• Founder of the ‘Amilani Perera’ exotic luxury fashion brand and designer Amilani Perera on empowering abused women

Fashion designer Amilani Perera’s purpose is not just making great clothes. She weaves bespoke fashion into the threads of empowering women. Amilani’s self-titled, exotic luxury fashion brand was the only Sri Lankan brand to be featured at the 2016 Asian Designer Week and was showcased at the United States of America (USA) - Sri Lanka Fashion Week in 2017 in New York, USA. Amilani is also the official uniform designer for Sri Lanka’s Airport and Aviation service persons. But, what is most important in her illustrious fashion career is her collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to uplift and empower abused women in Sri Lanka, engaging with survivors of violence in her product development and via mentoring programmes and enabling these women to enhance their fashion and design related skills. She is certainly proving the old adage: not all heroes wear capes, some design them.

Perera was on Kaleidoscope this week, elaborating on her experience in working with victims of violence across the country. She attested to their resilience and courage and spoke about how society needs to protect these women. 

Following are excerpts of the interview:

What prompted your partnership with the UNFPA to help abused women?

I have always been passionate about this cause and working in it, but, this is the first time that I actually tied fashion and the cause together. This is sort of a hand me down project from my parents because they have always been involved in social causes. The idea came about during a random yet passionate conversation I had with a UNFPA representative about gender based violence (GBV) where she suggested that we use this platform to get our message across. I had been showcasing at the Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) about seven times and she pointed out that it would be a great opportunity to showcase my designs articulating GBV. While I loved the idea, I didn’t want it to be just one collection or one campaign. I wanted to become more involved with women’s shelters, teach them skills in fashion, and give them entrepreneurial training so that they would be empowered. The partnership that blossomed with the UNFPA is now in its fifth year and I’m really happy with how it has manifested in that time.

You have a trilogy of collections already shown, namely, “Unbreakable”, “With Her”, and “Heal”. How did these come about? 

“Unbreakable” was about touching base with the surface of the term GBV. This was in 2020 and during the pandemic, so, I didn’t get to visit the shelters to speak with the women and girls. The entire collection was based on information that I gathered at seminars and workshops on how women and girls are cornered, pushed around, and have their lives shattered, and therefore, I wanted to make sure that the audience was aware that maybe someone known to them would have been in a similar situation. The message embedded in that collection was that it’s not the end of the world and that there is a better life after the harrowing experiences, and that you as a woman are unbreakable. When I was able to, I visited the shelters and realised how creative and energetic these women are. They are women like you and me, with hopes and dreams, wanting to build their own lives and families. I wanted to protect these women because, especially in a South Asian context, society tends to look down on violated women. So, my second collection was to send out a message that we as a community are “With Her”, that we will protect the Sri Lankan “Her”, immaterial of what part of the country she is from, regardless of the demographic, community, religion, and ethnicity. My third collection “Heal” was where fashion actually fused with GBV. The question of “What were you wearing?” is asked repeatedly anywhere in the world. It’s the first question anybody asks a woman who has faced GBV. Statistically, what a woman was wearing has nothing to do with GBV, nor does what the perpetrator was wearing. Fashion needs to speak up, stand up, and say that what a woman was wearing doesn’t matter. We must question the reasons why a perpetrator attacked the woman or girl and what their backstory was. There is evidence that most have been violated in the past and could be just repeating a pattern. Hence, it is not about what you wear but about protecting yourself and speaking up. 

When you were working with these women, what is the one thing that stood out?

It is their courage. Ninety per cent were violated by their closest family members, their fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and uncles. In one case, a girl’s own mother violated her. That’s how heartbreaking these stories are. These women though, are so inspiring, eager to learn, and move forward with their lives. The shelters too must be commended for enabling these girls and women to emerge from their dark past, stronger and empowered, helping them to understand that they need to move forward and be ready to experience the world. The strength that these women possess is remarkable. We rely on family when things go wrong, but, who do these women turn to when it is the family that has wronged them?

What exactly did you work on with these women?

 When I first went to the shelter, I taught them about colour theory and embroidery techniques. A piece that they were working on was worn by former Mrs. World Caroline Jurie when the “Unbreakable” collection was showcased at the CFW. I showed them how to bring out colours and how to mix colours that work together. While these women may be talented, they needed to learn these fundamentals to make their progress in fashion internationally viable. I also taught them different entrepreneurship skills, including building a portfolio. Not all want to become part of the fashion industry, but business skills are common to all. The UNFPA then asked me to reach out to the differently-abled survivors who are sheltered in Akasa, Anuradhapura. This was challenging as the disabilities differed from person to person, but, I had to give them the same skills to work on. Whatever project had to be the same for all because the underlying tenet is to make them feel that we are all equal and that together, we can create beautiful things. I taught them macramé, and the weaves will be used in my next campaign, which is coming up soon. You won’t believe it, but the best macramé was woven by a woman who is visually impaired. She tied the threads to a railing in the window and started working on it, completely relying on the feel of it. She mastered the technique in just 30 minutes. This is how courageous and accomplished these women are. They don’t give up just because they are disabled and have faced GBV. 

In a world where women’s work is under-valued to a great extent, how do you get these women to realise that the work that they do is valuable?

Whenever I speak with these women, I always state how important it is to have gender equality and equality among us as women. If there’s a job opportunity or a product you’d like to purchase, don’t think about gender, just look at the person’s qualifications and the product specifics, and make a decision. Gender shouldn’t figure in that decision. That’s what I’m fighting for. Irrespective of gender, we need to give people opportunities. I keep telling these girls that they aren’t limited to a box because they’re a woman. Don’t think that you have to stay at home after marriage, you can do both the marriage and the career. It’s up to you to decide how to live your life. If you want to do something, you should push yourself and get it done. 

What’s next for you and your partnership with the UNFPA?

There’s a new campaign in the pipeline, “Bodyright”. It’s all about giving your body rights, the same way that songs have copyright on the internet where you can’t use songs for free without paying the copyright. People are using images of people’s bodies freely. Our bodies unfortunately don’t have that copyright protection. “Bodyright” has already been launched in the US and will be launched in South Asia too. I’m taking the campaign into fashion, showing that as a society, we can protect the victim. For example, if we get a video or news snippet about a woman, it is up to us to report it or share it.  We may share it with the best of intentions but the more that something is shared, the more visibility it gets. The bottom line is that women and men need to be protected. ‘Bodyright’ covers multiple areas, including body positivity, sexual violations, and toxic comments. We are now discussing this on the platform of fashion because people in the fashion industry get victimised.

(The writer is the host, director, and co-producer of the weekly digital programme “Kaleidoscope with Savithri Rodrigo” which can be viewed on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She has over three decades of experience in print, electronic, and social media)