• High Fashions
  A whiff of a French perfume
• Love of motherland beckons her
• Yolande collection

• Svastika Engravings from Mesopotamia
• Fashion designing is the most beautiful profession - Sinha

Text and Pics by Kirthi Sri Karunaratne
The Parfurmerie, a household name for Perfumes and Beauty products which are more than skin deep, asked a comprehensive crowd of fashion conscious women, the media, besides those in the beauty business to high tea, at the Kings Court, Trans Asia Hotel. The occasion was to warmly welcome.

Ms. Christine Escoffier, the beauty consultant and manager training from Givenchy. Christine was on her third visit to the island, and this time it was to launch Givenchy's exciting new fragrance, Extravagance d'Amarige, and the presentation of "Givenchy Moments". The decor in the ballroom took the form of helium filled balloons in the Civenchy colours of red and yellow, and Christine for the demonstration wore a smart and unusual trouser suit in the same colours. The trousers on the sides, and the long sleeves were open and caught in bands to make a ladder of pattern. The outfit was in half and half in the two colours.

Reshma Hudlani, the force behind Parfumerie, counteracted the colour around in a black and white suit dress. Over the black dress she wore a white jacket, cut in panels and piped in black for smart sophistication. Her ornaments were in silver. A two piece in pale beige was the choice of Pradeepika Wimalaratne. The hip length top was printed in a border design of roses in shades of brown. The top was sleeveless, and she wore a necklace of pearls for an ornament.

Sanjini

Pretty Sanjini Munaweera was simply charming in a sleeveless trouser suit, in a unusual shade of pink, with buttons in a deeper shade of the same colour. The most feminine and lovely dress was in a black lace, lined in a pale beige worn by a young one. The lace was in a border design at the hemline, and the sleeves too were in the patterning. A simple white shirt top Tharinda de Silva teamed with black skirt. A fine black necklace hugged the base of the neck, for appropriate wear for this late afternoon occasion.

A striking shade of pink made the top Anne Jayamaha wore with black pants. The neckline, edge of the sleeves, and the hemline, had a ribbon border in a deeper shade of the pink with a little embroidery at a slit at the waistline in the same deeper colour. A video presentation of Givenchy's latest collection was followed by a makeup demonstration given by Ms. Escoffier with TV star Yasodha Wimaladharma as her model.

The perfume is assured of great success and popularity with the women of Sri Lanka with its soft wift of jasmine and spices which has eternal appeal.

Lavish launch United Breweries Lanka Limited and Mauritius Breweries Limited held a lavish launch to introduce a new beer Kings Larger and a little more potent Bison extra extra Lager besides Kings extra strong stout. There was a dance performance from Dance Mania and Channa Wijewardene's troupe, and a mini fashion show from Menik of Swanee Batiks. This was besides a few speeches and presentation of awards for a good job done in record time.

Lavish and excellent was the spread laid out by The Colombo Hilton, besides the beer served which was of international standards. There were many more men than women on this occasion, and as a result the well dressed women stood out. Sarees scored heavily, and in a lovely black saree was Nirmaleen Rodrigo. The border, sleeves of the blouse, and the pallu was embroidered in a floral design in shades of red and ecru, and the rest of the saree pindotted in red. The embroidery was done to create an effect of hand painting. She wore a choker necklace and ear studs in rubies. Sarala Nagendra had her lovely Indian silk saree in two shades of mauve. In the border and pallu of the saree another colour was introduced. The colour was between a mustard and a bronze. With this she wore a green emerald attial for an extra touch of colour.

A black saree bordered and patterned on the pallu in gold silk was the sophisticated choice of Chulani Anandappa. Her jewellery was in gold. A black saree checked in gold had blocks of colour in green, gold and orange on the border of the saree Kamini Vitharne wore. Her jewellery too was in gold. Her daughter Lindi Wijetunge favoured a colourful salwar. The black salwar had a red and green bib front from the neckline in tie and dye fashion, worked in mirror sand gold. A panel also ran down the front and around the hemline in the same colours, and her duppatta was in the same colours embroidered in dutch work. She wore a gold necklace, and jasmines girdled her hair.

