Image courtsey | Amesh Wijesekera
Photography by | Tavish Gunasena

Amesh Wijesekera, ARTRA’s Emerging Artist, Best of 2017 who graduated from The Academy of Design (AOD) in 2007, has been evolving consistently both locally and internationally for his inventive style of presenting gender-fluid fashion. Amesh, who was thereafter, featured ARTRA's Applied Art, Oct E48, in 2019 was recognized for his brilliant colors and fascinating lines which combined masculine and feminine qualities evenly who experimented with time and ethnicity in order to create a gender-neutral reality who was selected to open the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin which focused on inventive young designers in 2019.

The fashion show was a prodigious success. However, Covid19 disrupted the flow of the show’s progress however, Amesh persisted his vision. Without allowing anything to prevent his rise, Amesh spectacularly created a sensation with his collection: ‘A Celebration of Sri Lankan Heritage and Craftsmanship’ presented at The Physical Reference Festival in Berlin in October 2021, as a tribute to his Sri Lankan roots and culture. The show gained many accolades for its fresh, colorful and gender-neutral platform.

ARTRA interviewed Amesh, who now lives in London, about his newest fashion launch he will be presenting this year, called ‘The Lotus Pond, Volume 5’. With ‘The Lotus Pond’, Amesh admires the bond between nature and sexuality, where the community mingled with each other in everyday life. Through his reminiscence, Amesh envisions a freedom and sensuality as well as the simplicity of masculinity in the Sri Lankan tradition.

This young designer is specifically interested in the historical trends of fashion in Sri Lanka. The designer feels that colonialism shaped the concepts of beauty, gender and masculinity in Sri Lanka in the last few hundred years. Amesh’s pursuit is to reconnect with his that existed before colonialist trends of fashion arrived, where the local environment and nature dictated the fashion of the day.

Nature remains bountiful in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in South East Asia, balanced to this day to a large extent. The wealth of nature is interwoven with the study of maleness and beauty in Amesh’s new collection. With ‘The Lotus Pond, Volume 5’ collection, Amesh looks into the connections between communal heritage, skills, crafts, textiles and the relevance of artisanal methods. This combined with surplus workshop materials and digital fashioning allows Amesh to design worth into his creations. By using ‘refined silhouettes’ and these new automated or digitized skills, Amesh has risen once again to a new level. The designer has also chosen to give fashionable names for his color scheme for the Lotus Pond such as cinnamon earth, burning orange, monsoon blues and luminescent lilies.

When speaking of the past, one can feel the love his family shared with each other. Amesh discusses his mother, especially. He talks about how his mother realized that he was ‘different’ and being an interior designer, herself, allowed Amesh to ‘be him from the very beginning’. He expresses affectionately of how he initially used his mother’s saris to create his garments, about how she was the main influencer for his vibrant color palates, patterns and textural structures. By renewing his legacy into custom-made and fashionable designs, he invents pieces with embroidery and hand-paintings.

Image courtsey | Amesh Wijesekera
Photography by | Tavish Gunasena

In order to create these embroideries and hand-paintings, Amesh now always collaborates with local artisans and handicraft makers to make exclusive woolens, crochet and handwoven fabrics. His vision is to produce gender-inclusive and sustainable fashions. The fashion designer wants to give the wearer a sense of freedom and individuality, not to get wedged into wearing the same old plain colors, blue, beige, brown and black. Amesh wishes to advance a connection to birthright and true identity.

One of Amesh’s main concerns is supporting the local craft industries in Sri Lanka. The artist used a group of models that he scouted on Instagram to model his fashion during the pandemic. In 2020, Amesh created his ‘Flower Boy’ collection. ‘This has been a collection I have always dreamt about’, he stated at the time. ‘Flower Boy’, was a name he used to describe himself as a child. Being extravagant or flamboyant was silenced in him as a child. Amesh states that even now he cannot understand how others can casually live their own lives dictated to them by society, rather than living according to their own dreams and aspirations. He remembers living in a toxic environment in Sri Lanka, facing mental and physical abuse as a schoolboy. His life, he states only changed for the better once he became a member of the Academy of Design (AOD). There he found ‘authentic self’. This is where he became ‘free’, finding endless and safe means to express himself.

Amesh lives a genuine and comfortable life in London, England. Identifying as queer, Amesh has created what he calls a ‘gender-inclusive’ Label. Simply, ‘AMESH’. He states that his label is a ‘nonsensical’ word in English and therefore has no gender or any kind of prejudice attached to it. Amesh finds that this simplifies all things, allowing him to explore deeper and beyond any sort of type casting, with gender fluidity. He finds this refreshing and loves the excitement he feels when he sees his brilliantly colored pieces inject themselves on the European catwalks.

On numerous occasions, Amesh Wijeserakera has praised the Sri Lankan born photographer, Lionel Wendt as being his idol and inspiration to come out and be his authentic- self amidst a conventional and conservative society. Everybody had ideas about his clothes, his hair, the way he stood, the way he talked. Amesh felt highly insecure about himself, until he came to understand Lionel Wendt and his photography. He discovered the sensuality and grace of men in simple everyday clothing or no clothing at all. Amesh became enamored by the photographer’s work. Upon researching Wendt, Amesh realized just how pioneering, thought-provoking and absolutely courageous Lionel Wendt was. Amesh decided to take from this groundbreaking artist, the bravery to create as he himself thought fit. The fashion designer felt a kindred spirit which resonated with his own genuine issues and eccentricities. He discovered his authenticity of character through Wendt.

Amesh Wijesekera has become the embodiment of gender-fluid fashion. From his beginnings at the AOD to his latest creations on ‘The Lotus Pond, Volume’, Amesh has gown in confidence, style and stature. Though his main models are male, he does not like to use the word ‘man’ or even consider his models as men. ‘Even masculine men can be soft and fluid,’ says Amesh. And he proves this point effectively through his fashion. ‘Many women feel comfortable wearing my clothes,’ he continues. That is why his label, AMESH, though still ‘very small’, has become a trendsetter when it comes to gender-fluid fashion.   

Image courtsey | Amesh Wijesekera
Photography by | Tavish Gunasena

Written by Namalee Siriwardhane