Celebrates Expression through Collaborations

Celebrating other creative industries and their expression through fashion has been one of the focus' of HSBC Colombo Fashion Week in recent years. These collaborations have given birth to various sub events that take place during the week of CFW such as Art Connect, Fashion + Food events, Knowledge Workshops, Music Designed and Fashion Films. 

Art Connect

This year the 5th edition of the collaboration between fashion and art, Art Connect will take place from 19th – 20th March. It brings together fashion and art under the theme ‘Co-liberate’ through the featured artwork, where each artist will gather inspiration from a CFW Designer to create one of their artworks. This year Art Connect will be featuring six renowned artists from Sri Lanka. Namely, Pala Pothupitiye, Mahen Perera, Sujeewa Kumari, Pradeep Chandrasiri, Koralegedara Pushpakumara and Kavaan Balasuriya. Art Connect will be the official launch event of Colombo Fashion Week on the 19th of March with an invite only evening of art appreciation and cocktails at the Laksala building in Fort. It will be open to the public on the 20th from 11.00 am to 8.00 pm. 

Fashion + Food

This season Colombo Fashion Week along with selected restaurants will be creating “Fashion Capital Menus” with a series of themed events;

New York Fashion Week - 20th March 2018 - 7.30 pm onwards - rare at Uga Residence, wine paired fine dining event. 

Paris Fashion Week - 21st March 2018 - 6.00 pm onward - Cafe Francais by Pourcel, French wine and cheese pairing event.

London Fashion Week - 22nd March 2018 - 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm - LAB at HIlton, Colombo, ‘A Classic Afternoon Tea’.

Tokyo Fashion Week - 23rd March 2018 - 9.30 pm (post runway show) - IkoiTei, Curated Bento Box and Sake tasting event. 

Milan Fashion Week - 25th March 2018 - 11.00 am to 3.00 pm - Il Ponte, Hilton Poolside, Brunch with complimentary access to the pool. 

Knowledge Workshops

Enhancing the knowledge base of young designers is one of Colombo Fashion Week’s key initiatives. CFW carefully plans upgrading skill sets and sharing knowledge. Following this, experts are invited to conduct workshops, by some of the fashion industry’s most sought after experts to provide the event’s attendees with useful insights. This season CFW conducts a workshop on Fashion and Lifestyle in Social Media and Blogging on the 21st of March conducted by Naina Redhu. Naina Redhu is an international Luxury & Lifestyle Photographer & Blogger based in India. Her expertise are also in Brand Storytelling and Influencer Marketing.

Music Designed

This season Colombo Fashion Week launches Music Designed on the 20th of March, a collaboration of music with fashion as music is an important element of presenting fashion. Three independent music artists picked for this segment will work with selected CFW designers to create original tracks for their runway segment. The musicians being featured are Naomi Wijemanne, Julius Mitchell and Sankha Bopearachchie (Sankha B). Technical support provided by Sooriya Village and Hit Factory Audio Institute. The radio partner is TNL Radio. 

Fashion Films

The third season of Fashion Films will be happening from 22nd – 24th of March. This creates a platform for aspiring film directors to showcase their work. Directors are paired with CFW designers to create a 1-minute fashion film recorded entirely on a smartphone to bring the designers inspirations to life through film. These films are revealed prior to each collection taking the runway. This season there are 11 film directors who have teamed together with the designers to create 17 films. Ryan Wijayaratne will create a film for Maus; Jonathan Wijayaratne for Conscience; Christian Hutter for Sonali; Jason Rajasinghe for Lovi Ceylon; Kavindu Sivaraj for Buddhi Batiks; Ishan Iqbal for ‘U’ by Upeksha, Indi by Indeevari and Aslam Hussein; Karvin Fernando for The Old Railway; Amrik Ratwatte for Amilani Perera; Ravindu Rumesh for Meraki, Charini and Dimuthu Sahabandu; Zeeshan Akram Jabeer for La’ Sari and FH; and Aleena Abdul Cader for ‘Jai’ by Jaish and Gihan Ediriweera.

Last year CFW celebrated another important milestone with their title partner HSBC, that saw a celebration of 10 years of their partnership that saw this beautiful story of fashion development unfold in front of everyone. This partnership has grown from strength to strength and supported the development of the local fashion design industry by supporting this development focused program. This year they look to the next decade.

Hosted by Hilton Colombo, its base for the last few years, CFW celebrates 9 years with Hilton, a partnership that has evolved and become synonymous with fashion and its development.

Each partner has been an important stakeholder and contributed in a significant and a relevant way to make this journey important and effective with their support and efforts. Ponds BB+ provide the make-up beauty looks for the last few seasons as the Official Beauty Partner, they understood the needs of the fashion industry and individual personalities.

Audi is the Official Automobile of Colombo Fashion Week, their strength in design led performance is what makes them a brand that fashions performance globally.

Hydration partner, OLU, is a pure and distinct natural mineral water sourced from the cloud forests of Sri Lanka.

Wineworld.lk continues to be the official Lifestyle Beverage Partner, providing the widest range of internationally renowned wines and spirits.

The iconic Ramani Fernando has been part of this journey since inception as the Official Hair and Make-up Partner,

Vision Care as the Official Eyewear Partner, Hameedia, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka and MSLGROUP Sri Lanka as the Official

PR Partner, We Are Designers as the Website Development Partner and Emerging Media as the Outdoor Digital Media Partner – all who share and extend their support towards the vision and aspirations of CFW.

For further details, please visit www.colombofashionweek.com or follow CFW on Facebook
(www.facebook.com/colombofashionweek), Twitter (@colombofw) and Instagram (@colombofw).