After losing her vision to a bomb blast in 2000, Ashcharya Peiris decided to turn her life around by becoming a fashion designer.
In 2000, Ashcharya was working as a teller at HSBC. A bomb blast in March 2000 targeting the then deputy Defence Minister, killed 21 people and wounded 46. 20 year-old Ashcharya and her fiancé were among those injured in the blast.
Admitted with serious injuries to the ICU, Ashcharya was to soon learn that she had lost her sight and as a result, her job. As she battled through this difficult phase, she was also abandoned by her family.
Ashcharya who always wanted to be a designer used her ability to visualize her designs in her head to describe her concepts in detail to artists and seamstresses who then brought these designs to life.
She became one of the finalists of Sri Lanka’s UP and Coming Fashion Designer Competition in 2014 and went on to launch her designer brand, ‘Christiana Glory’ in 2016. The brand also featured in Ceylon Fashion Week and presently caters to online customers.
The Independent Television Network listed her among the Top 10 Most Remarkable Women of Sri Lanka in 2017 and she was also among BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019.