Are unreasonably pricey sarees that don’t really pay off, highlight your faults over strengths an all too common tragedy as of date? Sarees are made to accentuate beauty, and not wreck it. I can safely tell you that Shylooms by Shyamala Pinto Jayawardena will prove an antidote to your problem!  She explains, “A woman’s sexuality is her beauty. If a fabric can’t make her look aesthetically beautiful, there’s no point in it.” Creative head of Shylooms, and an incredibly talented and well informed designer (among many other things!) Shyamala designs and overlooks the weaving of the sarees and trains the weavers working for the yarn weaving centre owned by Shylooms.

She precisely points out that the different proportions and skin colours we have here are not adequately matched by the saree choices available at stores. “A pallu with two or three lines is such a total waste of material. Yarn is not cheap, so if you’re colouring it, why not colour it well?” Most people in our country involved in the cottage industries sector can weave, but what they lack is art. There’s a startling lack of taste and innovation when it comes to the weaving industry.

As long as a saree fits in to our budget, that qualifies it for purchase for most of us. Shyamala feels ladies are calling themselves in for trouble in going for what’s cheap, and not what suits. Clothes are not meant for utility alone. “Being fashionable actually is being able to carve a certain image and build self identity around it. And shopping ‘fashionable’ is not getting the most expensive or imported items either.” In investing in a fabric from Shylooms you will be spending the same amount you’ll throw on a saree in any other garment store, but still be paid off with excellent taste and quality, and will therefore utilise your financial ability properly.

When you buy a saree it is essential to consider if it suits the individual – skin colour, height, size; things simple as how the saree carries lines maybe, contrast in colours etc. When she showed me the sarees that were on display, I couldn’t help but note that they were distinctly different to any I have seen elsewhere. If seeing them was one level of amazement, the level of craft in them being explained was another!!The trouble taken over the colour palette running through the weave, the vibrancy of those colours, and the lines that run throughout were all so unique and distinguishing to repetitive handlooms sold in other reputed places. I even saw one which was cotton on the inside assuring comfort and had a silk exterior that will give a glamorous facade.

She has given due notice to things as meticulous as the ample length of the saree, allowing space for a jacket since it’s difficult to find a fitting material for a handloom from outside. And that’s what Shyamala is bent on too, to encourage women to take trouble over dressing make the maximum out of the fabric in your hands –  basically to inculcate aesthetic sense. For instance, every time you change the jacket, drape or jewellery (which you can mix and blend) you can turn around the saree.

In these sarees though there might be range of shot colours all in one, the balance achieved by spreading them across the right places is a little magic that any woman is sure to find fascinating. Shyamala will, most importantly, guide you in selecting what suits you best and how you can turn a single piece of fabric into something that can bring out the woman in you.

Visit Shylooms located at No. 3, Siripa Road, Colombo 5 or find them online at www.shyamalaschoolofart.lk/ and www.facebook.com/Shyamalaschoolofart

By Nivedha Jeyaseelan