Models in the blue, white and brown dresses and metallic jumpsuits - a jumble of scarves and chain necklaces wound round their necks - descended the long, narrow runway, which was strung with long gold strings representing, it became clear, rays of the sun. A massive circle made of gold foil burst into thousands of confetti pieces at the end of the show, as models sporting jumpers made from saturated pastel chiffon, their hair swathed in a rainbow of scarves, marched down the runway. Just watching the show was enough to make you itch for a Saharan getaway. JOHN GALLIANO For his upbeat sartorial remake of "Sunset Boulevard," Galliano recast the movie's tragic heroine - the faded screen siren Norma Desmond - as a tough cookie whose iron will and magpie eye allow her to prevail in the end. Galliano's models were all Norma, played in the film by Gloria Swanson, as she sees herself in the mirror plotting a wardrobe for her return to the red carpet. Her looks are cobbled together from what she's got hanging around - silken nighties, oversized jackets, bits of lace, feathers and oversized diva sunglasses. These are worked into over-the-top outfits that won't take no for an answer. Dialogue from "Sunset Boulevard" was piped in at the beginning of the show, and as soon as the models appeared, dressed in riotous looks concocted from layer upon layer of sheer negligees, light printed skirts, sharp shouldered jackets and trenches with lace paneling, it was clear.
While the entire country is celebrating Aluth Avurdu,a very few realize that the Sri Dalada Maligawa is celebrating the New Year in its own unique way.
It is a simple ceremony, mainly observing customs and traditions. In fact this is the beginning of the Sinhala New Year.
The time of the birth of New Year, is the passage of time from Pisces to Aries, which infact is announced by the Maligawa authorities and the Kariya Karavana Korale, the person who handles the festivities of the Sri Dalada Maligawa. In fact he is second in command next to the Diyawadana Nilame.
The Sri Dalada Maligawa becomes the centre in all activities. The times are set out and conveyed to the Devales who act according to the directives of the astrological data supplied to them.
In fact Sir John D'oyly attended the first Aluth Avurdu festival at Natha Devale after the Sacred Relic was brought back to Kandy from Kuruvita, the place to which it was taken for safe keeping by the people.
There has always existed, at all ages and in all societies, the clash between urban sophistication and rural manners and attitudes. What is truly shocking in contemporary Sri Lanka, however, is the degree of pastorality in society - not in the villages but in Colombo itself.
It is in this cosmopolitan beehive that you can meet the true rustics. While many in the villagers aspire to (openly or in secret) to some degree of urban sophistication, Colombo citizens aspire to become villagers. More often than not, they actually are.
By this, I don't mean people like those characters in the Martin Wickremasinghe novels, villagers who have made good in the big city, who are nostalgic about the simple routines of their erstwhile pastoral lives. I mean here second or third generation city dwellers, people who have spilt enough shampoo and deodorants on themselves to fill the Kalaweva tank many times over. These are the types who now profess a true love for the village, its ways, its clean air and its organically-cooked food.
Mallika Hemachandra who designed and created the crown for the winner had her black saree bordered in intricate thread embroidery in green, gold, red and touches of other colours she picked up with the necklace and eardrops of Ceylon stones.
Janet Balasuriya too had her sapphire blue saree bordered in a similar fashion that she wore with a turquoise blouse and a choker necklace of blue and white stones and pearls both at the front and bottom of it.
Yasodha Wimaladharma, the actress from the big and small screens, made a charming picture in an evening dress of deep champagne lace re-embroidered in sequins and beads, the lace up to a low waist, with the skirt in silk, in a graceful drape, she wore with perfectly matched gold handbag and shoes. A number of items of dancing, singing and mime kept the audience entertained and between the changes the girls had to do from costume to swim suit veiled over with ponchos and then into evening dresses created by Chrysanthi Feando-pulle and Lou Ching Wong.
Glow with Hi!! produced a show for the finals of the Miss Sri Lanka which revived memories of the days gone by when such contests were the highlights of the social calendar. At this glittering gala held at the Waters Edge, a panel of judges, among them three of Sri Lanka's best dressed women with a former Indian High Commissioner and two men, one of whom was film idol Ravindra Randeniya, picked the winner from 12 girls at their glamorous best. On the panel was Otara Chandiram in a red dress, Goolbai Gunasekera impeccable in saree and Yoland Aluvihare also in saree she had created to set off a Swarovski necklace and earrings to perfection. The jewellery in two shades of dazzling blue she wore with a black saree which had a single line of blue sequins at the hemlines, the fall draped in her own inimitable style.
The winner of the title looked the embodiment of a beauty queen, in her slim sophisticated dress of a striped fabric dazzled with rows and rows of silver beads, which had a neckline at the back cut down to the waist, with garlands of the beads flowing from the shoulders of the shoe string straps.A choker necklace and long drop earrings in glittering white stones completed the picture.
Loyal fans, many of them retuing every year for decades, screamed and clapped for their favorite stars -- although occasionally at the prompting of an Academy official -- and a dozen or more cooks and caterers watched from the roof of the theater.
Australian actress Cate Blanchett, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for her performance as Katharine Hepbu (news) in "The Aviator," carried one of Hepbu's gloves in her purse. "I don't want to make a big deal of it," she said before the ceremony. "It's for good luck."
Blanchett chose a pale yellow Valentino couture gown with a jeweled corsage on the shoulder and a burgundy band around the waist.
But she
admitted after winning that she was more comfortable in men's clothes.
"Definitely when I was playing (Hepbu) I felt more at home in the suits
than the dresses," Blanchett said.
From Laura Linney to Renee Zellweger, many of the stars sacrificed practicality for style, choosing strapless figure-hugging mermaid dresses that flared only at the knee, forcing them to teeter along on high heels.