Dilup Gabbadamudalige and Yasmin provided sessions of pleasing music in the background.

By Kirthie Abeyesekera
A widely-travelled Sri Lankan who has served with the United Nations, now domiciled in Canada, says she wants to return home "to be of some service to my country."

"The experience gained and the knowledge gathered in my travels abroad could best be put to use in Sri Lanka," says Soma Goonetilleke who spent several years as an ‘International Civil Servant.’ Fifteen years of her working life were with the UN.

After some persuation, Ms. Goonetilleke, modest of her highly-successful professional career, agreed to talk with ‘The Sunday Island’. I visited her in her beautiful and tastefully furnished home in an exclusive quarter of a Toronto suburb. Sri lankan memorabilia adorn her house to remind her of home where her heart belongs.

The daughter of William Nanayakkara, a planter and Lily Hordugoda from a well-known family in Uva, Ms. Goonetilleke had her early education at the Badulla High School during the principalship of Marjorie Taylor, a popular and respected English educationalist. Later, at only age 22, after a brilliant academic school career, Ms. Goonetilleke herself, was to be the principal of the Badulla Visakha Vidyalaya founded in the ’40s by the Uva Young Men’s Buddhist Association. I had the honour of being a founding member of the school, having been among those who cut the first sod to lay the foundation.

From the Girls’ High School, Ms. Goonetilleke went to Mahamaya Girls School, Kandy and thence, to St. Gabriel’s School in Yatiyantota where she got a double promotion from Form II to the Senior Form. Her subjects were Civics, Geography and History. She also won the Best All-rounders award. Entering the Colombo University in 1950, she passed out with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, being the youngest graduate at the time. Her working life began as a teacher at the Ruwanwella Central School. After a brief stint as assistant librarian at the Colombo Public Library, she went to London in 1955 where she studied Information Systems at the Kensington Library. After only eight months in England, she returned home, at the request of her mother who, like all good mothers, feared her daughter would marry a foreigner. She went back for a short teaching period at the Little Flower Convent, Bandarawela. In 1958, she joined the Peradeniya University for her post-graduate Diploma in Education.

In 1959, she married Denzil Goonetilleke, a Wadduwa lawyer and a nephew of Philip Gunawardena and taught for a few months at the Panadura Balika Vidyalaya.

However, her professional life really started when she was appointed Director of the Library and Documentation Services of the Rubber Research Institute at Agalawatte. In 1964 she won a Commonwealth Scholarship to study Information Systems in India. Two years later, she was named Director of Information and Documentation of the Industrial Development Board and, in 1972, was seconded for service to the Export Promotion Board. In 1973, sponsored by the Sri Lankan government, she won a UN Scholarship on Information Services to Geneva. The following year, tragedy struck her family. She and her husband had hosted two ESCAP delegates from Vienna to dinner in their Battaramulla home.

Driving the guests back to the Galle Face Hotel, near midnight, the car, driven by her husband, crashed opposite the Green Cabin, Kollupitiya. He died instantly. Neelan Tiruchelvam who was driving past, took her to the Accident Ward of the General Hospital where she was treated for minor injuries. The two foreigners were hospitalised for three months under the care of Dr. Weinman. Widowed at 39, she did not allow her personal loss to affect her career. Rather, her mobility was on the rise.

In 1975, Ms. Goonetilleke was appointed as the UN’s Regional Advisor on Information Systems. Based in Bangkok, she covered the Asian Region and had the opportunity of working with people from many walks of life. In 1980, she was promoted as the UN’s Chief Technical Advisor and Project Co-ordinator for the Asia/Pacific Region.

