- Bibi Russell
- Rizwan Beyg
- Agatha Ruiz de la Prada
- Kasuni Rathnasuriya
- Yolanda Aluwihare-Holm
- Kanchana
- Nadiya Iqbal
- Dimuthu Sahabandu
- Kasuni Rathnasuriya
- Samant Chauhan
- Sonali Dharmawardena
- Upeksha
- Conscience
- Arugam Bay
- Hameedia
- Stringhopper
- Fahad Sheriff
- Darshi Keertisena
- Jason and Anshu
- Manoviraj Khosla
- Gaetanno Navara
- Deneth
- James Ferreira
- Najila and Rusla
- Gihan Ediriweera
- Lillian Pereira
- Ramona Oshini
- Akram Cassim
- Perine Fernando (Spokesperson)
- William Richard Green
- Otara
 BIBI RUSSELL Bibi Russell is a fashion designer and former international model from Bangladesh. After working with Yves Saint Laurent, Kenzo, Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani, she started Bibi Productions to work with Bangladeshi weavers and artisans. Her goal: to help them utilize their considerable skills to sustain themselves and build a prosperous future. She has since used this model around the world, in places like India, Denmark and Colombia, harmoniously linking tradition and modernity, and helping them access local and global markets.  RIZWAN BEYG This Pakistani designer was named “One of the 100 Most Influential Asians”, along with the likes of Sonia Gandhi and Amir Khan, by Ahlan, a Dubai lifestyle magazine. He was the first designer in Pakistan to introduce the concepts of Haute Couture, designer bridal wear, designer home furnishings and accessories, thus he has radically transformed the fashion silhouette of Pakistan. His long-time goal has been to perfect the art of embroidery and embellishment and fuse East with West. He was asked to design an ivory ensemble for Princess Diana, and other high profile clients have followed, including HRH Princess Sarvath of Jordan and Jemima Khan, and the Sheikha of Sharjah. His collections have graced catwalks all over the world.  AGATHA RUIZ DE LA PRADA Spain’s number 1 and one of Europe's top designers. Her creations are true forms of artistic expression, so certain design pieces are exhibited in galleries throughout the Spain. With fashion collections recurrent in catwalks in Spain, France, Italy, Colombia, Poland, Greece, Santo Domingo, The United States, and Mexico, among others, her art exhibitions are not far behind, reaching destinations such as Tokyo, New York, Paris, Moscow, and Bucharest. Her family of licensed products includes just about anything you could find in the best department stores, and is distributed in 140 countries. Last year, 2011, in honor of the 30th anniversary of her first fashion show, Agatha inaugurated the Agatha Ruiz de la Prada Foundation.  KASUNI RATHNASURIYA Kasuni Rathnasuriya was the recipient of the British Council Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year for 2011. Currently employed at Brandix Intimate Apparel as a Designer for Victoria’s Secret PINK, a leading apparel group in Sri Lanka which is highly focused on eco-friendly best practices, she uses the same ethical practices in her own environmentally sound product line that features Beeralu and handmade crocheted lace. Collaborating with the Carbon Consulting Company (CCC) to calculate the product footprint for her swimsuit line, she treats each and every KṸR creation as a labour of love made for those who are ethically conscious and know the value of arts, local tradition, heritage, and craftsmanship. This is her third showing at Colombo Fashion Week.  YOLANDA ALUWIHARE
Wrapping human form in great works of art is what Yolanda Aluwihare-Holm strives for with each piece of her collection. Year after year the Yoland Collection continues to create more luxurious, unique pieces that exude vibrant colour, texture and design whether a dress, saree or a shawl.  OTARA
Otara and her company, ODEL, are so much a part of Sri Lanka’s fashion scene, it almost seems redundant to mention either. From modeling to selling excess garments from the boot of her car, to a small space on Dickman’s Road, she has grown ODEL to a chain of retail outlets, and filled the stores and the island with her own brands. Distinguishing between Otara the woman and ODEL the store was already a challenge, but now we must take into consideration Embark, her personal initiative to better the lives of street animals; Otone, which extends her enthusiasm for fitness to the community; Backstage, an eclectic jewellery and accessories brands; Studio Otara, to design and develop luxury homes; the Otara Jewellery Line, intricate ornaments with her Midas touch; and NOW, at HSBC Colombo Fashion Week 2012, Otara Jeans, due to debut in Europe soon! Keep up at Otara.lk. KANCHANA
