Barbara Sansoni Passes Away
Just received some sad news. The Legendary and Iconic Ms. Barbara Sansoni (Barefoot) has passed away to her Eternal Rest this morning (Saturday 23rd April 2022).
A TRUE SRI LANKAN PATRIOT WHO DID SO MUCH TO UPLIFT THE LIVES OF RURAL WOMEN THROUGH HER INIATIVE OF ENCOURAGING THE HAND LOOM INDUSTRY, WHICH SHE TOOK TO THE WORLD WITH SO MUCH PRIDE.
MAY HER SOUL REST IN PEACE.
SANSONI, Barbara Carolyn (nee DANIEL), born 22nd April 1928, Kandy, Ceylon, died 23 April 2022, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Daughter of Reginald Young Daniel and Bertha Van Langenberg. In 1945 – Studied in Presentation Convent, Kodaikanal, India, at age 6, later final year at St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo, Ceylon. She showed an early interest in art and developed an intense love of colour.
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The vibrant hues of South Asia have provided her with a lifetime’s worth of inspiring painting and cloth design. Though she had painted and drawn since early childhood, she was not initially drawn to weaving as a means of expression. In the early 1960’s , she started designing for cloth at the suggestion of a family friend, Mother Good Counsel of the Sisters of the Order of the Good Shepherd. Having understood the principle of weaving, Barbara soon grew excited by its creative possibilities. She sought inspiration for her designs from the colours of life and nature around her, finding ways to represent what she saw and felt without the aid of representative figuration.
She travelled the island, observing, sketching and taking notes. Her bold, brilliantly-hued hand loom designs soon attracted attention. The cloth was first sold from her home in Colombo. The first retail store, HOUSE, was in The Fort area of Colombo and a second shop, called BAREFOOT and selling her first collection of clothes, opened at the Galle Face Court in the late 1960’s. She produced distinctive handloom made with Indian cotton yarn. Sourcing yarn during a time when imports were restricted was a significant challenge she overcame through persistence. Her first hand-woven cloth was sold from her home in Colombo. In 1970, Barbara Sansoni won the J D Rockefeller Travel Award, a two-year travel experience across 14 countries, during which she studied textiles and architecture.
This knowledge she used in the operations of Barefoot. Using the rich textured fabric, Barefoot has introduced novel products such as bags, toys, clothing as well as linen that are sought after across the globe from high-end retailers to small home-based operations. Amidst a demanding and fast-paced design environment, Barbara Sansoni has never compromised on her style and has created a unique Sri Lankan identity. As her brilliantly-hued handloom designs gathered Sri Lankan and international acclaim. Barbara Sansoni has also made a great contribution to the field of architecture. Her sketches documenting the traditional buildings of Sri Lanka are invaluable as the historical structures are no longer in existence today. She appreciated the vernacular and the simplistic yet complex nature of traditional buildings, emphasising on roof tiles and the effects of nature. Her published writing too has become a vast source of benefit to the country, ranging from her children’s short stories to co-authored books such as ‘The Architecture of an Island’.
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Working with the island’s renowned architects, she was able to identify and use colour for interiors while perfectly blending it with the natural shades of nature. Business Today recognised Barbara Sansoni for her creation of a unique Sri Lankan identity in the sphere of design, an aesthetic that is time-less and celebrated across the world. Her creativity and art has impacted the lives of many, most significantly empowering young women in the island. She has transformed the attitude towards the vibrant and distinctive Sri Lankan style, while bringing it universal appeal. While Barefoot grew under her influence, Barbara continued her creative work, as an artist and writer. She held her first one-woman exhibition in London in 1966 and has continued to exhibit regularly in Sri Lanka and abroad. Having worked as a journalist and essayist at the Ceylon Daily Mirror and the Times of Ceylon during the early 1960s, she published the book, Vihares & Verandas, in 1978; Architecture of an Island, in 1998, Missy Fu and Tikkiri Banda in 2002 Press with the Toes in the Grass, in 2004, A Passion for Faces in 2014 and Missy Fu in Yala 2015. She married Hildon Claude Sansoni in 1952, they have two sons. Hildon predeceased her in 1979. In 2000, she was titled ‘Kala Shuri’ Honorary Award, from the President of Sri Lanka. In 2011, she was awarded the Geoffrey Bawa Award for contribution for architecture. In 1983 she married Dr Ronald Lewcock. (Google Information)
