OLU Swim Week Colombo to present new season of swim and luxury resort wear through 23 designers

The fifth edition of OLU Swim Week Colombo will unveil the latest trends in swim and luxury resort wear presented by nine Sri Lankan designers and six international designers, as well as a newly conceptualised live fashion presentation by eight high potential emerging designers.  

This season, CFW Swim Week Colombo brings together four creative industries namely Art, Fashion, Food and Music to host a week-long creative festival titled ‘Celebrate Colombo’ presented by So Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Tourism and Promotion Bureau (SLTPB). Celebrate Colombo will take place from 3 to 10 August with Swim Week Colombo runway shows taking place from 8 to 10 August. OLU Swim Week Colombo will be partnering with three key hotels for the first time this season – Hilton, Colombo, Galle Face Hotel, and Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo respectively. 

OLU Swim Week Colombo is Asia’s first fashion week dedicated to swimwear and resort wear, which highlights Colombo as a burgeoning tourist destination. As demonstrated in its previous editions, Swim Week Colombo is the foremost platform for swimwear designers in Sri Lanka as well as the region and brings together some of the leading minds in the fine art of swimwear the world over.

OLU Swim Week Colombo was established in 2015 with the vision of creating a global platform for swimwear and positioning Sri Lanka as the swimwear capital of the world. Sri Lanka is renowned globally for its world-class swimwear manufacturing capabilities, having engineered and produced swimwear for some of the world’s finest swimwear brands. This existing knowledge and expertise, along with Sri Lanka’s strategic position as an island with world-famous beaches and holiday attractions, lends the country the potential to become a global swimwear hub. 

“Swim Week Colombo is a strategic fashion development project which aims to showcase Sri Lanka as an expert in swim and resort wear. We want to showcase Sri Lanka as an international hub which drives the direction for swim and resort wear in the world. In addition to this, we also want to highlight Sri Lanka as a world class tourist destination for a tropical holiday,” said Colombo Fashion Week Founder and Managing Director Ajai Vir Singh.

The upcoming Swim and Luxury Resort Wear ‘20 edition will feature prominent names in Sri Lankan fashion design such as Sonali Dharmawardena; Meraki; Rum Punch; Koca; Pigeon Island; Maus; Peronie Stefel; La Pard and launching for the first time will be Wraith by Dinesh Chandrasena. Among the international designers, several renowned designers will showcase this season, namely Wendell Rodricks; Aqua Blu; Studio Verandah; Aviva; Niveditha Saiboo; Eka by Rina Singh; and ITR. 

The Title Partner of Swim Week Colombo, OLU Tropical Water, a premier Sri Lankan brand of natural mineral water will add a little sparkle to its partnership with Swim Week Colombo by unveiling Sri Lanka’s first brand of sparkling water – Olu Tropical Sparkling. 

“Swim Week Colombo has established itself as a key event in the Asian fashion calendar and this year’s festivities coupled with the Celebrate Colombo creative festival showcases Sri Lanka as a fashion and tourist hub,” stated Shalindra Fernando, Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Island Ltd., which owns and operates OLU Tropical Water. 

Celebrate Colombo 2019 will feature an Art Exhibit, which will bring together an unprecedented 45 established and emerging Sri Lankan artists to collaborate on a never-before-seen project which embodies the spirit of Sri Lanka. A Food Festival will take place with partner restaurants and hotels packing a flavourful variety of events throughout the week. There will also be a series of Curated Music Events which will add to the celebration, and pockets of live music events will dot the city during the week’s festivities. CFW Fashion Films has established itself as a platform to merge the creative talents of both designers and young film directors to communicate their outstanding vision and creative depth. To round up the week with a finale to these events, Celebrate Colombo will conclude with a spectacular themed after party at Café Français. 

In addition, the week’s events will include the Responsible Fashion Summit, now in its third year. The Responsible Fashion Summit is a high-level knowledge sharing platform which brings together thought leaders, creatives, and thinkers from Sri Lanka and around the world to discuss ideas which can be implemented to create real solutions for a sustainable fashion and apparel industry. This edition of RFS focuses on oceans and plastics and its role in the ‘Journey Towards Circularity’.

Swim Week Colombo is a technical collaboration with state-of-the-art swimwear manufacturer, Linea Aqua, which is the Official Manufacturing Partner. Through this partnership now in its fifth consecutive year, Swim Week Colombo hopes realise its vision to position Sri Lanka as a hub for swimwear design and manufacturing amongst the global creative class. 

Swim Week Colombo has formed relevant and strategic partnerships with Sri Lanka’s leading brands and they all play an important role in pushing the annual event to the international level. Olu Tropical Water as Title Partner; Nations Trust Bank American Express as the Official Fashion Card; Shangri-La Colombo, Hilton Colombo and Galle Face Hotel as the Official Hospitality Partners; Jaguar Land Rover Sri Lanka as the Official Automobile Partner; Vaseline as the Official Skin Care partner; MAS Linea Aqua as the Official Manufacturing Partner; Wine World as the Official Lifestyle Beverage Partner; Ramani Fernando as the Official Hair and Make-Up Partner; Vision Care as the Official Fashion Eyewear Partner; Coca Cola Sri Lanka Ltd., Turkish Airlines, Taj Samudra Colombo, Park Street Mews and Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct as Official Food Festival Partners; Scope Cinemas as the Official Fashion Films Partner; The Faculty of Art at the University of Colombo as the Official Art Exhibit Partner; Wijeya Newspapers as the Official Print Media Partner; We Are Designers as the MullenLowe Sri Lanka as the Official PR Partner; and Emerging Media as the Official Outdoor Digital Media Partner. All of these entities share and extend their support towards the vision and aspirations of Swim Week Colombo.

For more information on OLU Swim Week Colombo’s Swim and Luxury Resort Wear 2020 edition, please visit www.colombofashionweek.com and @colombofashionweek on Instagram. Stay informed on OLU Swim Week by using #swimweekcolombo on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates, photos, videos and more.