Photographs: Courtesy of Sajith Laksan Amaratunga
Emerging as luxury fashion brand Balmain’s golden boy, Sri- Italian Sajith Laksan Amaratunga is one to watch. Armed with a Bachelor’s degree in Costume and Fashion Design from his birthplace of Rome, Sajith is now based in the fashion capital of Paris working at Balmain as a luxury leather goods designer. His forte is designing handbags many of which have graced the world’s catwalks during various fashion weeks. His creative genius has already come to the forefront with Olivier Rousteing, the Creative Director of Balmain referring to Sajith as the “drama bag designer” as the bags he creates does not go unnoticed and tend to be very expensive. His work ethic is admirable as he is driven by a strong desire to merge his creative vision with his expertise in luxury accessories.
When did you first realise you had a creative streak in you?
Ever since I was little, I have always loved drawing. I remember my mom saying that I would take any piece of paper available and sketch on it. During elementary school, I would gift my drawings to my classmates or I remember them asking me to do custom drawings.
What formal training have you had in designing leather goods?
I studied Maths in high school and I’ve always been at the top of my class during my studies. I wanted to go through with Politics in University as I was taking part in UN simulations all over Europe (the Hague, Lubeck, Rome etc). My mom always knew I had this creative side to me but she always told me to keep it as a hobby and not make it a real job. Then,
I started thinking that I wanted to do a job where I’d be pleased to go to work every morning and my path wasn’t in politics but fashion.
I got into Accademia di Costume
e Moda in Rome after a three phase selection and during these academic years, my mom and family saw how much I was dedicated to my studies. They began to support me and sacrificed a lot.
When I was 21 years old, I participated in a National Young Designer competition where I was chosen for RTW and Accessories Design category. I won the Accessories Section Award, Couture Origin Award, Lectra Fashion Innovation Award and the Absolute Winner title with a medal from the Italian President. During my final year in 2019 I was one of 60 students selected to present my graduation collection during Rome Fashion Week. My project was called ‘RAKSHA’ and it was inspired by finding a childhood photo of me wearing a demon mask.
When did you land your first internship and what was the most valuable thing you learned from this experience?
I graduated in February 2020 and after a week following a candidature on the site I was called to move to Paris and start an internship of 6 months . After this internship, I interned at Chloe but after 3 months I got offered a long term contract at Balmain as an Assistant Designer and
I continued my career there. Now I’m a Leather Goods and Accessories Designer and it has been almost 3 and a half years since I’ve been in this company.
