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| Amila with his design |
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| Kamal with his design |
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| Nisansala with her design |
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| Anoona with his design |
The graduating batch of the University of Moratuwa Bachelor of Design Degree in Fashion Design and Development showcased their collection at the Mount Lavinia Hotel recently. The honours at the graduation show went to four promising students who were awarded prizes for their innovative collections.
The ‘Outstanding Design Brand’ award went to 25-year-old Kamal Wasala for his collection of ‘convertible clothes’. “My concept project is ‘the future is unbalanced’. The world is unbalanced because it has two ends - the poverty stricken and the rich. I’ve picked generation Y as my target customers, as they are the upcoming generation.
The market I’ve selected is Los Angeles, US. After doing my research I’ve concluded that this generation would prefer a multifunctional wardrobe,” explains Kamal as he tugs at the buttons and zips of a handbag and instantly unravels a jacket.
The material he’s used is suitable for bags, jackets and even dresses -waterproof and highly durable.
Kamal’s line also has images depicting poverty so the wearer will be constantly reminded of such social issues. “That’s my product strategy.
The garment must sell and my research showed that generation Y are tech savvy people who are concerned about these issues and want something special which is why I’ve designed convertible clothes.”
“My concept was about making the world a better place and I drew inspiration from superheroes,” says Amila Gayan Dassanayake (23) who won the ‘Most Commercially Creative’ award for his comic book inspired collection. “I used print media, typographical prints for my collection. My target customer is a photographer in the UK and this collection is of casual wear Spring/ Summer 2010.”
Amila studied comic book superheroes such as The Thing, IronMan and Hellgate from the PC game. “I used the shape of their armour to develop the structure that’s 3D and wearable and used materials such as synthetic layers, single jersey and different denim fabrics,” he says.
Nisansala Deepamali Rajagalgoda (23) believes she won the ‘Serendib Inspiration’ award for her choice of fabric. “I chose knitted fabrics because the knots and loops were ideal for my theme which is ‘eternal transmigration’. My inspiration was derived from sea life.
It’s difficult to find an end to sea life and likewise with particular types of knitting it’s difficult to find an ending point. The idea to make my collection out of knitted material came after my training at Ranmalu.”
Her designs have distinct features of seashells and fish and were created with a 32-year-old creative director in Los Angeles in mind. Colourful—almost psychedelic, this is a full knitted multicolour party wear collection spring/ summer 2010. She used the tie and dye method which is done manually.
Having trained at Ranmalu, Anoona Udaththawa (26) used woollen fabric for his designs and won the ‘Award for Innovation’ for his collection inspired by ‘modern interiors’. His titled his collection theme as ‘unorthodox classics’.
Annona’s target customers are businessmen— stockbrokers and insurance brokers, between the ages of 30- 40. “Businessmen can’t dress untidily so I’ve had to stick to suits which is difficult when considering you have to get the real shape and there’s a lot of hand stitching involved.”
The Bachelor of Design Degree in Fashion Design and Development offered by the University of Moratuwa, is the only such degree that is available in Sri Lanka.
The course is a four year programme which consist of an introductory year, second year for development, industrial placement year and finally the fourth year which is known as the ‘definitive year’.
The course covers all practical, technical and theoretical facets of fashion designing. The designs by these four graduates show that Sri Lanka is not in any way lacking in creativity and talent. |
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