Establishing herself on a male-dominated industry as a fashion designer, celebrity photographer, stylist, fashion journalist, senior fashion lecturer, jewellery designer, artist and a film art director, she has come a long way from breaking stereotypes to successfully developing a self-titled brand name ‘RAFFEALLA’, both locally and internationally.
Her loving grandmother’s fashion sense, style and mix match of colours have highly inspired Raffealla to be a part of the fashion industry since the age of eight. For the extreme love of art and design, later after doing her Ordinary/ Levels at St. Bridget’s Convent Colombo 7, she joined AOD [Academy of Design] to study fashion design, where she later triumphantly graduated as a Distinction Level student.
Raffealla has always specialised in Commercial Lifestyle Conceptualise Fashion. She owns two well-known local brands: ‘RAFFEALLA’, which is a luxury line and an exclusive, wear customising designs while ‘The Bridal Company’ is a bridal designing, styling and a consulting business.
Raffealla, not only has made her name in the industry of fashion, but also in the world of photography, something which she used to cherish in her childhood. “I saw photography as one of the best mediums to portray my designs to the world,” she said.
Raffealla has been god gifted with such a creative perspective to see things beyond the camera lens. Her creativity, concepts and her perspective have made her step up in the photography industry capitalising her marvelous work of art, for instance the world famous Raffealla Fernando Celebrity Calendar, which marked its tenth anniversary this year.
Her fascinating concepts have always being able to portray Sri Lankan celebrities in different perspectives doing no harm for their image. “When we as artists are given boundaries, we begin to get limited to a certain level which stops us from thinking outside the box. But in our thinking pattern we need to be free. We need to be wild, said Raffealla making an effort to bring change in to the industries.
Raffealla has achieved worldwide recognition for her work throughout the years of being in the industry. She was the first Asian photographer to be awarded with the Best Fashion Photographer of the year 2017 at the IAA-International Achievers Award in London. Later that year, she was ranked 8th place of the top ten world ranks out of 300 photographers around the world at the BEFFTA Awards in London. She also unveiled her work at the Prince Charles’s Charity Trust Fashion Show, London Fashion Week 2016 and the Asian-European Fashion Show 2016 in Paris.
She also has had the pleasure of designing for the renowned 69th and 71st Cannes Film Festival, Paris. Moreover, Raffealla is recognised as the first and only conceptualised photographer to have launched her celebrity calendar in Sri Lanka getting successful reviews locally and internationally over the years.
Everyone experiences ups and downs in life and goes through a lot of challenges that come your way in life throughout the years. And each of those shining todays can have experiences of a dark, painful past, so did Raffealla.
She unfortunately had to endure a spinal injury in a time where she was experiencing a pinnacle in her career both as a fashion designer and a photographer. Following this she was bedridden for a year and a half. Even though, she had gone through mental disturbances, Raffealla was strong enough to come out shining off that bubble breaking all the limits off her dreams.
She had the courage to work on mood boards of her future projects while she was recovering.She proved herself a wonder woman and she is pure evidence to the fact that nothing can stop an individual from dreaming and working towards a dream.
“In life, we look for different reasons to avoid certain things, but if you want to achieve something for yourself, you need to face the obstacles, break boundaries, achieve what you want to be in life,” Raffealla said. It is not surprising that the strength of such a woman leads to such successful achievements today.
Raffealla Fernando, an independent and a hardworking woman is known to be the first and foremost award-winning fashion designer and photographer to share her work and creativity worldwide. Her message to all upcoming and aspiring individuals:
“Don’t decide on a career option for the sake of the varying trends. Choose and decide on a career considering your own capabilities and desires towards a certain subject. Be dedicated and passionate in whatever you do to receive self-satisfaction. And never forget to be truthful to yourself and what you choose to do in life. Don’t limit yourselves, explore and never be afraid to breakthrough certain biases.”