The ChoKoLAATe Mother-Daughter Fashion Designer (MDFD) Contest was held on 29 May 2022 at the Grand Marquee, Taj Samudra Colombo.
ChoKoLAATe Mother-Daughter Fashion Designer Contest provides a platform for young designers to showcase their talents by creating casual, sports, and evening wear ensembles for a mother and daughter.
The event provides a space for young aspiring fashion designers, guiding them in actualising their collections, and allows young designers to gain experience in varying aspects of the fashion industry; planning out and creating one’s own collection, taking into consideration different demographics, market segments, varied sizing, and others.
The highlight of the show is a feature we’ve all come to know and love – the designs modelled by real mother-daughter duos.
The ChoKoLAATe Mother-Daughter Fashion Designer Contest featured an eminent panel of judges – Sri Lankan actress, model, and beauty pageant titleholder Chulakshi Ranathunga, economics, banking, and finance professional turned fashion enthusiast Arosh Fernando, ICL Brands (Pvt) Ltd. Director Shanthi Bhagirathan, and Selyn Manager (Business Development) Saluka Kotagama. The runway show was choreographed by Rozanne Diasz, and the grand finale was conducted under the patronage of Creative Director Dinesh Chandrasena.
This year saw the 12th consecutive iteration of the event which featured nine finalists – Aysha Faizer, Jayara Athukorala, Kavini Weerasekara, Lihini Wanninyaka, Maheshie Perera, Maneesha Bandara, Marina Carraro, Shadini Peiris, and Zafreena Moulana.
The finale announced the first runner-up as Shadini Peiris and second runner-up as Maneesha Bandara. The coveted title of the night went to winner Zafreena Moulana, who was awarded an extensive public relations package, a pre-portfolio shoot, an invaluable scholarship, and a one week long internship at Shantanu and Nikhil couture fashion in India.
The first runner-up of the event, Shadini Peiris, a student at CFTCSL Fashion College whose collection was titled ‘Identity Collection,’ shared that this collection showed her identity and life story, as she was inspired by her own creations from her small business where she made string art and wooden wall art. She noted that this was a wonderful opportunity for her and she was grateful for having been given the chance to showcase her talents.
Similarly, second runner-up Maneesha Bandara, who is currently following a degree in fashion design at the Open University of Sri Lanka, had her collection under the theme ‘Black,’ with the intention of portraying “the darkness within one’s soul, which may be caused due to anxiety and depression while also always trying to be positive and energetic”. She too shared that she was incredibly happy with the outcome and was looking forward to furthering her education and career.
The winner of the ChoKoLAATe Mother-Daughter Fashion Designer Contest Zafreena Moulana, whose theme for the night was ‘Artistic Botanica’ – which according to her was inspired by nature fused with abstract prints, shared that she was elated and that she believed this would be a great opportunity and stepping stone for her to improve her career path.
Sharing her thoughts with Brunch, ChoKoLAATe Founder and Managing Editor Michelle Gunasekara noted that this year was a particularly challenging one, owing to the current situation of the country. “Considering what we are going through as a country this year, we wanted to somehow go ahead with this event even though it was at immense cost, and the challenges were persistent. But we feel that these youth are the future and that they will be able to put Sri Lanka on the map in the way of design,” she said.
Gunasekara stated that they hoped to encourage these designers’ creativity, and to give them a platform for them to enter the industry, adding: “This would, of course, basically bring more business into Sri Lanka as well. That is the main objective of this show, especially this year – to give them that push.”
She also spoke fondly of the contestants, sharing her observations of how they worked incredibly well together, showing humility in the face of adversity: “One thing I have to say is that this set of designers had a really challenging couple of months – dealing with curfews and riots and costs too, because they did not anticipate these changes when they were selected. But despite all, one thing I loved was their perseverance and their determination to take it through and their talent,” she said.
“I see this every year and I feel each year the talent grows. It gets much more competitive, and even though they are competing, what I loved was that they helped each other. They empower each other so it is all about empowering youth,” she added.
When asked about the specific challenges faced in staging fashion shows during these turbulent times, and whether she had any second thoughts, Gunasekara said: “I had so many second thoughts. I wanted to postpone because it did not seem that everyone was in the frame of mind to take on something like this,” she said. “But I didn’t want to let these designers down because I had given them a promise to give them a platform and I wanted to use this opportunity to push them a little further because they are the youth. I feel that they are very resilient and they know exactly what they want and they also know how to get it, so it is up to us to give them that push,” she noted.
Gunasekara shared that she believed that during these particularly difficult times, now more than ever, events such as this were important spaces to allow the youth to grow: “It is not just a fashion show, it is a platform.”
