Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways Sri Lanka will become the first event to host an annual, organised showcase of travel collections. The global event to be hosted in Sri Lanka for the first time at this scale is scheduled between November 3 and 6, 2016 to tail-end the global Spring/Summer calendar with collections centred around travel style.
Sri Lanka’s reputation as a breathtaking travel paradise has continued for centuries and earned its place among today’s best modern destinations as well: with adverse combination of vacation places from tropical island beaches, jungle landscapes and chilly mountains to contemporary urban settings only a few short hours apart from one another, Sri Lanka has something 
for everyone. 
Today, ‘travel’ has become highlighted as an essential part of contemporary lifestyles and therefore, a constant focal point in modern fashion as well. As fashion and travel trends begin to merge, a new opportunity is forming in the horizon, an opportunity that Sri Lanka is ideally positioned to harness as a unique travel destination with a world-class fashion manufacturing industry and emerging design talent. 
It is in this context that Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) in partnership with Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC (DIMO) together with Academy of Design (AOD), prepares to launch Sri Lanka as a global ‘travel fashion’ destination at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways 2016. 
Behind this groundbreaking initiative are the award-winning entrepreneur Linda Speldewinde, founder and Managing Director of Sri Lanka Design Festival, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways Sri Lanka, AOD and www.fashionmarket.lk. In this exclusive interview, Speldewinde discusses how this year’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways will transform Sri Lanka to a global travel fashion destination.

This seems like a big move, even at a national scale. Can you shed some light on the strategy behind this initiative and how it is set to deliver for Sri Lanka?
The decision to make Sri Lanka the home of travel collections was made in collaboration with local industry leaders, designers and after discussion with Mercedes-Benz Germany. The Sri Lankan fashion industry, although mainly manufacturing-led at the moment, contributes to a massive potion of the country’s GDP. Sri Lanka has been growing its design talent in a unique way and around leveraging manufacturing strengths of the country and the region. The schedule will include the country’s and the region’s biggest fashion strengths and aims to establish Sri Lanka as a global fashion destination for 
travel collections.

Many Sri Lankan exporters are currently producing southern and northern hemisphere collections simultaneously, resulting in year-round work. Travel collections present a unique offering, as it is the only season where northern and southern hemisphere buying calendars align. With the support of the fashion industry, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways travel collections will be launched out of Sri Lanka as the first of its kind in the world 
this November. 

The Sri Lankan government, through its tourism and major events will be invited as a strategic partner of the Mercedes-Benz travel collections and is working closely with the initiative.
This new strategic vision will secure the travel fashion category for Sri Lanka and present significant trade and tourism opportunities for the Sri Lankan travel and leisure sector as well as the broader fashion industry. This strategic evolution of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways travel collections from 2016 and beyond will support the history of an industry that has helped build many global brands by supporting their production and product development. This year the spotlight on new Sri Lankan design talent will also show the new possibilities. The timing and the travel offering reflects the qualified opinion of international fashion industry leaders and the importance of maintaining global relevance for this new fashion event.

You made a brief mention of how ‘travel collections’ make more business sense for our fashion industry. Can you explain that further?
Yes. We have seen how an increasing percentage of global retail budgets are allocated to travel style, which means these collections present a large business opportunity for export. Travel collections are trans-seasonal in nature and see up to a six-month retail life in many markets. In addition, fashion and lifestyle media are increasingly dedicating more resources to cover this new style catering to a new-age customer where also digital technology will play a significant role in the runways. 

The global fashion industry is relatively regulated according to an international schedule. It is time that Sri Lanka moves forward, pioneering a unique offering that reflects our fashion identity. Sri Lanka’s manufacturing and designers’ ability to present travel collections offer both local and international buyers the most relevant and desired collection on the calendar. This means that these collections have a longer sell-through period and shelf life, allowing for greater profits and commercial viability. 

Can you explain ‘travel fashion’ from the point of view of the new-age customer that you just mentioned and why it’s such an attractive idea to them right now?
If you look at the new generation’s aspirations today, ‘travel’ is a big part of their lifestyle, or at least the life that they desire. Because of the lifestyles and ideals spread through social media mainly, we see how the fantasy of travel has become one of the trendiest things today. So, all over the world, people want to consume the experience of travel. And while doing that, they want to look the part too – like the lifestyles seen online. This is where ‘travel fashion’ comes in as something that is very attractive to many. 

Our little island happens to have the magic combination to become the world’s travel fashion destination, so we are leading the way to seize 
this opportunity.

Why do you say that Sri Lanka has the magic combination for becoming the world’s travel fashion destination? 
Already, Sri Lanka has a great reputation as a travel destination and even in the modern context, it is the kind of destination that can attract the new-age traveller who is hungry for experiences from history to adventure, nature, healing and culture to much more. Also our country happens to be the kind of travel destination that can really inspire a full travel wardrobe – from the mountains to the beach, from jungles to the city … the options are many. 

All this strength as a modern travel fashion destination combined with our remarkable fashion industry that can manufacture fashion to the best quality and the young design talent that we have been developing for over a decade is what makes the magic combination. Sri Lanka is uniquely positioned to become the world’s travel fashion destination and this is what we’re launching at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways this year.
 

How did you first arrive at this idea of travel fashion? 
It’s not really something we came up with recently. The idea has been in the making for about three years now and it has been thoroughly researched and given how much it can impact our country’s largest businesses. We’ve worked with one of the best consultancies in the world in preparing for it and put in a lot of research into what kind of products and ideas people like to consume, travel patterns for the next decade, the kind of traveller we need to attract to make it economically profitable for the country, changes in the fashion world, etc. So, we arrived at ‘travel fashion’ in a very well-informed, responsible way backed by in-depth research and facts because it’s really a serious thing. It has the potential to transform two of the biggest industries in the country – fashion manufacturing and tourism, which means, it will impact the livelihoods of over a million people easily. 
 

