Subject of cloth: its manipulations and ramifications

Abstract

Fashion’ has been playing a pivotal role in human society from time immemorial. Fashion designing, the essential component that plays a vital role in the industry, deserves a careful and comprehensive study. Creating new fashions is the key to product development in the industry. The objective of the research is incubating new fashion concepts from identified fashion characteristics of the Kandyan era in to the future. The selected study setting of the research is the Kandyan era (16th Century – 1815) of Sri Lanka. The Kandyan era emerged as a new fashion movement with unique characteristics. The most significant draping concepts and methods in fashion were gradually developed during this era. The study is based on exquisite draperies of dresses of royalty, elites and peasantry of the Kandyan period. There are plenty of visual records to study the background of this study setting, such as sketches and descriptions made by observer – participants of the period, historical murals, carvings and sculptures of the period. The study began with observational study. Reliability of the data which was incorporated in the research is of much concern. Therefore, pictorial data were cross checked with different literary sources. Finally the reinforced concepts were compared with formally established philosophies in order to forward timely necessary concepts. The research extols three draping concepts and methods as emphasizing body silhouette by wrapping, folding and knotting fabrics over the body. Also it enabled to demonstrate dynamic movement of the dress by attaching many suspended folds around the body. The last one veiled the body by coiling large pieces of fabrics. Therefore the Sri Lankan dress characteristic is more than a covering; it imparts an anthropomorphic value to the object. The dress is unpredictable until it is arranged. It is dynamic, thus it evokes timeless fashion concepts.