Marie Gnanaraj is 69 years old, and Marisa Gnanaraj is 38 years old. Officially, they’ve been collaborators for six years. Unofficially? It’s more like Marisa’s whole life. “Mum has been making fabric for the longest time, I have literally grown up with it,” says Marisa remembering the loom in their home, and how she and … Continue reading
J.K. Methma Jayawardhana runs a business in which she might never meet her customer, even though her products are customised, intricate and deeply personal. The young entrepreneur is a graduate of the University of Moratuwa and founder of the brand Loha. “The main intention of ‘Loha’ is to reach passionate jewellery wearers through bespoke jewellery … Continue reading
Barbara Sansoni was 11 years old when she met Maria Montessori. Having fled to India after being exiled by Mussolini during WWII, Maria’s school in the Olcott Garden Bungalow already had a small complement of students. Now, here was this child in need of her guidance. Barbara, enrolled close by in a boarding school in … Continue reading
Noorjehan Bilgrami has spent decades fascinated by one colour. Born in Hyderabad, India Noorjehan was still very young when her parents chose to migrate to Pakistan as partition cleaved India in two. Moving to Karachi as a nine-year-old, she would nurture an interest in art until as an adult she made it her calling. However, Noorjehan … Continue reading
Nelun Harasgama designs her sarees downstairs while her husband, the photographer Luxshman Nadaraja takes pictures of them upstairs. “He is famous, I am not,” says Nelun, smiling, but that isn’t quite true. Before she ever began designing sarees, Nelun’s paintings won her acclaim but she always found them difficult to talk about. Stark and haunting, … Continue reading
Walking across Barefoot’s courtyard on a sunny day, Marisa Gnanaraj is hailed by more than one regular. She’s a familiar face here, the young designer whose debut collection under her ‘MFact’ label sold out almost as soon as it made it to the racks. It also helps that some of these people have known her … Continue reading
Moviemakers have coaxed Sri Lanka into costume more than once—that’s her masquerading as a small Indian village that needs Harrison Ford’s whip-cracking assistance in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and there she is again, looking like Thailand and the site for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). In Tarzan, the Ape Man(1981), you’re supposed to mistake … Continue reading
Avinash Kumar treats the name B.L.O.T as part instruction manual, part personal philosophy. An acronym for Basic Love of Things, B.L.O.T is a two man audio-visual collective. Avinash’s friend and collaborator Gaurav Malaker is in charge of the music, while Avinash is the resident VJ. Having performed in Colombo before, Avinash was back to lead his … Continue reading
Sitting in her garden, Nihara Fernando resembles nothing so much as a bird of paradise. Her toenails are pink, her fingernails are green. Big rings adorn her slender fingers; one wrist is bracketed in several bangles of varying sizes and shades of green. Her pants are red but the thin shirt she’s paired them with … Continue reading
Don’t let Nish de Gruiter’s suit trick you into believing he’s a conservative guy. The truth is in the details: the tapering pants folded up neatly to reveal an ankle, his bare feet shod in loafers. The blue and white checkered jacket with its fine print doesn’t have any lining or padding at the shoulders … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 