Fashion Week

 Compiling the CFW’s worst dressed list would have been easy peasy lemon squeazy but the best dressed would have been tough 

Ajai Vir Singh has been instrumental in crafting modern Sri Lankan style. He founded Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) in 2003. It has been a tremendous effort and a lot of hard work that Ajai has invested in to sustain this CFW. The ups and downs as well as the highs and lows Ajai has gone through can only be imagined. Kudos to Ajai as CFW celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.

For those who are not aware, CFW is a development project that aims to drive progressive change in every aspect of the fashion industry in Sri Lanka. Colombo Fashion Week’s mission is to establish, develop and maintain an efficient fashion eco-system that incubates the best of Sri Lankan fashion designs before it is presented to the world.

Considering the number who clamour to be invited to CFW each year and the many designers showcasing their collection to our worthy Colombo crowd, we would expect to see in the audience beautifully clad women in stylish clothes or being avante garde. One does not. A mere percentage of the audience dress age appropriately in grand style and look chic or elegant. The rest are a dreadful sight. 

One lot float around in horrendous outfits that seem to have been created by cutting up a coloured garbage bag, throwing some blotches of paint on it and cutting some holes for the arms and neck or seem to be inspired by curtain drapes or look like divans floating around.  The other lot appear as if they have searched the world and dived into latex condoms with parts of their body bulging out.  All these have invested in fancy shoes that they can hardly balance on and look like the inflated displays wobbling outside supermarkets advertising a sale. Then comes the naki vise category who decide to wear revealing outfits where their bodies look like siri siri bags filled with water that make the bosoms look lopsided. My thoughts went out to the children at home who had to see their mothers going out looking like that. 

If you are Lady Gaga you could get on with all of this but these were Latha and Katha looking like lanterns caught in a storm. Compiling the CFW’s worst dressed list would have been easy peasy lemon squeazy but the best dressed would have been tough. All I can say is that all of this provided amusement which was extended when looking at the styles posted boldly online and in the newspapers.