CFW Designer Development showcases 10 emerging designers

• Designer development a key focus since inception

The Emerging Designer Showcase is Colombo Fashion Week’s designer development platform. With a clear focus on guiding and mentoring aspiring designers, the program is in line with Colombo Fashion Week’s vision since inception of elevating the country’s fashion industry in all aspects of designer development including designer retail infrastructure. 

Since the introduction of this platform, Colombo Fashion Week has witnesses an increasing number of designers who approach it annually with the intent of launching their career in fashion using CFW as their platform of choice. Over 90% of both established and up-and-coming designers in the country today commenced their journey in fashion with Colombo Fashion Week. This is testament to the platform’s authenticity and commitment to engender a self-sustainable infrastructure for emerging designers. 

This year’s Emerging Designers showcase will feature the launch collections of Dinushi Pamunuwa, Yathra Jayawardene, Marlon Rae, Savindri Kuruppu and Mihiri de Silva. The winner of last year’s Fashion Design Fund Anushika Perera and designers Vathsala Gunasekera and Poorni Wijesinghe who previously launched and showcased their collections with Colombo Fashion Week, make a comeback this season. Every participant in the showcase has been carefully mentored and guided through the creative process by the CFW team to help them hone their skills prior to producing each of their runway-ready collections for CFW Summer. 

Aside from being presented with the coveted opportunity to understand the intricacies of how one of the four main fashion events in Asia function, the designers are imbibed with the know-how on fine-tuning their respective brands and collections to better appeal to an audience comprising of established designers, editors, buyers and influencers, both on and off the runway and particularly in terms of fashion retail. 

Many of the emerging designers have undergone extensive training under the Project 7 program led by Ajai Vir Singh that has significantly helped strengthen the ideation process of each participant leading to strong point-of-view development. This specialised program entails a series of workshops that provides participants with practical steps that fuel creativity and ideation from a new perspective.

This season of Colombo Fashion Week will kick off with the Emerging Designers’ Showcase today, 15 March, at the Hilton Colombo. The Hilton Colombo, this season’s hospitality partner, has displayed great interest in designer development over the years, extending their support towards CFW making their partnership with CFW a befitting one. Tickets for the Emerging Designer Showcase are available online at cfwtickets.shopbox.lk.

HSBC Colombo Fashion Week is enriched by its partners who have understood the vision behind CFW and take great interest in raising the standards of fashion and making a mark internationally – HSBC, Hilton Colombo, Sri Lanka Tourism Board, Sri Lanka Tea Board, Jaguar, Colombo Jewellery Stores, Pond’s BB+ - Unilevers, The Residences by One Galle Face, Etisalat, Wineworld, Olu tropical Water, Vision Care, Ramani Fernando Salons, Printage, Leo Burnett and MSL Group and Emerging Media.

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