Kanchana has worked as a freelance fashion and costume designer, as well as a Production Designer and Art Director for film and television, winning several local awards for internationally acclaimed work.  NADIYA Nadiya Iqbal's collection is inspired by the modern woman--as masculine as she is feminine, as strong as she is sensitive. Nadiya's collection combines heavy fabrics with light chiffons and soft laces with raw crude edges. The structure of the garments are sometimes tailored and yet interlinked with soft drapery and flounce. Drawn from the energies of those strong women of a century gone by who took to the streets in their bonnets and flared skirts to liberate generations to follow, she honors the women of today who have reaped the fruits of that legacy to stand tall, confident and strong.  DIMUTHU
Dimuthu Sahabandu began his career as the assistant designer to KT Brown, before launching his own self-named brand in 2010. His contemporary Sri Lankan designer clothing brand introduces capsule collections of high-end ready-to-wear clothing with the focus of bringing forth the true Sri Lankan identity. The brand maintains standards of only producing limited quantities of each design and each piece is designed, sourced and manufactured in Sri Lanka. Last year’s showing at CFW led him to showing and retailing in India.  SAMANT CHAUHAN
At his 2004 graduating show from NIFT, he had his first award-winning show at the Singapore Fashion Week '05. It was followed by career milestones in 2007, when he participated in the London Fashion Week and in 2008, presenting his SS’09 collection as a solo show at Carousel Du Louvre, Paris. Passionately working for the cause of his native Bhagalpur master-weavers, Samant received the ‘Young Entrepreneur Award’ from the British Council in 2009. He's participated in Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week since 2005 and in WLIFW's SS12; breaking into the Indian wear market in grand way with the launch of his 'Rajputana' collection, which captures the British Victorian influence on the Royal Rajasthanis, using hand-woven silk and cottons, hand-embroidery and block-printing.  SONALI DHARMAWARDENA
Sonali’s label and store carry the title: ACUSHLA by Sonali Dharmawardena. Her collection for Colombo Fashion Week this year expresses through muted and morphed tones her somber feelings after traveling through areas of our island home that were horribly affected by the war. Yet golden hues and blocks of colour represent hope for the future, and her wishes for the people of Sri Lanka to and warm up to each other despite a shared sad past, and work toward creating a new golden era. Using varied textures of fabric, leather and techniques of batik, each piece is a work of expression to complement the body that it embraces.” Her shop, ACUSHLA, can be found down Gandhara Street.  UPEKSHA
Having studied costume design at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Upeksha Hager worked as a designer for a number of years in Washington DC Theater. Returning to Sri Lanka after twenty years abroad, she launched her fashion brand two years ago. ‘U by Upeksha’ is an extension of a lifelong immersion in the visual arts. In Upeksha’s second year showing at Colombo Fashion Week, she’ll bring jewel-colored Kanchipuram silks and organza brocades. Inspired by Art Nouveau, she aspires to create a fresh interpretation of that iconic style and period.  Ramona Oshini Jayawardena is a Colombo-based designer who brings out simple elegance through her creations. Her namesake collection, Ramona Oshini was founded and launched at Colombo Fashion Week 2010. Her 2012 resort collection is inspired by our island paradise, where the blue sea is all around us. The collection revolves around a person’s perspective from the beach--the sand, the froth and the waves blending into turquoises and shades of blue. The Ramona Oshini brand is available at Melache.  MALAYNA DAWN - COMPÈRE Malayna Dawn fell in love with Sri Lanka long before 2000, when she finally took up residency. With a Sri Lankan father and American mother, she fuses East and West in all she does. Her love of the island inspired her novel, Echoes Across Time, available in bookstores across Sri Lanka, and worldwide from Amazon.com. Raised in Los Angeles on the outskirts of Hollywood, she holds a degree in Communications and brings years of experience from all aspects of the entertainment industry to her current projects: Spiral Whirled Travels.com and, since 2008, Colombo Fashion Week, where she also acts as Communications Consultant. Find out more at MalaynaDawn.com or SpiralWhirledTravels.com.“Like” both Spiral Whirled Travels and Colombo Fashion Week on Facebook to be entered to win fabulous prizes – including 2 nights at Nilaveli Beach Hotel! |
