INTERVIEW WITH ARCHANA PANERU AND TRISANA BUDHATHOKI

Lilisha Shrestha talks to designer Rasna Shrestha about her collection at the Vancouver Fashion Week 2015 and about her aspirations as a fashion designer.My collection at TGIF Nepal Fashion Week 2014 was my gateway to Vancouver Fashion Week. They liked my collections and found me through Facebook. They approached me to be a part of their show. Among 115 designers from all over the world I was the only one from Nepal. It was quite an honour to be welcomed by all.

How did it feel to represent your country on such big a platform?

Since they’d never had a designer from Nepal in the show they were looking to see what I had to offer, more like, what Nepal had to offer. My collection was appreciated and praised by the attendees because my haute couture was uniquely themed as the ‘Princess Diaries’. It was an overwhelming experience for me. I felt proud to be a Nepali.

Tell us about your collection.

My collection was a reflection of purity and innocence. I portrayed the images of fairy princesses from our childhood stories.

You showed a video ‘Travel Nepal Help Nepal’ at the show. What did you expect from it?

Vancouver Fashion Show is an international platform for designers from different countries around the world. With so much exposure under one roof this was an opportune moment for me to promote our country in the international market. My friends and I synced and edited the earthquake photographs and the video provided to us by Nepal Tourism Board and produced a single video for the show. I hope we sent a message out to the world that Nepal is now ready to be explored post- earthquake.