Opening the show of the CFW Luxury Edition was Buddhi Batiks and rightly so! In her customary style, Darshi pulled the rabbit out of the hat with her beautiful collection of handcrafted batiks inspired by the theme of rebirth. The colours were vibrant and the slinky silks oozed luxury. Her choice of jewellery from CJS complemented the collection well.

Kamil Hewawitharana’s brand Limak presented a collection of beautiful prints. The main collection comprised silhouettes worthy of the red carpet but tended to border on the theatrical at times. Sonali Dharmawardene outdid herself with the batik collection she presented. The intricate lines of the wrapover dresses, the oversized polka dots and the immaculately neat square batik print spoke volumes of her mastery of this artisan craft. Her collection was contemporary and will have many of Colombo’s fashion pack speed dialling her number.

Young Ayesh’s collection passed muster…only just. If only the young designer spent more time on his collections rather than getting lost in perfecting the narrative of his inspiration, he would have met the brief of creating a luxury collection. The colour palette echoed nuances of luxury but the silhouettes lacked luxury appeal.

Charini Suriyage, another favourite designer amongst the Colombo fashionistas presented a collection that was restrained, which is unusual for her. Upping his game with his fabulous batiks was young designer Harinda who continues to up the ante each time. This collection ticked the boxes in terms of colour and silhouettes and his was indeed a much needed breath of fresh air. Dinushi Pamunuwa’s glitzy collection featured some beautiful abstract batik designs, however there was a slight overkill on the fishtails and the godets.

The men’s collections scored equally well. Evergreen menswear designer FH’s collection was well executed. The collection was suave and sophisticated. Closing the show was Lovi Ceylon, a brand that has entrenched itself in multi strata of Sri Lankan society. Elevating the humble sarong to the next level in the fashion stratosphere, Lovi Ceylon’s different looks from a dhoti to a bead encrusted jacket and his slick collection of ladieswear provided a fitting finale to the show. 

A bridal section featured pieces by Aslam Hussein, Charini Suriyage, Kingsman, Darshi Keerthisena, Kamil Hewavitharana and Sonali Dharmawardene.

PHOTOs BY Manoj Rathnayaka , Nisal Baduge, Pradeep Dilrukshana & Waruna Wanniarachchi