Another chapter in CFW’s ethical fashion drive
As Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) trapezes into its 19th consecutive edition this month, from February 24 to 26, Founder and Managing Director, Ajai Vir Singh has quiet satisfaction in how this developmental project, has step by step for the past 19 years created an entire ecosystem for fashion in Sri Lanka.
This year with ‘Green Conscious Earth Sensitive’ as its theme, CFW takes another step towards fulfilling its vision of creating a unique Sri Lankan design identity with sustainability, responsible fashion and a circular economy at the core, Ajai tells the Sunday Times.
It’s been a challenging journey. Back in 2003, although there were local designers, everything was geared towards elaborate shows. Now almost 85% of the designers in the country’s growing fashion industry are a product of the design development system and CFW as much as it is all about the glamour, the fashion and the spectacle, is
also about encouraging designers to embrace creativity and sustainability while being a movement that would transform and define the key pillars of the fashion industry, Ajai says.
Sri Lanka has a very clean supply chain compared to other countries in the region and that was something that played a vital role in steering CFW’s mission. Coining the phrase ‘Garments without guilt’ for the apparel industry, Ajai has promoted ethical fashion from 2012 onwards.
“It felt very broad, because the world was just waking up to sustainability. We tried to get all the designers onto the ethical side, but many could not and some didn’t want to. In 2017 we launched the Responsible Fashion Movement which ran parallel to open opportunities for designers because we realized it would be difficult to push all of them there. It was an incubator, a knowledge base, where you could feed them information, mentor them and move them,” he explained adding that it was geared towards those who were interested in being more ethical.
In 2018, the Responsible Fashion Summit was yet another door opened for designers who were still wary of taking that leap; thought-leadership discussions on a global level were conducted with experts providing ideas, solutions and experiences to guide the designers.
It is the Responsible Meter, that Ajai explains with a lot of pride that encourages both designers and consumers through its scoring system to be more aware of the fashion industry’s negative impact on the environment. Designers were able to gauge where exactly their designs fell in line with the different categories. Having been launched in 2020 as a pilot, the Responsible Meter continues being fine-tuned. HSBC is now championing it.
“We wanted it to be basically a dialogue between a creator and the consumer. We wanted consumers to ask questions. The end goal of this is to promote responsible consumerism. The Responsible Meter is broadly based on two key aspects; societal wellbeing and environmental wellbeing,” he explains.
This year they will explore these two aspects of wellbeing by involving experts along with those knowledgeable so that designers learn and society at large understands the concepts better. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have come on board focusing on the importance of supporting and empowering women. The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS), the third oldest NGO of its kind in the world, has partnered with CFW to create and build awareness on the wetlands and its importance to our ecosystem.
CFW is also committed to supporting young talent in terms of Design Development which is part of the CFW Accelerate programme. “In collaboration with the Italian Embassy, a Next Gen Designer Award will be awarded to one emerging designer -- a cash prize and scholarship to study fashion at a prominent design institute in Milan. HSBC is also creating an HSBC CFW Emerging Designer Fund where five emerging designers will identified and provided financial assistance,” Ajai says.
“The vision at CFW’s inception was to revive the industry as there were hardly any designers. There was no platform to push it, no ecosystem of design. So what CFW started working at from the beginning was to create a creative ecosystem for the fashion industry and that is what it has developed for the last 19 years,” Ajai says with pride.
At a press conference on Thursday held at the Shangri-La hotel, Ajai along with CFW’s partners announced their latest initiatives for CFW 2022. Among the 23 Sri Lankan designers who will show their collections are Charini Suriyage, Dimuthu Sahabandu, Sonali Dharmawardena, Amilani Perera, Fouzul Hameed, Indi Yapa Abeywardena, Dinushi Pamunuwa, Kamil Hewavitharana, Achala Leekoh, Himashi Wijeweera, Divya Jayawickrama, Ayesh Wickramaratne and Nilusha Maddumage with three well known South Asian designers -Rizwan Beyg from Pakistan, Woolmark Ward winner Suket Dhir and RimZim Dadu from India also taking the spotlight.