Colombo, March 1 (NIA) – This season, in line with its vision, the Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) will expand the scope of Sri Lanka’s fashion industry with multiple initiatives that aim at developing and showcasing the island’s fashion design industry to the world and to the fashion consumers of Sri Lanka.
Since its inception, the CFW platform has aided the local fashion industry in gaining much needed momentum in aspects of fashion education, fashion retail, designer development, and in creating opportunities for designers to showcase their work internationally.
Hosted by Hilton Colombo, its base for the last few years, General Manager Manesh Fernando said, “it’s been a great partnership that has benefitted all of us throughout the years, which has placed Sri Lanka on the global map as being a must visit destination not only for sun, sea, culture and adventure, but for fashion too. Hilton Colombo is also committed to the development of youth and such events as CFW provides opportunities for emerging designers and we fully endorse it”.
‘Celebrate Colombo’ is one of the themes of the week long activities that will bring Colombo alive through the eyes of fashion and related industries. The week of CFW will start from the 13th of March and will go on till the 18th and show collaborations with art, film, food, knowledge workshops, designer pop-ups, ethical fashion, and the emerging designer showcase.
“This is an interesting milestone of ten years of association between HSBC who has been the principal partner of CFW and been an important part of that journey, a CFW press release said.
Mark Prothero, CEO for HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives said “This year also coincides with our 125th anniversary in Sri Lanka which is a milestone year for HSBC. As we complete ten years of title sponsorship of undoubtedly the biggest fashion extravaganza in the country, we hope our customers will experience an exciting show this year. HSBC is happy to play an important part in supporting the upliftment of the fashion industry at large.”
This year Fashion Week will include
Knowledge Workshops
This has been one of the drivers of CFW to bring young and established designers to expand and enhance their skill sets conducted by experts in their fields. CFW carefully assesses the skill sets that need to be enhanced and creates workshops around it.
There will be two workshops to be held on 15th of March, – Fashion Styling and Fashion Illustration. Both workshops are being conducted by experts from India and US.
1-minute-Fashion Film Festival
This is a new initiative by CFW to enhance Film presentations. It’s a unique collaboration between designers and film directors to produce a 1-minute-Fashion-Films shot on a smartphone. It’s a film presentation of their ideation of Summer collections and the inspiration behind it. These will be shown as a Film Festival at CFW.
Art Connect
This is an interesting collaboration of Art connecting with Fashion under the theme ‘Second Skin’. This is a new concept of two creative fields connecting to create an interesting expression. Five major artists will present their interpretation under the theme ‘Second Skin’ on the 13th of March. This is first of its kind to be shown in Colombo.
Fashion + Food
Every season, CFW partners with premier restaurants in Colombo to curate unique, limited edition menu’s that will provide attendees and guests with fashion influenced gastronomical experience. Fashion + Food allows the chef to present their creative expression through interesting menu’s. Fashion and Food starts from 13th to 19th March at Lab and Graze Kitchen at Hilton Colombo, Cafe Francais by Pourcel, Rare at Residence by Uga Escapes.
