Intelligent design and colour at the fore Day 4 CFW 20th Anniversary

CFW’s 20th anniversary show Summer 23  which provided four days of back to back fashion drew to a close on Saturday night at the Shangri-La Colombo.  Dimuthu Sahabandu is a diminutive designer who is just packed with talent. From the way he re-engineers fabric to give it new dimension, he also displays intelligence in fashion. Fashion can be used as a powerful tool to make a social commentary or to convey a  message and that is what  Sahabandu’s collection did. His collection attempted to showcase that light rises through a dark pond in this case a nation brought to its knees through corruption but eventually hope springs eternal.  His clever use of embellishments conveyed a subtle but sublime social statement. The irony of the red beaded shawl was such a stroke of brilliance including the skirt with hand painted images of clenched fists rising up in solidarity. He brought drama to the runway in the most subtle but powerful way.   

Harinda Gunawardhana a young designer who has graduated from CFW’s stable of young design talent keeps improving season by season. His collection of batik prints were dramatic both in design and colour combinations.  

Hameedia celebrates its 75th anniversary in the Sri Lankan menswear industry this year and it was indeed refreshing to see Mikhail Hameed, next generation of the Hameed dynasty  present his collection of menswear which was youthful and sharp and will certainly grab the attention of the next gen. Lovi Ceylon continues to make strides in creating a sarong evolution with each season and this collection had great appeal with its mix of casual and ceremonial garb.  

Darshi Keerthisena yet again staked her claim as Sri Lankan’s leading exponent of the artisanal craft of batik with a selection of fabulous batik prints that evoked a happy buoyant feeling with a brilliant and well thought out colour palette. Her pairing of colours is unique. Her constantly evolving batik prints and silhouettes from saris to dresses are proof that she is not a one trick pony. I cant wait to see what else she has up her sleeve!  Her collection brought such vibrancy and colour which provided a fitting finale to four days of fashion. Kudos to CFW for getting  Sri Lankan supermodel Ornella Gunasekera who now walks the runways of the world’s major fashion weeks to walk the runway at Colombo Fashion Week.

Pix by Manoj Rathnayaka,Pradeep Dilrukshana,Nimalsiri Edirisingha, Nisal Baduge, Waruna Wanniarachchi