Fashionable Christmas and New Year Greetings!!! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Source- http://favim.com/image/332056/

 Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope you all have a fashionably wonderful day with lots of prezzies, good friends, families and happy memories!!! :D Don't forget to go through the fashion shoot pics of the vintage collection in the latest issue of the In Vogue magazine! Will update you all about Christmas and my shopping experience in Bangkok soon. Till then take care and have a great time! Bling! xoxo

A night of Henna

Intricate patterns of mehendi applied in my hands during a friends mehendi night! Loved it! :)

My interview for Sunday Leader

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/12/09/ayodya-makes-her-mark/

Vintage Photo shoot!

The shoot was held in the Kalutara Richmond Castle, a massive old house which was absolutely perfect and made for my shoot! :P Arantha being one of my favourite professional fashion photographers in Sri Lanka was absolutely amazing to work with. Loved how everything turned out from the makeup to the final look! Special thanks to Gayani Batz and her assistant who did an incredible job with the hair and make up oh and Simmy looked beautiful!!! She was so easy to fit and she really put me at ease during the shoot! Also a big thank you to Achintha and Dhanushka who have been helping me throughout! So it was really great working with you all and I hope you enjoyed yourself and had fun as much as I did despite having to carry all our belongings up and down in the massive old building just to make sure they are safe! Haha! Here are some of my clicks behind screen! ;)  Enjoy!

On to the next............. :D

Art and Fashion!

Black or White

Should some one judge a person by his or her external appearance? Well that is exactly the message the photographer is trying to give here and is clearly depicted through painting the two models in black and white. By observing their expressions and looking at each and one of these images I feel like he’s trying to say that outer appearances no matter what, can be totally misleading and that all we humans have that inherent instinct of judging people by their looks, the way they speak, dress, walk, and what not! However, whatever the final judgment is we still may be wrong! He says ‘There is a black and white person inside each and every one of us!’ So in response, I feel that by the end of the day whether you choose to be a good or bad person is in your own hands! :) Checkout the latest model magazine to have a closer look at the images! :) Enjoy!

Make up - Gayani Batz
Costume - Ayodhya Ratnayake
Concept - Achintha Dahanayake
Photography - Achintha Dahanayake
Models - Thilini De Silva and Chamari Johar

 

Follow the link to my website

http://ayoradesignerwear.com/

DIY

Have been thinking of ways to make use of these designer beads I got from John Lewis and finally managed to put it to use! :D I used the same chord that came along with this to make a simple beaded necklace! Absolutely j'adore the colours! Turquoise! The colour of protection! If you read my previous post you'd know! :D Well you could even try using these beads to make a chunky bracelet (with an elastic chord of course! ), or to attach on to one of your outfits, or to decorate one of your little clutch bags :) or use them as buttons!!! etc Whatever you want it to be! :D It's just too simple yet beautiful! :) Bling!

My trip to the UK

London

So I was there! In London for the first time! :D Surprisingly the weather wasn’t too bad and we were able to do a lot of sightseeing and cover some of  the quintessential London locations like the Big ben, London eye, Tower of London, London bridge, The Buckingham palace, The house of parliament, Trafalgar square etc. in just 2 weeks! :D Not surprised why they call it the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom. One of the most memorable places to me in London was the underground train stations (We travelled that much! -.-) oh and also not forgetting the part I got lost, in Paddinton! :D Aaah it was fun though! :D

The bridge

The bridge opening up :D

London eye

The Buckingham palace

House of Parliment

Big Ben

Trafalgar square

Covent garden

We also went to visit some of the museums like the National History museum, V & A ( Victoria and Albert) which was one of my favourites and which is also known to be the world’s greatest museum of art and design. :D Coincidentally they happened to celebrate the reopening of the fashion galleries with an exhibition of British Glamour since 1950 comprising of beautiful ball gowns, red carpet evening dresses and cat walk show stoppers, and it was really exciting to see this exhibition which presented evening wear by Norman Hartnell, Zandra Rhodes and Catherine Walker alongside dresses fresh from the catwalk shows of Alexander Mc Queen, Giles Deacon and Jenny Packham. So apart from these ball gowns I was only able to capture a few pictures of some of the vintage designs from the section of British Design 1948- 2012 which comprised collections from some of the most influential designers like Christian Dior, Chanel etc .

British Glamour Since 1950 

Sneak peak :D

 

 

 So the next exhibition is supposed to feature the Holly wood costumes which I would have loved to see too but sadly I couldn’t have waited for so long.

 Moving on to another section of historical attire I approached the women’s dress in the 19^th century of Afghanistan and Iran. Well it hasn’t changed much I think. Has it? Loved the balloony bottom! :) I just can’t recall where I have seen exactly the same kind of clothing. Is it in Tin Tin? I don’t know! :P

Oh have a look at this Tomb of Buyanquli Khan the puppet ruler of parts of Central Asia who was assassinated by a local war lord in 1358 when he tried to assert his own authority. So Buyanquli’s tomb was known to be built in a cemetery on the outskirts of Bukhara. The entire building was covered in tiles inside and out. They had mentioned that the tiles were deeply carved with inscriptions and other ornaments, and covered with coloured glazes before the final firing. It was also said that this impressive technique was only used in Central Asia only for a brief period. (From around 1350-to the early 15^th century) Check it out!

Tomb of Buyanquli Khan

                Ah! I have been longing to see one of these! An actual Samurai armour in front of me!

Another interesting section of certain stones that is believed to protect and cure human beings from danger and disease

Imagined magic

I do too love turquoise! <3 

 

The cute Japanese Lolita’s

 

Sweet Lolita

Gothic Lolita

Punk Lolita

Japanese Lolita

David- We are guessing it's replicated

The Camden Market!

Loved this place! It was like a whole new culture in there, full of punks and Goths and dressed up doggies! I loved it!

 Oxford

We went to Oxford during the weekend and walked all day with a friend who knew so much about Oxford and who basically convinced us that Oxford IS most definitely one of the places you have to visit in England! :D

The ground where this guy Roger Bannister set his record. I was too short to take a pic of the actual ground lol

Beautiful sceneries

Punts

Christ church

University students rowing

Stonehenge!

The next day we drove to see the beautiful prehistoric monument of the standing stones! Stonehenge! Ah it was amazing! :D

 

A few clicks of Phantom of the Opera (Before the play commenced) :D

           This was by far the best and only musical I have ever been to! :D It was just tooo amazing!!!