Her duties entailed constant travelling. She visited some 30 Asian and Pacific Region countries. While on the payroll of the UN, she was an advisory consultant to the Sri lankan government. On the expiration of her UN contract in 1989, she visited Africa and worked in libraries in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

In 1991, she received a fresh UN assignment as Project Co-ordinator and Chief Technical Advisor of information Services in New York, after which she worked for the Tanzanian government.

In the meantime, Ms. Goonetilleke had obtained admission to Canada (1987), but took up residence only in 1996 to join her son, Dilan and daughter, Dileeni.

"There is limited scope to be of some service to others in Canada, because this is a land of affluence," says Ms. Goonetilleke. "I think I can be of more service at home where human needs are greater." Looking back, she has a feeling of satisfaction that the opportunities she’s had, have enabled her to be of some help to her family and friends. "But there’s still much more that can be done." Her concern for others is demonstrated in a story she relates. Ranjith, a 27-year-old neighbour of her Battaramulla home, used her garden to grow vegetables and other crops for a living. On her last visit home, she fenced in her property, thus denying access to Ranjith. To compensate him, she placed Rs. 50,000 in his name in a Trust Fund. This yields him a monthly interest of Rs. 750.

Soon she hopes to return to Sri Lanka where, in her Battaramulla village, she plans to start some community projects that would keep needy children gainfully employed. Among the projects she has in mind, is educational classes, with the emphasis, more on the broader aspects of learning in relation to facing the realities of life, rather than on ‘book’-knowledge. She also stresses the need for moral education in an age when such values are falling apart. "Academic education is well taken care of," she says. "What we need is practical education."

by Gamini G. Punchihewa
Since I was interested to gather authoritative world literature on the significance of the Svasthika emblem contacted the late M. H. H. Sirisoma, the then Deputy Archaeological Commissioner in the early 1990's who referred me to a book titled 'Symbols of the Gods in Mesopotamia Art' authored by Douglas Van Burani and published in Roma, in 1945.

In this valuable reference book, its author attributes the symbol of Svastika in Mesopotamia to be a pictographic sign of a fortified settlement or fortress.

He states that it represented a solar symbol derived from the spokes of the wheel of the sun chariot or as a wind rose.

Mesopotamia brings nostalgic memories of one of the earliest civilizations of the world cradled in Euphrates and Tigris river valleys. What was Mesopotamia in ancient times, is today known as Iraq.

Here are some quotes from the above quoted book: "It is believed that a wing was the equivalent of wind in early Summerian mystic language thus confirming the theory Svastika symbolize the whirland. A more elaborate adaptation was that of four human figures painted on the inside of bowl, arms outstretched and long hair streaming out to one side to make the angular arm of Svastika.

Clay fragments from Ur. IIS, 4-5 show the windrose transformed into four heads, two humans and two bovines for four bulls, legs directed towards the four points of the compass. The Svastika might assume the form of two nude men back to back and so contorted that the head of one fits into the curve by the bent back of the other."

Elaborate descriptions are made in this book on the symbolic significance on the Svastika where nude men are represented within the arms of the Svastika. A sign of Summarian mysticism.

Kitchen utensils
In the Mari palace kitchen, among the moulds were found the designs of Svastika where bearded nude men were shown running round in a circle symbolized to form the design of the Svastika. Even in the early Babylonian period, such representations had been made of nude men in a Svastika.

Such symbolic Svastika representations date back to the 14th century B. C. The standard heads from Iran were adorned with the Svastika symbol. Among the graves at Alaca Hurk, a metal standard was found in which a Svastika design was enclosed along with other motiffs.

Hitler's Svastika symbol
Once when Mr. T. B. Karunaratne delivered a lecture on the auspicious symbols (Astamangala) at the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, Mahaweli Centre Auditorium, Colombo, to a question from the audience, as to how Hitler came to use the symbol of the Svastika, as the Nazi ensign, he said the Svastika was one of the Aryan symbols and as Hitler traced Germans to Aryan origin he used that symbol.

He even asserted that the Red Indians of North America had used the Svastika symbol engravings which have been found on the walls of the rock caves there.

