Oh! Colombo 

Ten models from Australia, 5 from Russia, 8 from India and 8 of Sri Lankan models will be on the runway for the third CFW swimwear collection this year. The designers are Dharshi, Charlene, Rum Punch by Rukshi, Miraki by Sharmila, Charini, Upeksha, Arugam Bay and Amante, all Sri Lankan designers who know about swimwear. Their designs will be executed by Linea Aqua. A joint venture between Speedo International (UK), Brandot International (US) and MAS Holdings, Sri Lanka. Along with our designers there will be three international designers Sanchita, Mathew Zink and Shivan & Naresh.

CFW SWIM is CFW's third annual season. It focuses on swimwear as a category. Ajai has been working on it for a year. It is quite strategic to Sri Lanka for a few reasons. It meets CFW's vision of uplifting Sri Lanka's fashion design industry and with this it will broaden the body of work of Sri Lankan designers. CFW first started with Spring Summer. Once designers were comfortable with it, in 2012, expanded to include resort wear as a season, so that they could expand their body of work. It was also a first for any fashion week in Asia to have resort wear as a formal season. As per the plan this year it expanded to include swimwear, which is a very specialised design sensibility as it is technical from a fabric and construction point of view.

Sri Lanka is certainly an environment for swimwear and it should become a natural part of Sri Lankan designers portfolio.

Every tourist flying into Sri Lanka will definitely have swimwear as part of their luggage. Sarinda of Linea Aqua shares CFW’s vision and enthusiasm of creating a platform that will make global impact and, hence, it is quite comfortable to push the boundaries. That is the vision that Ajai has aim for in the next few years: making swimwear in Sri Lanka a global destination.

Cafe Francais run by Uga Residence (on Park Street), Kaema Sutra, Il Ponte and Clique will be creating special menus as Fashion Brunches. There will also be  a Swim Party, uniquely created as The Morning After Party, a day long fashion brunch party on 9th August at the Hilton Colombo Poolside.

Hilton Colombo will be the host and hotel partner. The other sponsors and partners for the event are Olu Tropical Water, the title partner for SWIM;  Linea Aqua one of the main partners, Nissan, Yamaha Jet Ski, A n E (leading thread manufacturers), Bodyline, Vision Care, Ramani Fernando Salons, Leo Burnett, MAS Fabrics, Trischelle and TexPrint.

An exciting two days of swimwear, fun, food and frolic are planned with great detail by Ajai. A great show and event is in store for the fashionistas in Colombo.