“Autism RuL3s Fashion” to highlight creative side of autism

Seven autistic, gifted children aged between 7 to 18 participated in a fun, creative workshop producing fascinating artworks at Autism Resources Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur recently.

The workshop kickstarted the community project ‘Autism RuL3s Fashion – powered by gifted minds’, an awareness campaign in conjunction with World Autism Awareness Day on April 2, 2019.

The artworks generated by the children will be developed into stylish and exciting fashion collection by designer Jayakumar Vanialingam and will make its debut in a fashion show at Dorsett Grand Subang Hotel, Subang Jaya on March 30, 2019.

“We want to create awareness and change mindsets in schools, neighbourhoods and in society about children with autism. We want Malaysians to reflect and appreciate the depth of talent exhibited by this gifted group of children with autism and at the same time, generate income for the children and their families,” said Jayakumar or Jay as he’s fondly known in the fashion industry.

Jay, the founder of JK Signature and Most Promising Designer at Borneo Fashion Week 2018, said the fashion show meant to raise public awareness on autism will feature exquisite silhouettes – each design displaying the fascinating artworks by the children.

The collection will be auctioned off and proceeds will be channelled to PERSAMA-2gether4autism (Pertubuhan Sayang Malaysia Society).

Among the local celebrities and social influencers who participated in the workshop as Friends of Autism RuL3s Fashion included singer/songwriter Russell Curtis; TV host Jay Walia; Radio DJ Fiqrie Dahari; fashion designer Jimmy Wong; RTM talk show host Muthu Kumar (MK); Varnam.my producer/presenter Shangkharee Nadarajan; model /actress Nithya RV and Mrs Curvy 2018 Sheena Dominic.

Guests and participants were part of an awareness video shoot on the day in support of autism awareness, which will be launched on social media on February 14, 2019.

The Autism RuL3s Fashion – powered by gifted minds project is a joint collaboration between JK Signature, an events company that organises niche destination events and weddings and PERSAMA-2gether4autism, an NGO dedicated to assisting parents and their special needs children of multi-ethnic groups in Malaysia, especially families within the B40 category.