- Groundbreaking collaboration in fashion with UNFPA Sri Lanka which builds awareness on domestic violence
By Naveed Rozais
Established designer Amilani Perera launched her latest collection, titled “Unbreakable” at The Design Collective Store on 22 August.
Unbreakable, which made its debut at HSBC Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) 2020 the week prior, is a unique collaboration between Perera and the United Nations Population Fund Sri Lanka (UNFPA).
The Unbreakable collection uplifts and empowers women who have been through domestic violence in Sri Lanka, featuring embellishment and embroidery done by women at the Women’s Development Centre (WDC) in Kandy.
The launch event at The Design Collective Store featured a panel discussion titled “Break the Silence! Speak up against Gender-Based Violence”, with Perera and officials from the UNFPA and WDC discussing how gender-based violence and women’s rights can be addressed on a national level.
The panel included designer Amilani Perera, UNFPA representative Ritsu Naken, UNFPA National Programme and Women’s Rights and Gender Policy Analyst Sharika Cooray, and WDC Executive Director Sashi Stephen. The panel was moderated by UNFPA assistant representative Madusha Dissanayake.
Perera opened the panel, explaining the story behind her collection and how through “Unbreakable”, she hoped to use fashion as a tool to educate and drive the issue of domestic and gender-based violence; an issue that transcends gender, race, and socioeconomic barriers.
“The message is for the silent sufferers, to show that you can break through and be empowered,” Perera said, going on to share how she carefully curated her colour pallete, selecting burgundies and reds to devote abuse, mid-greens for transformational healing and growth, and pinks to represent the empowered woman. Perera also told the story of empowerment through the volume and character of her garments.
Perera also explained how she worked in the work and messages of survivors of domestic violence into the collection, with handwriting from victims and hand embroidery and other embellishments by domestic survivors from the WDC being incorporated into the collection. The thread embroidery in the collection was done during the pandemic, providing employment and empowerment for women struggling through that difficult time. Unbreakable is also an environmentally responsible collection that uses sublimation printing, to minimise the environmental impact, as well as zero-waste production policies.
Perera will also be working with women from WDC in the longer term, doing mentoring programmes, colour therapy, and skill-based workshops with survivors of domestic violence to give them more power to overcome their circumstances.
UNFPA representative Ritsu Naken commented on the partnership with Perera, noting that this was the first partnership of its kind that the UNFPA had embarked on. Naken also commented on the advances that had been made in women’s rights since the landmark World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, making world leaders embrace women’s rights and equality.
Naken also commented on the misunderstandings that stem around gender-based violence, with justifications made for abusers and blame placed on victims, sharing that this comes from societal norms that hold that women are not really equal to men and that this mindset is what crucially needs to change. Looking at fashion as a tool to help drive this change, Naken shared that the UNFPA worked closely with Perera, holding frequent and open discussions, talking about taglines that drove the story of empowering women while not isolating men.
Naken noted that men also go through their own societal pressures to conform to ideals of masculinity and strength, to which end the UNFPA wanted to make sure this message could be communicated, without isolating anyone.
UNFPA National Programme and Women’s Rights and Gender Policy Analyst Sharika Cooray spoke on settling on the tagline “Unbreakable” for Perera’s collection, sharing that it was important to emphasise a survivor coming through their traumatic experience stronger, which was what led to the word and concept of the Unbreakable tagline.
Cooray also went on to explain the UNFPA’s victim-centred approach of supporting survivors of domestic violence, which focuses on giving victims (not just women) a voice and enabling an environment to support them. Cooray emphasised that it takes an immense amount of courage for a victim to come forward, and it is important for those speaking out to be supported. “Everyone needs to be an advocate,” Cooray added, “It is important to understand that survivors fear being victimised further by their families, communities, and their abusers as well as facing judgement and stigma.”
Cooray explained that the victim-centred approach prioritises the needs, wishes, and rights of survivors, giving them access to services and resources, and a holistic approach that helps them through the crisis.
Speaking on a national level, Cooray shared that sometimes due to political will and lack of resources, for example, national budgetary resources, there can often be a lack of quality support.
WDC Executive Director Sashi Stephen shared that while domestic and gender-based violence is a global issue, Sri Lanka does have structures in place that allow it to respond very well. Stephen explained that there is protection for women and children at the divisional level, the district level, and ground level, but where things go wrong is that women and children do not want to come out and say that their rights are being violated, largely because of the blame and stigma they may suffer for doing so.
Stephen explained that the WDC has been functioning for 30 years, and that many of the referrals they receive are from rural areas, and that the issue is in great need of contextualising, and this is what is missing at a national level.
Stephen also stressed the need for a dedicated State Ministry for Women’s Rights, to look into issues like this as well as figure out systems for what happens to victims of abuse once they attain legal age and are sent out into the world to fend for themselves.
The panel also discussed larger issues like normalising gender and sexuality education in schools, and the importance of bystander responses when witnessing gender-based violence or abuse.
Speaking on fashion as a tool to drive empowerment, CFW Founder and Managing Director Ajai Vir Singh shared that fashion is not simply about glamour; it’s about addressing one of the three basic human needs (food, clothing and shelter), and shared the view that the fashion industry is largely driven by big brands driving fast fashion with little care for the social and environmental impact they have, explaining that this is something CFW is rectifying with the implementation of the Responsible Metre – where every garment shown on the CFW platform is held accountable for social and environmental impact, asking designers questions like “how happy are the people working for you?” and “how happy are your consumers?”.
Singh also shared that real change would start once consumers ask questions like “why am I buying this?” and “how is it made?”, using this to influence what they consume.
The Unbreakable collection by Amilani Perera is available for retail at The Design Collective Store.
