Fashion

Lux Ruwathi Yuwathi grand finale:

Tharuka steals the show

Demi HEWAMANNA

It was a night like no other. The weather was perfectly fine for a perfect sun setting evening at the Blue Water's Hotel, Wadduwa to bring out 15 glamorously transformed girls to center stage for the Lux Ruwathi Yuwathi grand finale.

Out of these 15 ladies, young Tharuka Shamendi won the hearts of the judges for her grace, smile and simple personality and was crowned the Lux Ruwathi Yuwathi 2009.

The first runner up was Yasanthi Lakmali and the second runner up was Thilini Perera.

All three winners were awarded cash prizes along with saris sponsored by Gee Bees, gift vouchers courtesy Ramani Fernando Salon, Stone n' String and Lux Ruwathi Yuwathi trophy. The event was judged by Unilever Brand Director Ramani Samarasundera, Model trainer and former Miss Sri Lanka Rozanne Diasz, actor Roshan Ranawana, Designer Keerthi Sri Karunaratna and Choreographer Graham Hatch. The Lux Ruwathi Yuwathi was a talk show program that brought in young women to express themselves on various issues revolving their lifestyle. The 15 contestants who were

chosen were nominated after they participated in the talk show. The event's main focus was on highlighting the hidden beauty of each contestant. The contestants walked the ramp in saris for the first round and then evening gowns for the second round.

'Fair & Lovely Diriya Sihinaya 2009':

Giving wings to unfulfilled dreams

Envisioning to make unfulfilled dreams a reality, Fair and Lovely recently launched their reality competition targeting both urban and rural Sri Lankan women who are struggling to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Aptly titled "Fair & Lovely Diriya Sihinaya 2009", the reality competition has now reached its peak, where 10 finalists will compete to win two million, a chance to start off their own business using their life skill, together with the training, courage, confidence and the strength they will receive from this innovative program.

"When we initiated "Fair & Lovely Diriya Sihinaya", we wanted it to be a reality competition like no other in Sri-Lanka. Built on the belief that many Sri-Lankan women have unfulfilled dreams that have either been put aside due to family obligations or just unbelief in themselves, Fair and Lovely's main goal for the show is to motivate Sri-Lankan women of all ages and to show them that anything is attainable - no dream is unreachable," stated Shantha Fernando Brand Manager, Fair & Lovely.

The team behind "Fair & Lovely Diriya Sihinaya" announced their call for contestants through pamphlets enclosed in all Fair & Lovely products and through Fair & Lovely representatives visiting garment factories and regional educational/vocational institutes across the country. The answer to their call was an exceptional total of 20,000 applicants - further emphasizing on how many local women are awaiting the opportunity to establish their business dreams.

The Fair & Lovely team, assisted by the University of Colombo Career Guidance Centre, then conducted a thorough initial screening and proceeded to narrow down applicants to a considerably smaller number of six hundred semi finalists.

These selected six hundred were later interviewed one to one at three central regions Colombo, Kandy and Galle, again reducing the contestants to a hundred.

Subsequently the final hundred contestants were brought together from across the country to participate in a three day workshop that covered a wide array of topics branching from self confidence & interpersonal skills to management, banking & finance, thereby equipping contestants with the practical hands-on skills that they would require when setting up their businesses. Finally, through further screening at the workshop, only ten contestants were selected to proceed.

However, the rest of the contestants did not walk away empty handed either - instead they left the program with a solid foundation in the fundamentals of building their own business and also the courage and belief in themselves to achieve their dreams.

Denim Designs

Levi's and Softlogic form tight fit:

Make way for Denims! Levis jeanswear made a fashionable recently to the local fashion scene with a spectacular show to a select audience at Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo last week. The event highlighted designs that go along with hoipolloi as well as the discerning fashionistas.

The show brought in an international flavour to denim jeans and together with a new strategic alliance with Uni Walkers (Pvt) Ltd a part of the Softlogic Group who are the new Master Distributor for Levi's brand's presence in Sri Lanka.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Business Head for Emerging Markets for Levi's India Sandeep Sokhanda mentioned, "We at Levi's are extremely excited to be embarking on this new relationship. This instance serves to underline our commitment to developing the Sri Lankan market, and providing jeans lovers in Sri Lanka easier access to the latest and best from the Levi's stable. The local knowledge and expertise of Softlogic, combined with the global expertise of Levi's, creates a unique platform we will look to rapidly build upon."

Chairman/Managing Director of Softlogic Holdings Ltd Ashok Pathirage opined, "This is an immensely exciting time for us, and I am pleased to announce our partnership with Levi's. Levi's with its globally well renowned range of Jeanswear have formed an intrinsic part of the clothing lifestyle of people cutting across generation divides.

The show featured a variety of collections from Levi's - headlined by the latest collaboration line designed by Tarun Tahiliani. Featuring some of Sri Lanka's best models on the ramp, the lines on display also included previews of soon to be launched looks from the Levi's collections.

The evening also featured the work of B.L.O.T. (Basic Love Of Things) - a group of diverse avant garde artistes from India who work across creative mediums to provide their audiences with multi-sensory experiences.