CONSCIENCE Conscience believes in making an impact on the entire supply chain in a positive way--calling it ‘the supply chain of happiness.’ They want happy farmers, happy weavers, and happy manufacturers so that ethically conscious consumers can wear their garments with pride and joy. This means buying fabric from mills that practice ethical sourcing from cotton farmers, who are included in their process of sourcing fairly, and using mills that are conscious of the environment they and their stakeholders operate in. One of the mills they work with also protects a forest and a wildlife reserve, acting on the belief that nature and this planet belong as much to others as it belongs to us. Conscience is manufactured at 'Garments Without Guilt' factories in Sri Lanka and is a label designed, created and manufactured in Sri Lanka. It currently retails in Sri Lanka, India and Australia. ARUGAM BAY
Arugam Bay beachwear draws its inspiration from Arugam Bay, one of the most amazing surfing destinations in the world. The brand captures the natural vitality, colours, mood, sense of space and magic of the east coast of Sri Lanka, and squeezes them into a collection filled with fun and energy. The colours of Sri Lanka have played a major role in defining the creative view point for the brand. Look out for the new prints and beach accessories. HAMEEDIA
The man behind the successful men’s retail chain known as Hameedia’s returns to Colombo Fashion Week after his FH Studio collection validated him as a design talent with a keen understanding of the upwardly mobile man in today’s competitive world. FH is for the man who wants to be modern and elegant, without being perceived as overdressed. With three differently themed lines in his collection, he provides all that a modern man of style in Sri Lanka could desire—fresh and in line with international men’s-wear trends, yet sharp, slick and beautifully finished. STRINGHOPPER
Stringhopper captures the essence of modern tropical living. The product of Stringhopper Design Studio--an incubation center for Sri Lankan sensibility expressed through designed collections—it debuted at Colombo Fashion Week 2009. Then, it added another twist to its line by introducing CONSCIENCE by Stringhopper at Colombo Fashion week 2010.  FAHAD SHERIFF
His brand, Middle Finger, showed for the first time at Colombo Fashion Week 2007, where he presented a new collection of jackets and blazers adding to his established focus on stylish yet casual men’s shirts. Since then he has branched out even further, adding a line of jeans and graphic design T-shirts called MF Art before expanding into a range of fashionable belts, wallets, shoes, ties and other accessories.  DARSHI KEERTHISENA
Joining her family business Buddhi Batiks in January 2005, Darshi aspired to push the batik industry into the contemporary fashion market. Her showing at Colombo Fashion Week 2007 earned her a place at the Bangalore Fashion Week alongside reputed Indian designers such as Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal and JJ Valaya. Orders received from that show have led to her retailing in top design stores in Bangalore and Chennai. She has represented Sri Lanka as the national winner of the British Council’s International Young Fashion Entrepreneur for 2008, and in New Delhi at the Fashion Development Council of India’s SAARC show. The Buddhi Batiks showroom can be found at 32 Ward Place in Colombo 7.  JASON AND ANSHU
Smallshop is a collaborative between Anshu and Jason, created in the middle of 2006 when they began retailing home and fashion, respectively. out of two stand-alone stores in Bangalore. Soon other boutique stores across India were added, and Ananda in Spain, as well, but their designs have made their way throughout the world. The smallshop aesthetic can be best summed up as vibrant, painterly whimsical and luxuriously languid. The ‘Luxury’ stems from the various unique hand processes the product goes through, the use of natural fabrics, which are finally translated into clothes that are soft, draped and artistic.  MANOVIRAJ KHOSLA
Manoviraj Khosla has been ranked among the top 5 designers in India Fashion Week, and is a well-known and loved designer on the Colombo Fashion Week stage. After studying fashion design at the American College in London he set up his own studio in 1990. Initially focused on men’s wear, he now designs women’s wear and stylish footwear, and also designed a line of sportswear under the Kingfisher label. He has also designed uniforms for many corporate houses, restaurants, bars, hotels, school and airlines. He retails his lines through his own stores in Bangalore and Calcutta and at several high end boutiques in major cities.  WILLIAM RICHARD GREEN
