Linda Speldewinde's creative initiative :

Changing the face of fashion designing

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

Dubbed as an international celebration of unique Sri Lankan design and creativity, the Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) once again kicked off at the Mount Lavinia Hotel and will continue till November 18. This four-day is aimed to encapsulate Sri Lankan design, fashion and design integrated craft and present it to today's top designers, fashion buyers and creative experts in the world.

Lead by the Academy of Design (AOD) this festival is one of the most anticipated events in the country's calendar. The Daily News spoke to SLDF founder Linda Speldewinde about her plans for SLDF chapter four.

Q: SLDF is being held for the fourth successful year in 2012. What do you think is the key behind its progress?

A: I think our success lies behind reinventing the festival and broadening the number of people who benefit from it. Every year we make sure the festival touches the lives of many more than the previous; whether it is by bringing down more international retailers, inviting world famous brands and design celebrities, involving designers with craft artisans in more rural villages to produce designer products of higher quality, involving apparel SME's or having more powerful apparel decision makers sharing their ideas, SLDF is a new experience each year.

This has not only allowed us to have new faces, new ideas and new design each year, but it also allows everyone to learn a lot of new things and have a life changing experience at each Sri Lanka Design Festival.

Q: Explain the theme of SLDF 2012.

A: We find that our themes need to introduce the importance of design to Sri Lanka and the region. Previous years we have had themes that helped us establish the social relevance of design and design as an economic power-tool etc. Progressing from that, the 2012 theme is 'Locally global' which places design in a today's 'global village' context. It speaks of design that is relevant to the entire

world - this is crucial in helping low-tech industries like craft, to use design and progress from their limited regional perspective, to the international frontier and for high-tech industries like the apparel industry to move parallel to global trends and requirements to stay at the top of exports.

Being 'Locally global' is about maintaining all this, yet managing to find inspiration in our local roots; in local heritage, in our human resources and so on. Basically it's about design that is internationally relevant yet, locally rooted. It's the best way to take Sri Lankan design to the world.

Q: One of your aims is to showcase Sri Lanka's rich heritage via crafts. What is special about the craft fashion show that you take so much of joy in setting up? And when did you start working on this?

A: We have been working on this with AOO design campus' 'Design For Sustainable Development' not-for-profit foundation where we pair internationally educated designers with local craft artisans since 2009. Here, we hope to show living proof of how design can be utilized to create jobs and livelihoods, to encourage entrepreneurship and develop the national economy.

We have worked all over the island with artisans in areas like Mullaitivu, Jaffna to the east coast villages in Marathamunai in Ampara, as well as central region's Thalagune, Dickwella in the South and Western suburbs like Gampaha Divulapitiya. All these artisans have such amazing skill, and paired with our designers' knowledge they're all putting together exquisite products. We are now getting great results and this will be all at SLDF's craft fashion show and exhibition. I'd like to add as a special note, and mention that this exhibition is a great place for all hotel industry leaders and interior designers as it has the latest and the most beautiful interior solutions, carpeting materials, upholstery textiles etc. These are all handmade in Sri Lanka, and are the best items to promote Sri Lanka to visitors to the island.

Q: How many villages from the North will be involved in the show and what were the challenges?

A: We work with several villages in the North, Jaffna district's Pungudithivu, Mannar's Paavilupattan, Narivizhikulum and Mullaitivu - Wattapalai and Oddusuddan are all villagers where our design team has been working on Palmyra weaving based products. We have trained them to make high-end hotel-ware, basketry and accessories for fashion.

Mullaitivu's Mallavi village is a special place where we worked with the Royal Norwegian Embassy to newly introduce knitting, as a craft to village women who has no skills to set up their own livelihood. We had many challenges starting from having to find skilled, tri-lingual staff members to work with them, to actually motivating them to start on a new livelihood after many years of stagnation and struggle, training them on existing trends of the world. But, the best part was, being able to make them understand that they have a skill that the world needs, and making them see that they're valued people who can contribute to important sectors like hotel industry and fashion of such international scale. I think we managed to fortify them not only financially, but mentally too. It's made it all worth it.

Q: Who are the Government partners that makes it a National event?

A: Sri Lanka Government has been a strong supporter of the event from the very beginning. The Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Industries has always supported our island wide craft projects.. Another key government stakeholder is the Export Development Board who are playing a huge role supporting the apparel industry, as Sri Lanka's largest export industry' at the event. EDB will be supporting the Sri Lanka Apparel Fashion Show and the South Asian apparel leadership forum which are both extremely important events. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau is also one of our continuous supporters from the government and supports in positioning Sri Lanka as a design hub in the region.

Q: Who are the big names in the Fashion side who will come and why should someone come for that show from all the fashion shows Sri Lanka stages during the year?

A: This year we have many international brands from Ted Baker to Max Mara and organizations like PVH Corporations for Tommy Hilfiger etc. A very inspiring and attractive fashion personality attending SLDF, this year is Michelle Mone whose lingerie design brand has taken the UK by storm and she will speak at SLDF, on her personal experience in building a brand like that. As for why visiting SLDF, let me say why SLDF is beyond the average fashion experience. Firstly, SLDF is not only fashion - it's fashion and design.

Secondly, SLDF, takes developing Sri Lanka's fashion industry very seriously. Therefore, our shows are not merely entertainment - SLDF is about education, about sharing new knowledge in fashion and design, about discussing the future of our apparel industry, about making it a sustainable industry that doesn't harm our planet etc.

And, thirdly, we show examples of how fashion and design can change lives from the craft artisan, apparel factory girl, and average design student to the big apparel factory CEO. SLDF, is a wholesome design and fashion experience that not only shows the best of what we have got, but also point towards the pathway towards becoming bigger and better, as a country, using design and fashion industries for our development.

Q: What are the key names who will come for the Sustainability conference? And what is the objective?

A: This year we have several key personalities like Jonas Eder-Hansen, the chairman of Copenhagen Fashion Summit and many key sustainabilty leaders from the UK, personalities like Anoma Wijewardene whose contribution to sustainability through art has been notable and also Sri Lankan icons like Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, the Sri Lankan physicist who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. These intellectuals will be speaking about how important sustainability is and most importantly how to apply it in the world of business where profit margins are just as important. It's a great forum for businessmen, educationalists and not-for-profit organizations and investors in the sector of design and fashion.

Q: So what do you want to do in the future with SLDF?

A: We hope to make SLDF more of a contributor towards supporting Sri Lanka's development agenda and SLDF will have many interesting changes for the future. This includes broadening the event to include new initiatives like Sri Lanka Fashion and Apparel Awards (which will be launched at the end of 2012 festival) and we will be celebrating our fifth anniversary with a brand new appearance. I'll leave it that to share the rest with everyone closer to our 2014 event and fifth anniversary.