A study of iconic female sleeve structures during the colonial period of Sri Lanka.

Abstract

The research seeks to the evolution of the sleeve detail which is a completely exotic element of Sri Lankan female clothing culture and its structural evolution with the time and the lifestyle of the women. Sri Lanka had its own clothing culture for the females, which was influenced by the Indian attire based on “uttariya and antariya”. It was a two-piece garment that could be worn with a specifically required draping method. It was upheld to the constructed garment with the colonial invasion and the European cultural imprint on Sri Lanka. With the colonialism, Sri Lankan society was driven based on the social class and caste domination, which needed to be interpreted with the attire. Based on that, the sleeve became a more identical element of women’s attire in different social levels, which were existing in that time. According to the social hierarchy of Sri Lanka the society has been structured into 3 social classes, such as high class, middle-class and the working-class. The females of these high- and middle-class deliberately had been worn delicate attires that have prominent sleeves. The research will be focused on ‘the sleeve’ and its structural evolution with the colonial invasion. The research was based on the hypothesis that the lifestyle and social hierarchy was being iconized through the sleeve and its structure. The research is a qualitative driven and sampling was done with the purposive sampling method. In conclusion, it was realized that the aristocratic women had opportunities to inspire European new trends to stylish themselves, yet the lower caste women were lived with restricted clothing styles. The process was conveyed as descriptive researches as the methodologies were used are observations, analytical studies, field visits, and secondary data.