You mentioned a ‘kind of traveller that we need to attract to make it economically viable for the country’. Can you explain this more and why it’s important for our tourism industry?
The person we’re targeting was a very important part of our research. The traveller we’re looking at is a high-spending consumer – but their spending patterns are different to what we have witnessed in local tourism before. I think our industry was used to the traditional traveller who would walk into a touristy boutique and buy a few expensive souvenirs but this generation is on its way out. The new generation of high-spending travellers are out there but we need to attract them with the right things. We have the kind of hotels they like but we also need to create the kind of scenarios that inspire them and draw them here– and what our research told us is that fashion is a big part of this. 

The traveller that we want is someone who lives life to the fullest, their lifestyle includes travel as a major component while they’re also very career focused; their purchases need to inspire them and fit to their personality as travellers who also work and live at the same time. It basically caters to a new way of living. So, this is why we call it ‘travel fashion’ instead of vacation or resort. Even the travel fashion looks we’re presenting are not what you traditionally associate with just a vacation but rather looks that fit in seamlessly with this lifestyle of travelling while living 
and working. 
 

When you say ‘travel fashion looks’ what can we expect to see on the runway? Can you give some examples?
From the research and the work we put in for three years, we understand that ‘travel fashion’ has to be presented in ways that make it ready to be consumed instantly. So, the travel fashion that we’re presenting is a series of curated looks for scenarios that would appeal to the modern traveller we just spoke about. So, think of the theme ‘by the water front’, which would include not just swimwear but also outfits that would fit someone who is sitting by the beach but having a Skype meeting with his or her business stakeholders on the iPad. This is one example. There are many more inspiring scenarios and coordinated looks like ‘zen leisure’ and ‘night in the city’. Our media partners will soon be launching interesting snippets on these looks and themes 
to expect.
 

You mentioned the fashion industry’s involvement. Does that mean all these looks will be made by the industry? How does this fit into their agenda?
Yes. Everyone knows how our fashion manufacturing industry is one of the best in the world. This industry is currently in the process of diversifying and moving into the retail markets with their own brands as we have all seen in the last five years. They see travel fashion as another way forward and our teams have been working with the industry for the past six months in getting ready to present the concept to the world. What you are about to see in terms of travel fashion, at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways this year is nothing like what you have seen from the industry before –it’s 
very exciting.

What are the companies that will take part from the fashion industry?
We have many big and small players from the industry who are all bringing in their individual strengths to the runways with their collections. We are quite excited to present Hirdaramani, Lanka Leather, LICC Jeans, Maliban, MAS Active, MAS Fabrics, MAS Intimates, MAS Linea Aqua, MAS Linea Intimo, MRC, Nor Lanka, Orit, Penguin, Raaksha, Star Garments, Textured Jersey, Timex and Vogue Tex.
 

What about the design talent that you mentioned earlier? What’s their role?
My first big venture was AOD, because I felt the need of a strong fashion and design workforce in Sri Lanka to help our industries go forward. After more than a decade of AOD, now we have a great pool of fashion talent who have specifically been trained to gather inspiration from Sri Lanka and its culture to create a product that would appeal to the rest of the world. So, while the country provides the inspiration and the context for travel fashion, the industry lends the technology and the expertise. These designers are the ones who will use their creativity to get the product that will attract the consumer. Their role is very important and we’re at the right time to harness the talent that we have been developing all 
this time.

Who are the designers who will be showcasing?
We have a great mix of young but established brands like Lonali, Rum Punch and Nithya as well as fresh designers like Isuru Liyanage, Shehani de Silva, Senani Wickramasinghe, Sajeewani Seneviratne and Nethmi Muramudalige also contributing their amazing talent. They all bring in a unique feel and aesthetic to the runway and it’ll be a fantastic show.
 

How can someone become part of all this?
Actually, we have two very easy and exciting ways for anyone and everyone to be part of the runways and travel fashion this year. Firstly, the runway on DAY 1 will have Sri Lanka’s very first ‘shop the runway’ enabled, which means all the looks on the catwalk will be instantly available for purchase on fashionmarket.lk. Secondly, all the runways will be streamed live worldwide and available for everyone to see and experience; so we’re inviting everyone to view it online. We brought in these aspects especially because the runways this year have a huge commercial aspect to them and the looks are made to be purchased and used by people. So, I’d like to invite everyone to be part of the very first ‘shop the runway’ in the country and to join us live for
 the runways.

SLDF will happen on November 3, 4, 5 and 6, at SLECC Colombo, with AOD in partnership with DIMO hosting Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways. Coats Thread is official thread and zip partner, GT Nexus – official technology partner, HNB – official banking partner, Mount Lavinia Hotel – official host,  Wijeya Newspapers Group – print media partner, Free Lanka –official beverage partner, Secquoro – business transformation partner and We Are Designers – official hair and makeup partner – Salon Kess. Some of our key fashion industry participants include MAS, Hidramani, Timex, Star Garments, LICC, MRC, Nor Lanka, Orit, Innovative Knits, EKKO, Union Apparel, Penguin, Lanka Leather, Raaksha, Textured Jersey, Avirate and Vogue Tex. The event is endorsed by the Joint Apparel Association Forum. For partnerships, participation and more information, contact the SLDF secretariat on 076 777 0306 or email [email protected].