HSBC Colombo Fashion Week 2009

The HSBC Colombo Fashion Week 2009 will showcase 14 collections designed and created by Sri Lankans. The organising committee set a brief which was open to any Sri Lankan designer who was interested in using this platform for their collection.

These collections were designed after thorough research and development work by the designers and were thereafter evaluated on their merit by the committee.

The HSBC Colombo Fashion Week is being organised in association with Taj Samudra Colombo and will be held from February 19-21. In light of the current lull in the region, the HSBC Colombo Fashion Week 2009 was scaled down to three nights from four.

The resounding success of HSBC Colombo Fashion Week 2008 led to offers of collaboration from other fashion weeks in Asia. The organisers are looking forward to assessing these opportunities after further establishing CFW's weight in the region.

"We are on a strong progress path and we don't want to lose focus; if we work on developing the event further, more offers will follow, but that's not the success criteria, said Founder of Colombo Fashion Week, Ajai Singh." The success criteria is Sri Lankan designers finding overseas markets and become commercially successful".

The Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) was launched in 2003 with a single-minded objective of uplifting the Sri Lankan fashion design industry by creating a platform and providing opportunities for designers to showcase their collections.

The 2009 event will also see a strategic partnership between the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and CFW, take this event to a higher platform.

Fashion Weeks internationally are the most glamorous business meetings and see interaction between Retail Buyers, Designers and Media in the Fashion and related industries: Designers create collections based on new trend forecasts; the media builds interest in these new trends among the consumers and the retailers follow by stocking these collections in their stores.

"In Sri Lanka, our challenge is to build an infrastructure to uplift the fashion design industry. Strong collections are essential in targeting consumers giving a reason for retailers to stock the garments in their stores.

We are talking to all the stakeholders to make this work," he said.

Colombo Fashion Week runs a technical studio parallel to the event itself training and guiding new and existing Sri Lankan designers with retail potential, to understand the dynamics of ready-to-wear fashion and its commercial prospects.