Boyhood memories
Regarding the Nazi's using the Svastika symbol I am reminded of an amusing incident in my boyhood days over half a century ago during World War 11.

During the war allied forces defended Sri Lanka among other countries and a European soldier visiting a hotel in the (Alutgama-Bentota) area on seeing the Svastika symbol carved on the door was surprised and in an angry tone asked me: (Johnny that was the stock word they used when addressing boys or young men), 'What's that Svastika mark on the door frame (pointing to it with his finger)." I answered cooly: "Oh, its only a Buddhistic symbol. "The irate soldier gave me a furious look and mumbled some obscene words (unprintable) and went away.

By Zanita Careem
Yolande Aluwihara is an expert on batiks and silks. She was fascinated with the then current trend of batiks and interested herself in it as a hobby. Soon her hobby turned into a viable commercial venture. Her sustained artistic skill help her synergise her intrinsic design sense into forms fabrics and fashions.

The measure of the artist in Yolande is her ingenuity to create exclusive designs and capture every mood and nuances of women from simplicity to the sophisticated. As for her own design ideas she has drawn from many influences but as a designer her inspirations are drawn on textures, the cut and the line and the fine details. Her emphasis is on one of a kind, that is her trademark. She says "My collections are exquisite and are done from hand woven fabrics or pure silks."

Simplicity in look and style are becoming more of Yolande concept. Backed by a lot of thought and enhanced by a concept - the Yolande collections reflects an amazing adaptness and enriched imagination. Imagination seems to be her goldmine from which Yolande draws increasingly to create works, which is refreshingly unusual and eye-catching. Her collection has been included in the top fashion magazines of Europe. Every ensemble is produced under her personal supervision.

Yolande has taken part in prestigious trade fairs all over the world. She exports her products to many European markets and also to Japan. Her boutiques are at Liberty Plaza and Crescent Boulevard which she opened recently.

"My only dream was to be a fashion designer and I focused on this profession while schooling, said the 22-year-old fashion designer, an ex-Josephian, Sinha Pieris of Enderamulla, Wattala. Sinha who completed his high school in 1992 with the hope to be a fashion designer joined the Lecoiffeour Academy in Colpetty to start with. There he learned hand make-up and mastered the art.

‘From childhood I used to collect fashion magazines, beautiful pictures of people attired in fashionable outfits and make-up, and it was easy for me to be very creative when I used to do make-up for customers’, said Sinha.

Sinha didn’t stop there. He joined beauticians Ramani and Ramzi to learn more about fashion, and make-up and it was after that he met Yrol Jayawardene a professional designer who taught him the very basics of designing outfits.

"Colour combination, describing a fabric, selecting the right material and the texture etc.. and it took almost five years to learn about fashion in Sri Lanka. I was only 20 years old when I completed all what I thought I should know in fashion, and then I spot an advertisement in a fashion magazine which called for young people to join a fashion school in Qatar. I joined Helen and Daniel Fashion School, Qatar, in 1997, where we students were taught sketching, describing, colour combination, styles and textures involved in presenting a show’ he said.

After completing the 13-month-course, Sinha arrived to his motherland and started as a professional designer. He is, at present, running his own designing centre at his residence.

When asked what’s fashion in his opinion, he replied "To be attired in an outfit that everybody would go ga.. ga.. over it".

Sinha also stressed an important point that fashion keeps changing and designers should be aware of all the latest in fashion and the changes and try to grasp them to have them used in the market or in designing for customers.

At present Sinha takes lots of orders and has plans to open a boutique in his label.

"I want to design denim jeans in my collection’ said Sinha who has the confidence to start his own collection of outfits.

Apart from his full-time work, he spends time in listening to music, sketching designs when it click’s to him and loves eating.

Sinha plans to hold a fashion show at the end of this year. "It’s fun to be a designer because you are the master of all ideas" Sinha said laughingly. "Fashion is the most beautiful profession in the world and I believe in it’, he said before he rushed to his workroom.