CFW brings international marketing, retail opportunities to Sri Lankan designers

Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

HSBC Colombo Fashion Week (CFW), the backbone of the Sri Lankan fashion industry, has inspired growth amongst local fashion designers through grooming, mentorship and exposure on the runway. This year, CFW enters its Spring/Summer 2015 Season with a stronger focus on providing Sri Lankan designers with breakthrough opportunities for retail and international recognition. Since its inception in 2003, CFW has made its annual fashion week the highlight of the year and has encouraged an increasing number of local designers to establish their own fashion labels and brands. Following this achievement, CFW now concentrates on creating avenues for their commercial success. CFW aims to achieve this by providing local designers with innovative marketing and retail opportunities, both locally and internationally, that will bring them sustainable incomes and place their brands on the international map. As one of its key initiatives towards realising this goal, CFW curates a regular Design Trunk Show, a unique platform for local designers to showcase and pre-sell items from their latest collections to consumers and fashion week invitees. The Trunk Show format will prepare participating designers to display and sell their collections at any retail store in the months following CFW. In this way, The Design Trunk Show greatly benefits designers who may not have their own boutique or retail space and allows them to build a solid clientele by interacting directly with customers. The Design Trunk Show will take place from 12 to 14 March in a conceptualised retail space within the Fashion Village, bringing in an exciting retail aspect to CFW’s week-long celebrations of fashion-focused events. In the world of international fashion, fashion PR agencies play a crucial role. After six months of evaluation, CFW has tied up with Omen, a reputed PR agency in New York, US that works with fashion designers who showcase their work at New York Fashion Week. The key objective of this partnership is to build the image and international profile of Sri Lankan fashion designers in key global markets. With the US being one of the largest markets for fashion, this tie-up aims to create an impact in New York and the US through the promotion of Sri Lankan designers. Founder and Managing Director of Omen, CJ Swanton, will also conduct a single-day workshop to give local designers and industry specialists an in-depth knowledge of the world of fashion PR. CFW Curates (www.cfwcurates.com), an exclusive online marketplace for home-grown fashion labels, allows local designers to make their latest collections available for purchase by local and international customers. Featuring an elegant selection of designer wear, CFW Curates allows local designers to have an online presence and makes their brands visible to discerning, fashion-savvy consumers across the world. By having a consistent platform to market and sell their products viably, designers are also driven to produce retail-ready collections all year round. CFW is one of three fashion weeks in Asia that are over 10 years old and will return for its 12th edition from 8 to 15 March at the Hilton Colombo Poolside. CFW is strengthened by its likeminded partners – HSBC, Hilton Colombo, Land Rover, Wineworld, Xquisit, Colombo Jewellery Stores, Unilever, TATA Housing, Hameedia, Ramani Fernando Salons, Leo Burnett and Quintessentially Lifestyle – who share its vision and aspirations, and lend their support towards its commitment to raising the bar of fashion in Sri Lanka. The CFW SS15 Show will be hosted at the Hilton Colombo Poolside, which will be themed as the Fashion Village and will serve as the dynamic centre for all CFW activities. The main shows (12 to 14 March) will unveil the latest collections of 20 local and seven international designers, and the ‘Bright Spark’ Shows (11 March) will showcase 10 aspiring designers. For ‘Fashion+Food’ (8 to 15 March) CFW has partnered with six premier restaurants to create limited edition fashion-themed menus. CFW will also feature four chefs of the Hilton Colombo who will be offering an exciting à la carte menu including innovative Bento boxes at the Fashion Café. Additionally, designers will be retailing items exclusively from their latest collections at the Design Trunk Show (12 to 14 March) as well as online on www.cfwcurates.com.