It’s time to show your talent

by Thulasi Muttulingam

Do you have an innate flair for fashion designing? Do you constantly check out what other people wear and make busy improvements on it in your own minds?

Are you the kind of person who is always well dressed, the kind of person friends turn to for fashion advice? Or perhaps, you are a quiet unobtrusive person but still have an eye for detail and chic-ness?

Talent can hide in obscure corners within the most ordinary of us - along with the most flamboyant. Whichever category you all fall into, the only bill you need to fit to enter the Sunday Observer Fashion Designer of the year contest is a passion for fashion.

And quite a few Sri Lankans have that innate talent.

The show’s founder, fashion designer Chula Nanayakkara Ariyaratne carries two whole folders of rejected designs from previous years - because they are still worth keeping.

Of all the talented budding designers who applied, only 10 were chosen for the first Sunday Observer Fashion Designer contest in 2005.

“I keep on lobbying to increase the number every year - we have far more talented applicants than we have space to allocate for on the show and each year we are compelled to accept more applicants than we allocated for, as their talent is such,” says Chula.

Last year the number of applicants shortlisted were 20. “I don’t think we can have any more than 20, this year - we simply don’t have the stage space or time to allocate for more on the show, though there is certainly a lot of talent out there who are worth it,” regrets Chula.

Don’t let that dishearten you. By all means, fill in the coupons and send in your sketches. You might be just one of the lucky 20, you might even be the Sunday Observer Fashion Designer of the year 2010, so don’t miss out.

The first contest of its kind in Sri Lanka, the Sunday Observer Fashion Designer of the year has launched many a talented young designer to stardom and provided him/her with a much needed break in terms of publicity or exposure.

That is what the show is all about, the whole reason why it was founded. Age is no bar for this competition and neither is sex. Whether you are old or young (two of the previous finalists were eleven and nine years old), whichever the career you might be in now, if you have got it, You’ve got it. So if you think you have what it takes - apply.

You just might surprise yourself and with talent like that, you will definitely wow the audience and surprise the eminent panel of judges - and then the sky will be the limit with regard to your career.

Your sketches will be reviewed by a panel of judges well experienced in the industry and if shortlisted, you will appear for the semi finals in August. The grand Finale will be held at the BMICH on September 11. Ramzi Rahaman will serve as the make up artist and hairdresser of the models while Singer Sri Lanka will be the official sponsors of the show.