Trained on England’s Saville Row where he learned tailoring, craftsmanship, and cut, he went on to work for David David, a much-hyped wearable art label. Green's designs and ultra-masculine collections—based on themes such as fishermen and Vikings—are modern and definitely fashion-led, while utilising as much British-sourced fabrics as possible. Profiled by magazines the world over, and even featured in film, straight from London Fashion Week, William Richard Green is a carefully crafted quality label that isn't boring, pretentious, or ridiculous and doesn't overdose on heritage vibes. It's just dead current.  GAETANNO NAVARA
Italian born and bred, with experience grown in his family’s knitting company, Gaetanno Navara put his technical know-how to good use in creating his own exceptionally innovative designs. In 1986, his first prêt-a-porter knitwear collection hit the fashion shows in his native Bologna, and by 1991 he attracted the attention of the international press at the Milano Collezioni. Designer-made knitwear using modern techniques on unusual material, dazzling colours and sensual lines create youthful garments for the self-confident and satirical personality. Based in Bologna, Italy, he currently markets across Europe, England, the US and Japan.  DENETH
With a name that means ‘Eyes’, it is no surprise that Deneth seeks to fill everyone’s vision with a riot of colours. Her own 21st-century “flower power” style is inspired from her Sri Lankan home, as well as from many years living and traveling in Nepal, India, Bhutan and France. Using ‘cheetha’-- a colorful cotton textile used as village wear in Sri Lanka--she creates modern clothes for men and women, handmade by three small families from Kurunegala with care, love and extra attention. Her line is uniquely suited for the modern-day global nomad, at home in all cultures, comfortable with all people without prejudice--meditative, philosophical and spiritual, but also laid back and easy-going.  KOCA BY RN
Influences from cultural dance embodied with striking architectural design by the Dutch, Portuguese and British from the UNESCO world heritage site of Galle fort brings to life creations by KOCA. Designers Najila and Rusla dedicate their Spring Summer Resort wear collection to the majestic Galle Fort – hints of ancient building architecture, military uniform and Sri Lankan cultural dance costumes embellish the appliqué design. The stunning jewellery used for the dresses are by the Sri Lankan Jewellery Design House, Pedlars Inn Gallery.  G BY GIHAN EDIRIWEERA
Gihan was named ‘Best Designer of the Year’ twice in 2009—once by the Sunday Observer, where he also garnered first place in the eveningwear category, and the other from Lanka Woman Magazine, where he also took first place in ladies resort wear, ladies office wear, ladies ethnic wear, and ladies evening wear. With collections currently available at Melache design studio, and a collection that ties together traditional Japanese styles with nature and mystery, he would like to take the Sri Lankan design identity to the international market.  LILLIAN PEREIRA
Born in Norway, Lillian has spent two decades of her life living in Sri Lanka. Designing batik dresses for sale in Norway, her designs also received attention here, winning first prize in the Lanka Woman competition called ”Vogue -87” in 3 out of 4 categories: Evening wear, Office wear and Casual wear. She twice created designs for the Model of the Year contest, where her daughter was Miss Sri Lanka in 1985. From 1992 to 2007 she was the local representative for Helly Hansen sportswear. This is her first showing with Colombo Fashion Week.  PERINE FERNANDO - SPOKESPERSON
Born in Badulla when her father was a planter, Perine was raised in Bambalapitiya until, at 15 years of age, her family moved to Switzerland. She began modeling for catalogue and editorial work before moving to Paris and modeling during fashion week for high fashion designers like Yves St. Laurent, Ungaro, Lanvin, Balenciaga, Dior, Lagerfeld, Nina Ricci, Celin, etc.. She was soon signed to agencies in Milan, Rome, London, Tokyo, and New York for fashion weeks, working with designers like Armani, Fendi, Escada, and other newer designers. In 2000, she moved to New York to become spokesmodel for Escada, until the company was sold and the designer changed in 2006/2007. Then she started showroom modeling for Etro, and more recently, Brunello Cucinelli, doing shows and presentations for Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks. CFW TEAM
Many, many thanks go to the following for helping to coordinate our biggest show yet! |
|