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Sunday, April 6, 2014
Flamboyance
And
Cheer
By Sadhana Senanayake
T
ymeron Carvalho is one of the
bright, young faces of fashion in
Sri Lanka. With his own flamboyant
personal style and cheerful personality, he is set to take on and change the
face of men’s fashion. He is one part of
The Design Cafe, a design house that
is involved in different facets of design,
from fashion and interiors to graphic
design.
‘Tymo’ is involved in the fashion
facet of The Design Cafe. He was involved in the The Design Cafe designs
for Miss Sri Lanka Sabrina Herft at Miss
Universe 2012 where he was placed
fourth out of 84 countries for the National Costume segment. The Design
Cafe has designed national costumes
for numerous other pageants such as
Miss Grand International 2013 and
Mister Asia 2013 where they won Best
National Costume.
Apart from his design career, Tymo
is a well known model and brought Sri
Lanka fame and recognition by competing in the Best International Model pageant in Spain last year. Tymo won the
pageant, beating out contestants from
all over the world, and won three out of
five mini titles, including Best National
Costume and Best Model of the ramp.
Fashion and design had always
been his passion from the time he was
a little boy when he started sketching
designs for men and women. When he
finished his A levels at St Joseph’s Col-
The youth of today are impressionable and need more fashionable role
models to set an example, he says,
“Society and the media have a huge
impact on the way in which we dress.
The youth watch a lot of television and
follow the TV stars and what they wear.
If the celebrities dressed better, the
youth would follow suit.”
With his own designs, Tymo favours
a structural design with a certain flare
and edge that would make the wearer
stand out from the crowd. He wants to
eventually open his own store.
“As a man in Sri Lanka, there are
only one or two places to go when
you want to buy good quality, stylish
clothes,” he says, “By opening a store,
I can provide men another place that
they can go to buy fashionable clothes.”
His store will not only sell clothes for
men, but accessories as well. He also
plans to come out with a sportswear
line.
“I go to the gym regularly, so I know
what problems guys encounter when
they are not wearing the right clothes to
the gym,” he explains, “I would use only
flexible materials for my line, no nylon
or synthetic material that would make
you sweat more and make you feel
warmer. Most people just wear their
oldest, shabbiest, baggiest clothes to
the gym, but this is not practical!”
He also hopes to expand his designs
into a swimwear line. Though he mainly
concentrates on designs for men, he
will soon be coming up with a line of
cocktail dresses for women.
Tymo believes that Sri Lanka is on a
good path to becoming a more fashionable country.
“It’s a lot easier for women to be
more stylish than men at this point, as
they have more options and places to
shop, but that will soon change!”
He hopes for the future that he
will create a label that is successful
both locally and internationally, and
that the label will be split into two, a
high end designer section and a high
street collection, “Like Dolce and
Gabbana, they have their designer
label and they have D&G which is
cheaper. This is what I would like to
emulate in the future, so that my designs will be affordable to everyone,
no matter what their budget!”
Look at the school boys. They all have their hair
cut in the latest style and have tailored their
school pants to look more like skinny jeans!
They really do care about the way the look.
Hopefully they will inspire the girls
around them to make more of an
effort too.
Tymeron Carvalho
lege, he knew that he wanted to start
a career in design, so, he started researching design schools in Colombo.
He attended the Lanka Institute of
Fashion Technology (LIFT) where he
graduated with a diploma in design. He
gained his advanced diploma is design
at SELACK. After completing his studies, he started working at The Design
Cafe where he works on structural design in men’s wear, both casual wear
and evening wear. He also designs accessories for men.
When asked if he is inspired by anyone in particular from the fashion world,
he says, “John Galliano, as his designs
are avant-garde and elaborate.”
Tymo says he is pleased at the
changing face of fashion in the country,
“Before, it was the same old designs
and styles you would see on the runway, nothing new. Now, designers are
being more adventurous and daring
as the public becomes more fashion
aware.”
He points out that the Sri Lankan
male has become considerably more
fashion conscious.
“Look at the school boys. They all
have their hair cut in the latest style
and have tailored their school pants to
look more like skinny jeans!” he says,
“They really do care about the way the
look. Hopefully they will inspire the girls
around them to make more of an effort
too.”