EDB plays key role in promoting Lankan apparel industry

Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) 2012, backed by local industries and the Government, was held under the theme of ‘Locally Global,’ taking Sri Lankan design to the world as an internationally relevant yet, locally rooted industry.

The Export Development Board (EDB), the apex Government organisation for developing and promoting the export of products and services from Sri Lanka, partnered the event as a key stakeholder to promote Sri Lanka’s largest export industry – apparel. EDB embraced Sri Lanka apparel’s campaign to be the South Asian leader through two key events: the seminal South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum and the international fashion show by Sri Lankan apparel makers.  

The South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum saw several global apparel leaders sitting together with Sri Lankan industry icons to discuss and decide solutions for existing problems and came up with new initiatives to place Sri Lanka at the South Asian apparel front.

For this forum, EDB brought down several apparel luminaries whose opinions and voices are extremely influential in the world. These personalities included Michelle Mone, founder of the Ultimo lingerie brand in UK, Mark Green, Vice President for Global Supply chain for PVH Corporation that leverages a diversified portfolio of brands – including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, IZOD, ARROW, and Bass, the sustainable fashion icon Jonas Eder-Hansen of the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, and Mike Todaro, AAPN’s Managing Director along with David Burnbaum – renowned apparel strategist and author of the monthly global newsletter ‘The Birnbaum Report.’

EDB Chairman and Chief Executive Janaka Ratnayake met these luminaries along with local apparel icons such as Ashroff Omar, CEO of Brandix, Mahesh Amalean, Chairman of MAS Holdings, Nikhil Hirdaramani, Director of the Hirdaramani Group, and Kumar Mirchandani, Group Director of Favourites.

“We are keen to promote the Sri Lankan apparel industry and associated industries to keep abreast of the changing trends and needs in the global market and also to promote their ground-breaking initiatives to the world. We’re proud to recognise our apparel industry as a regional visionary among exports and it’s very important for us to portray this to the world,” said Ratnayake.

The Sri Lanka apparel fashion show was also supported by EDB, and was a global platform for swimwear, lingerie, sportswear and casual-wear depicting the design, dyeing and finishing capabilities and manufacturing excellence of the local apparel industry.    

SLDF was founded by Sri Lanka’s international design campus AOD (www.aod.lk), and was supported by the Ministry of Economic Development, the Export Development Board and JAAF as the key stakeholders, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau – tourism partner, SriLankan Airlines – official airline, Mount Lavinia Hotel – official host, MAS as the main sponsor of Sri Lanka fashion and apparel awards, TradeCard – official software partner, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics – official freight and fashion logistics, and Textured Jersey – official fabric partner.

Other supporters included Coats Thread – official thread partner, MTV/MBC – electronic media partners and PrintCare – official printer.



The British Council, the Norwegian Embassy and Goethe Institut also supported SLDF as knowledge partner, cultural partner and international program partner respectively, while WGSN, JustStyle and Textile Institute/Textiles magazine promoted the festival internationally as the international media partners. SocialMidea was the official social media partner and Cheryl Gooneratne was the official hair and makeup partner for the festival this year.