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Sri Lanka through the looking glass

11 Dec 2021

  • Dr. Ayesha Wickramasinghe’s ‘The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka’
Clothing is an important part of who we are. It is one of our most basic needs, and reflects the deep-seated values of our culture and identity. Clothing goes well beyond its basic function, impacting how we recognise ourselves. Through fashion, a wearer’s mentality and social status can be recognised. Style, cut, colour, fabric, and texture; there is so much you can tell about a person, about a society, from what they wear and how they wear it.  Clothing, beauty, and female figures always work together. Ancient civilisations – Minoan, Sumerian, and other Earth-worshipping cultures – believed that a woman’s body was sacred, that she was the living embodiment of the Earth. This can be gathered from their depictions of fashion. With the decline of religious concerns in the West, more people look to their own bodies as the centre of meaning in their lives, and so too, to their dress.  How has our culture shaped what we wear as Sri Lankans? This is what Dr. Ayesha Wickramasinghe from the University of Moratuwa Department of Textile and Apparel Engineering decided to explore in her new book, “The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka”.  Covering the 20th Century (the entirety of the 1900s), “The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka” explores what women wore during this period, and what influences were at play when it came to fashion. For the entire world, the 1900s was a century of great change, from the effects of the Industrial Revolution to the social upheaval of the First and Second World Wars to the various influences that shaped the world from the 1950s through to the 1990s. Sri Lanka was no exception. Starting the century as one of Britain’s best-loved colonies, through the World Wars, our quest for independence and the start of our 30-year civil war, the 1900s absolutely transformed Sri Lanka and this shows in our dress.  For a little more insight on how the clothing of women in Sri Lanka evolved through the 1900s, we chatted with Dr. Wickramasinghe about the findings of her book.  [caption id="attachment_178928" align="alignleft" width="247"] ‘The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka’ author Dr. Ayesha Wickramasinghe[/caption] Dr. Wickramasinghe began writing “The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka” after completing her  Ph.D. at the University of the Visual and Performing Arts in 2016, where her dissertation focused on the changing fashion of Sri Lankan women across the 20th Century. “As a Sri Lankan with great enthusiasm for our heritage and culture, I wanted to investigate local fashion phenomena in the context of the history of Sri Lankan fashion,” Dr. Wickramasinghe said, adding: “I was inspired by 20th Century Sri Lankan women’s wear, as it is a more unexplored area and thus I could contribute to that body of knowledge.” While most post-graduates forget their theses the second they graduate, Dr. Wickramasinghe’s thesis stayed with her, and after some encouragement from her supervisor, University of the Visual and Performing Arts former Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sarath Chandrajeewa, she decided to go ahead and use the basis of her thesis to create a book that tells the story of women’s dress in 20th Century Sri Lanka, working on the book for about four years.  Over the course of her research, Wickramasinghe studied over 250 sources for details about women’s dress and accessories, because, as she points out, accessories are as equally important as the clothing. These sources included books, sculptures, temple paintings, live objects, old garments, temples, museums, and many other locations and sources.  Dr. Wickramasinghe’s new book is confined to the aesthetic values of female clothing, as reflecting the fashion movement throughout the century and the causes of its transformation. These aesthetic values are discussed by evaluating alterations, modifications, comparisons, values, interactions, principles, strategies, and advances in the clothing. Clothing includes dresses, textiles, textile adornments, jewellery, hairstyles, cosmetics, shoes, and accessories – all the protocols used to adorn, protect, and construct social identity. Sri Lankan female clothing fashions can be innovated today by modifying proportions and ornamentation and can serve to uplift awareness of the social and cultural heritage of the country.  We asked Dr. Wickramasinghe for a quick overview of what 20th Century dress was like for women in the early part of the century, before World War I and when Sri Lanka was at the height of colonial rule. Dr. Wickramasinghe shared that this was mostly when we begin to see affluent Sri Lankans emulating Victorian-style clothing, with it becoming something most women were wont to do. “The native styles were there, but people loved to dress Victorian, and Victorian influences made their way even into our native styles; it even made its way into ohariya jackets, for example,” Dr Wickramasinghe said. Victorian textiles also became popular even in native clothing with lacy blouses becoming pervasive.  “The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka”, though focusing on 20th Century clothing, does also talk about what came before, because what we wear is inextricably linked to the past. Dr. Wickramasinghe’s critiques principally focus on evaluating the aesthetic values of female clothing during the 20th Century. It also focuses on analysing this clothing in view of the geographic, historical, patriotic, political, ethnic, caste, and sexual interactions during the century. This is done by looking at the colonial, post-colonial, and industrialisation periods, dealing with several important arguments concerning female clothing approaches in the context of relevant fashion movements.  This book makes an original contribution to the field of Sri Lankan fashion because it expands our understanding of female clothing approaches, fashion behaviour, and movements by exploring the phenomenon of fashion. It also fills a significant knowledge gap when it comes to Sri Lankan female fashion between the ancient and present periods. With Dr. Wickramasinghe now being something of a lone (to us) expert in this field of how Sri Lankan fashion has responded to world happenings and influences across the whole of the 20th Century, we asked her to give us a glimpse of what she feels the next ten or twenty years could have in store for fashion.  She mused that due to the pandemic, and an increasing trend just before the pandemic that embraced ethnicity and national talent, there is going to be an increasing trend in fashion focusing on local craft and skills. “People really love the ethnic and hyper-localised trends,” Dr. Wickramasinghe said, adding: “They’re using and enhancing whatever they can find in their country and they’re falling in love with their heritage and the things they can find culturally. This is not just Sri Lanka, but many other countries as well are understanding the worth of their heritage crafts and artisans.” This will also lead to countries developing more and more distinct individual styles because of how they are using textiles and skills unique to where they are in the world. “People are going to want to wear something that belongs to them. If there was no pandemic, I feel that this trend would have become something different, something more technological. But the pandemic has made people think about themselves and their cultures, and for that reason, people want to wear something that belongs to them culturally. They have come to appreciate the value of our national crafts and handloom skills.”  Dr. Wickramasinghe added that in the research she was also able to see just when our local crafts became popular, noting that the 1950s and 1960s were when our local handloom industry really began to form, with it going through something of a golden age in the late 1960s and early 1970s when our governments at the time were focusing more and more on locally made products. She also shared an interesting tidbit, that Sri Lanka used to produce very good quality silk around this time, though this trade has sadly died out in the intervening decades.  While fashion does seem a superficial thing, and yes, sometimes it can be so, it’s important to realise that fashion is also a tool. In Dr. Wickramasinghe’s words: “Fashion design is a highly creative, seductive, and rapidly moving form of living art.” Through looking at fashion, we can tell where we are, what came before us, and with some careful thought, where we’re heading. And in “The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka”, Dr. Wickramasinghe paints us quite a vivid picture of just what this means by looking at the century before us, and giving us a glimpse of what we might expect in the century to come.  “The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka” is available for purchase at the Barefoot Colombo, Expographic Battaramulla, Sakura Art Store and Gallery, and online through books.lk

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Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!


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