Resort wear with a youthful spin

By Ruqyyaha Deane

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A glimpse of China in designs by Ayesh

CFW’s Olu Swim Week Colombo 2019 kicked off its runway segments at the Hilton Colombo on August 8 with the ‘Emerging Designer Showcase’ featuring seven young designers presenting their own spin on swim and luxury resort wear.

Marlon Rae’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ inspired collection opened the show. With a simple monochromatic palette and print design that worked with cuffed sleeves and ‘high low’ skirts, his aim was to recreate the tumultuous mysticism of Alice’s journey down the rabbit hole.

Himashi Wijeweera’s collection ‘Celebrating textures’, used Beeralu lace as a component whilst incorporating a number of other textures. With resort evening wear as well, Himashi’s line featured ombre palettes, fringed accoutrements and babydoll style dresses.

Drawing from traditional Chinese culture and architecture Ayesh Wickramarathna’s ‘Modern Qin’ combined traditional dye with digital printing to evoke the significance of the Qin dynasty modernising China. Working with four colours namely olive green, beige, red and yellow, the designs were accentuated with gathers and tie ups.

Sharanja De Soyza’s collection was strong on structure with a balance of aesthetic appeal, drawn from her architecture background. The colour palette stayed between muted tones of burnt orange and brown and both hard and soft textures were used to create a common element of bandeau bikini tops.

The water lily featured heavily in Ridma Samaranayake’s designs. Another monochromatic palette save for the metallic tones infused into the line, Ridma’s collection paid homage to the rich Sri Lankan culture with its style and cuts.

‘Unity in Diversity’ was Nadeeshani Ratnayaka’s collection, which illustrated hand embroidered surface designs woven on to the casual resort wear silhouettes to create a beautiful ethnic representation of the island.

Ending the night was Nilusha Maddumage and her reversible collection ‘RE- Life’. Worn in any direction preferred by the wearer, asymmetrical silhouettes were used to increase easy movement and breathability to suit the tropical climate.

With ‘Celebrate Colombo’ bringing together art, food, music and fashion, the audience was pleasantly surprised with the runway music performed by young singers Amarsha Tissera, Lasith Fernando and Francesca Mudannayake (who goes by the stage name ‘Q’), their powerful vocals lending a unique touch to the evening – a great start to this edition of CFW Olu Swim Week.