Sri Lanka Design Festival to focus on disruptive innovation

Sri Lanka Design Festival focusing on the current 

transformative context for the fashion and apparel industries will be held this November. With knowledge-sharing forums, b2b networking and runways that display the 

latest strategic shifts in the local apparel industry, the event is set to lead thought leadership for the region’s fashion/apparel business. Daily FT shares this story recently featured in the 

leading media platform for fashion and apparel, 

Just-Style. This is the online media giant’s take by Michelle Russell on the Sri Lanka Design Festival and what it sets out to deliver for the apparel industry in 2016

SLDF organises factory tours to help visitors understand the quality and sustainability standards of local factories 

Disruption, reinvention and transformation will be the key themes of this year’s Sri Lanka Design Festival, which aims to map out innovative shifts that could affect the course of the country’s apparel industry.

Taking place from 3-6 November at the Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre in Colombo, the event, which is now in its seventh year, will host a number of forums delivering insight into creative disruption and how constant innovation can help reinvent and transform businesses.

Simultaneously, runways at the festival will feature a new take on Sri Lankan fashion, presenting a disruptive business model to the local apparel industry with ‘travel fashion’. The concept aims to position the nation as a travel fashion destination leveraging what organisers say is its “centuries-long reputation as a travel paradise”. The festival will also link up new initiatives such as a ‘shop the runway’ feature to encourage the industry into selling in the digital realm. 

“As the cyber social landscape explodes with growth and brands have the capability to connect to over a billion people at any given moment in time now, the only barrier to international growth becomes your mind and creative ability to sense design for emotional engagement,” says Linda Speldewinde, founder of Sri Lanka Design Festival. “Therefore, SLDF sees Sri Lankan apparel makers entering the digital realm as an important part of the formula.”

The popular ‘South Asian Apparel Forum’ will also make a return, with topics for 2016 built around understanding the shifts in the consumer landscape and how they are affecting the industry. Speakers will discuss how manufacturing could be replaced by 3D printing in the future, and how hyper-loop technology will replace ground transportation. Also discussed will be the domination of digital retail, and how the Sri Lankan apparel industry can transform in order to survive the fourth industrial revolution. 

“Time and time again all industries reach a tipping point where strategies and operational models start to lack a transformative change and become obsolete,” says Speldewinde. “Even large corporates that become complacent in their success end up lacking the agility to transform and reinvent themselves and therefore, perish; faster, innovative players take control of the market and thrive to ride the wave of change.”

She adds: “In Sri Lanka, there are many industries that are facing challenges today, including apparel manufacturing. They need a new way of thinking and this is not in a small incremental way, but rather in quantum leaps with new strategies. This thought leadership and inspiration is what Sri Lanka Design Festival gears up to deliver through its forums and runways in 2016.”

As well as a focus on Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, organisers are keen to understand what other industries have done to succeed. Two fashion experts working within China will share their knowledge and insights of a thriving export industry and growing domestic market and how everything ‘design’ is leveraged on to the new now.

Organisers are welcoming buyers, retailers, sourcing specialists, opinion leaders, designers, design students, and fashion brands to the festival. 

B2B meetings with manufacturers, designers and even textile artisans are a big part of SLDF 

SLDF will take place on 4, 5 and 6 November at SLECC Colombo, with AOD in partnership with DIMO hosting Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways, Coats Thread – official thread and zip partner, GT Nexus – official technology partner, HNB – Official Banking Partner, Mount Lavinia Hotel – Official Host,  Wijeya Newspapers Group – Print Media Partner, Just-Style – International Media Partner, Free Lanka – Official Beverage Partner, Secquoro – Business Transformation Partner, Salon Kess – Official Hair & Make up Partner and We Are Designers as well the key apparel industry participants MAS, Hirdaramani, Timex, Star Garments , LICC, MRC, Nor Lanka, Orit, Innovative Knits, EKKO, Union Apparel, Penguin, Lanka Leather, Rakshaa, , Textured Jersey, Avirate and Vogue Tex. The event is endorsed by the Joint Apparel Association Forum.

For partnerships, participation and more information, contact the SLDF secretariat on 076 777 0306 or email [email protected].

Over 100 apparel giants gathered at SLDF for South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum