Arts
Youthful take on tropics and tradition
London Fashion Week (LFW) is one of the most eagerly awaited events in the fashion world, along with Paris, New York and Milan fashion weeks. To showcase at LFW is to command the attention of fashion’s most powerful and influential people, from magazine editors, to celebrities to couture houses and retailers. To have your designs stride the catwalks of LFW is every young designer’s dream: for Amesh Wijesekere, that dream has now come true not once but twice.
Going places: Amesh Wijesekere
The 24-year-old who first captured the attention of the Sri Lankan audience in 2015 when he won the first annual Mercedes Benz Fashion and Apparel Award, has come a long way in a short time. An old boy of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, Amesh started his journey into the fashion world when he enrolled for a degree in Fashion and Textile Design at the Academy of Design (AOD) in Colombo. Having grown up watching his mother work on her many projects as an interior designer, he felt inspired to follow a similarly creative career. “I felt fashion was a great art form to express myself and my creativity,” he tells us. A choice that clearly was the right one.
Amesh had his first taste of an international showcase when he presented his graduating collection for AOD at the Graduate Fashion Week 2016 in London, where he went on to win the prestigious International Designer Award and the Oracle international catwalk competition award presented by the editor of Vogue Italia. Doors opened! Amesh was given the chance to exhibit his collection at the ‘Ones to Watch’ exhibit at Fashion Scout during LFW 2017 Spring/Summer season. One of the largest independent events at LFW, Fashion Scout is a support platform for young emerging designers, attended by fashion’s elite, such as Vogue editor Anna Wintour, supermodel Kate Moss and fashion journalist Hillary Alexander. The exposure the designers receive is phenomenal. Though his collection was not on the catwalk, it was a sign of bigger things to come.
Soon after graduating Amesh decided to move to London and pursue several internships with designers and fashion houses, to put to use what he had learned, gaining an understanding of the inner workings of the London fashion industry. “The (most) important thing that I learnt is how the industry works and the pace of the industry. Working with a few of the designers such as Zandra Rhodes and Edeline Lee also taught me how crucial time is and how to manage people from diverse backgrounds like clients to stylists to factories,” Amesh explains.
This year he returned to LFW’s Fashion Scout London for their 2018 Spring/Summer season, his collection selected for the catwalk. With only one month to pull off an entire collection from design to production, to say it was hectic would be an understatement. It was also the largest collection he had ever attempted. Putting all he learnt during his internships to good use, with a mixture of excitement and stress ever present, he saw it through.
For his debut collection, made in collaboration with the sustainable design brand ‘SRI’, Amesh drew inspiration from Lankan culture, the country’s history, lifestyle and its flora and fauna. In fact floral prints akin to the local ‘Mei Mal’ are featured throughout the collection. Using tropical yellows, pink, reds and pleasant greens juxtaposed with simple whites and beiges the collection had a bright and youthful vibe.
On the London Fashion Week ramp: Amesh’s creations seen here and on our Magazine cover. Pix by Simone Armstrong
The Lankan connection also saw Amesh incorporating the traditional crafts of Dumbara weaving and handloom into the collection. The use of the former was clearly exhibited in several items in the collection : the green three quarter pants had a white and pink motif strip running along the front of each leg (see middle pic far right) .
Having found working with local artisans a humbling and inspiring experience, it was important to Amesh that he give the crafts a platform, and this he has done by featuring them through his collection. “Helping and supporting their lifestyle and their craft was an extremely important part of my life and I was able to achieve this through this collection,” he said.
This won’t be the last we see of Amesh Wijesekere’s designs. Having received a positive reception at London Fashion Week 2018, his future plans entail more collaborations with several brands including SRI which share his approaches to design and life. “I think collaboration is vital for any designer. I see myself working in more design collaborations of that nature where my sense of style, my love for textile, my story and my origins align with the collections,” he says.
