casual wear made of ultra soft cotton fabrics (Her husband Johan De Livera seem to be the trend setter in that department, because you see him smartly clad in his wives creative shirts at many of Colombo's functions).

So a trend has been set by Darshi and many seem to be embracing it with much adore and still others are willing to ride the crest by wearing something that not only will put them amongst the trend setters in reserved dress circles but also amongst hearts that love to 'Go Sri Lankan' at any given time of today.