leader july 30 , the soccer- holic swimwear designer · be designing for major football clubs like...

1
Sunday, July 30 , 2017 2 WEEKEND LEADER Resort and swimwear designer Tharindhu Ranatunga speaks to The Sunday Leader T harindu entered the fashion industry few years back after he completed his studies at AOD in Colombo. However, he soon discovered that he wanted to learn more and dig deeper into the intricacies of the fashion industry. Tharindu followed this dream to one of the oldest fashion capitals in the world-Milan, where he is currently pursuing his masters’ studies. Speaking to The Sunday Leader, Tharindu opened up the conversation with how a bizarre twist in fate led him to fashion through a love for soccer. “It all started with my love for the game of football. I was fascinated with designing football jerseys. When my knee was operated after my first national call up doctors presumed I might not be able to play. I was determined to stay connected to the game which led to the idea to be a designer who would be designing for major football clubs like Juventus, Milan, Arsenal etc. e Soccer- Holic Swimwear Designer But I actually ended up being a swimwear designer.” Tharindu’s entry to swimwear was also through a fortunate twist of fate: “When I was interning at Linea Aqua we did a collection for the Mercedes Benz Fashion show in Paris and I was asked to do a swim piece using weaving. At that time I had no idea about swimwear and I was literally lost. But, after so many failed attempts, experiments and guidance from my colleagues I managed to design my first ever swimwear garment using the Macramé technique. Later on that design was bought by the Turkish swimwear brand ‘Penti’ and we made quite an impressive profit out of it,” he reminisces. He admits that everything was a challenge for him at the time, considering how he was a fresh undergrad who had no previous experience in constructing swimwear which is quite a complicated matter that it seems. “Just started the internship, first project, need to impress my design head and the team..; so basically my job was on the line. But interpreting macramé techniques into swimwear was more challenging and so much interesting than I even thought of. But whenever you experiment on something, it opens a couple of new doors for you to explore and then I was enchanted by technique as well as swimwear.” This ability to experiment, and use those experiences in creating something new which other people will fall in love with, is what drives Tharindu to continue designing and studying further into the fashion industry. However, Tharindu also feels that right now, fashion is plagued with many people who become designers for the sake of it, without knowing the intricacies, the hard work and the depth that goes into making a garment. “Many people think it’s easy to become a fashion designer and they have a very misleading idea that drawing something on a piece of paper and matching some colors will make you a designer. It has become a trend to be a fashion designer just for the sake of it. But it is way deeper than people think. As a designer you need to know the trends, targeted customers, seasons, colors, silhouettes, raw materials, embellishment techniques and mainly fashion construction. Summing up with what design means to him, viewed from the perspective of fashion, Tharindu mentions the following: “Fashion is an art which gives freedom to your imagination through techniques that can make those ideas a reality.”

Upload: vunguyet

Post on 18-May-2019

216 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Sunday, July 30 , 20172 WEEKEND LEADER

Resort and swimwear designer Tharindhu Ranatunga speaks to The Sunday Leader

Tharindu entered the fashion industry few years back after he

completed his studies at AOD in Colombo. However, he soon discovered that he wanted to learn more and dig deeper into the intricacies of the fashion industry. Tharindu followed this dream to one of the oldest fashion capitals in the world-Milan, where he is currently pursuing his masters’ studies. Speaking

to The Sunday Leader, Tharindu opened up the conversation with how a bizarre twist in fate led him to fashion through a love for soccer. “It all started with my love for the game of football. I was fascinated with designing football jerseys. When my knee was operated after my first national call up doctors presumed I might not be able to play. I was determined to stay connected to the game which led to the idea to be a designer who would be designing for major football clubs like Juventus, Milan, Arsenal etc.

The Soccer-Holic

Swimwear Designer

But I actually ended up being a swimwear designer.”

Tharindu’s entry to swimwear was also through a fortunate twist of fate: “When I was interning at Linea Aqua we did a collection for the Mercedes Benz Fashion show in Paris and I was asked to do a swim piece using weaving. At that time I had no idea about swimwear and I was literally lost. But, after so many failed attempts, experiments and guidance from my colleagues I managed to design my first ever swimwear garment using the Macramé technique. Later on that design was bought by the Turkish swimwear brand ‘Penti’ and we made quite an impressive profit out of it,” he reminisces.

He admits that everything was a challenge for him at the time, considering how he was a fresh undergrad who had no previous experience in constructing swimwear which is quite a complicated matter that it seems. “Just started the internship, first project, need to impress my design head and the team..; so basically my job was on the line. But interpreting macramé techniques into swimwear was more challenging and so much interesting than I even thought of. But whenever you experiment on something, it opens a couple of new doors for you to explore and then I was enchanted by technique as well as swimwear.”

This ability to experiment, and use those experiences in creating something new

which other people will fall in love with, is what drives Tharindu to continue designing and studying further into the fashion industry. However, Tharindu also feels that right now, fashion is plagued with many people who become designers for the sake of it, without knowing the intricacies, the hard work and the depth that goes into making a garment. “Many people think it’s easy to become a fashion designer and they have a very misleading idea that drawing something on a piece of paper and matching some colors will make you a designer. It has become a trend to be a fashion designer

just for the sake of it. But it is way deeper than people think. As a designer you need to know the trends, targeted customers, seasons, colors, silhouettes, raw materials, embellishment techniques and mainly fashion construction.

Summing up with what design means to him, viewed from the perspective of fashion, Tharindu mentions the following: “Fashion is an art which gives freedom to your imagination through techniques that can make those ideas a reality.”