Colombo soon to see indigo
A design preview: Models pose at the press conference with CFW organisers and sponsors. Pic by Amila Gamage
HSBC Colombo Fashion Week is to paint Colombo blue later this month. Indigo is this year’s inspired theme as the country’s largest fashion festival returns to the ramp for the 13th time.
Announcing its arrival, President of CFW Ajai Vir Singh unveiled an exciting collection of events that will unfold from February 20 – 26.
Celebrated Italian designer Gaetano Navarra of Milan Fashion Week fame will be at CFW this year along with the popular Bangladeshi designer Bibi Russell.
Delhi-based Samant Chauhan returns to CFW as does Sri Lankan-born Mevan Kaluarachi. Sharing the spotlight will be the chosen local designers as well as ten ‘Emerging Designers’ who have their big chance to shine.
There’s a big prize here: The CFW Fashion Design Fund will fund the most impressive young designer from the ‘Emerging Designer’ shows to kick-start his/her fashion career.
In their efforts towards constructing a high-end fashion hub in the country, CFW is also bringing down internationally- known fashion photographer Rid Burman who will share his expertise with budding photographers at a workshop on February 25 at the Colombo Hilton.
Director of CFW Dirk Flamer-Caldera said they had also extended to talent management, explaining that their newly launched concept ‘The Agency’ is charged with producing local talent for the ramps.
It’s the ninth collaboration for HSBC and CFW, said Chairman HSBC for Sri Lanka and Maldives, Patrick Gallagher. “Working with Ajai and Dirk feels like we’re in the same company” he said, talking of the great understanding that has developed over the years
Their focus on design makes Frontier Automotives a natural supporter of CFW’s initiatives to promote locally produced work, and Director of SML Frontier Automotives, Roshi Fernando said that while looking forward to a brand new design for the Range Rover Sport, they were excited to be hosting ‘CFW Frame’ at their showroom. ‘CFW Frame’ on February 22 will showcase special art collectives and art launches.
The HSBC Colombo Fashion Week’s Fashion and Food segment which starts off from February 20 has the Park Street Mews as its hub the whole week and the Hilton’s speciality Italian – the Il-Ponte restaurant also offering special menus along with IKO TAE, the Dutch Hospital’s new Japanese restaurant.
Spaeking at the launch of CFW 2016, Ramani Fernando, CEO of Ramani Fernando Salons said she was proud to say that her team had been with CFW since the very beginning, 13 years ago.
Managing Director of Hilton Colombo, Manesh Fernando feels CFW comes at an opportune time. “When tourism is growing by leaps and bounds, the hype of CFW will potentially change the type of destination Sri Lanka has the potential to become,” he said
For more information on CFW, see www.colombofashionweek.com.
 Ajai Vir Singh: Seeing Fashion in everything he does. Pic by Nilan Maligaspe With every new edition Ajai’s passion for fashion grows Thirteen years since he set out to revolutionise local fashion, little fazes Ajai Vir Singh.There’s much emailing, texting and buzzing of phones going-off in the background, signalling the arrival of a new fashion year for Ajai and his team. “Actually, I have more energy now,” he smiles, amidst intense preparations for the 13th edition of Colombo Fashion Week. Creating opportunities for local designers, putting their work on the ramp has always meant more to him than a mere exhibition. “I want the designers to do well,” he says counting over 95 percent of the labels in the country as products of CFW. His intentions exceed the ramp and follow the designers’ work to the streets, “I’m always seeing fashion in everything I do.” Clothing “is not just something to cover you up” rather, he feels, it is a physical manifestation of an emotional state. “Just think,” we’re urged, “How do you decide what to wear on Friday and how do you dress on Monday?” Understanding of this profoundly simply fact leads to other revelations, including personal style as opposed to blind appropriation of looks from the runway. This revelation Ajai feels is dawning in men’s fashion as of late. Observing a sense of adventure and experimentation among the male population CFW will have a whole day dedicated to men’s wear this year” he says. That the likes of Paris, London and Milan Fashion Weeks start the year with men’s wear shows, for Ajai indicates, he’s steering in the right direction. A similar pointer was his embarking on Resort Wear shows in 2012, which preceded the Paris fashion week’s inaugural sub-show for resort wear in the following year. Ajai has now taken on a new assignment as founding council member of the Commonwealth Fashion Council and accepted an invitation to set-up Fashion Week in the African region. “There’s a strong mandate” driving the style visionary, who feels a sense of responsibility to nurture designers, even when they’ve graduated the CFW stage. Creating an industry elastic enough to supply their potential needs is a task he’s taken on. Launched last year, the Fashion Design Council of Sri Lanka he hopes will grow into a collective voice for precisely this purpose. “It’s time the state got involved in promoting local creations as much as it does tea,” he says. Functioning independently of CFW, one of the Council’s aims we’re told is securing a stall at international trade fairs for locally produced fashion. Pushing fashion to the fore can’t have been easy and in the process Ajai has acquired nerves of steel. “People tell me I don’t react… That’s a strength, not a weakness,” he laughs. Returning year after year to a keen and often critical audience – models pacing down a runway simply won’t suffice. Putting international talent, with the very best of home grown offerings on one stage requires extreme diligence. “You have to constantly look in the mirror and keep asking if you’re doing a good job.” |