Profile In Style: Shanya Amarasuriya

“I definitely have a soft spot for bold, sleek and geometric designs inspired by the Art Deco era,” says Shanya Amarasuriya, the creative director of B.P. de Silva Jewellers, who cultivated an affinity with the movement during her time in New York.

- Lynette Kee

Amarasuriya moved to New York to further her studies in jewellery design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Surrounded by Art Deco skyscrapers in the two years of her education, Amarasuriya leaned artistically into the movement characterised not just by its geometric forms and novel materials, but an era of newfound liberties for women. It was also a period when feminine adornment evolved from shy baubles into modern statements of expression. The jewellery designer’s experience eventually led her to her calling: to design modern jewellery for like-minded strong women. “It affirmed what I had believed of myself since I was a child — I was made to design, and it’s been an endless passion since,” she says.