Fashionmarket.lk elevating Sri Lankan spun fashion to the next realm! 

In a pioneering move, charismatic entrepreneur Linda Speldewinde, the founder of the Academy of Design has come up with Fashion Market.lk. An e-commerce site that seeks to revolutionise fashion in Sri Lanka, this fashion portal aims to lead a movement to establish a new style of dressing that embraces Sri Lankan heritage and fuses it with  cutting edge fashion.

On board this exciting fashion journey is Mercedes Benz and DIMO their Sri Lankan agents along with HNB who offer a safe and secure payment gateway for Fashion Market.lk.

Apart from being an e commerce site, Fashion Market.lk also offers intelligent fashion choices, this being more important than ever before as a new generation of fashion savvy customers are emerging  who not only want to look chic but are also interested in the ethical creation of the garments they wear.  Fashion Market.lk also offers a style consultancy to source looks and opinions on how to dress for any occasion.
Fashion Market.lk offers clothing which is 90 per cent made in Sri Lanka. Many of the designers are alumni of the AOD who advocate up cycling, recycling and using artisans to create fabric and employing batik techniques paying homage to sustainable fashion. Fashion Market.lk  has wrapped it all up in to one gorgeous package of pure Sri Lankan home grown clothing.

For designers like Lonali, Nithya, Vishan, Kasun, Shayani and Deeandra, all graduates from AOD whose looks have made it to fashionmarket.lk this is huge step in their careers as their products are on offer to a global audience via this fashion website. A great opportunity for getting a foothold on the fashion ladder they opined. Apart from harnessing the talent of AOD fashion graduates, Fashionmarket.lk also offers curated looks which includes clothing from Avirate, Dilly and Carlo, Rum Punch, Red Cocoon to name a few of the other home grown Sri Lankan design labels.

With a range of looks from office wear, travel wear, swim wear and evening wear, fashionmarket.lk has covered the gamut of fashion. The outfits that appeared on the catwalk were full of style, fashion forward and bang on trend.  Clothing made from handloom fabric  in rich and vibrant colours of emeralds reds and blues offered high end fashion options while glow in the dark handloom in an array of candy box colours and neons infused a fun element to trendy fashion. The collection also featured the traditional dumbara weaving which screamed sophistication. The clothing with dumbara weave detail is sure to go down a storm not only in Sri Lanka but also in the west as most of the clothes had just the right amount of contemporary sophistication coupled with in trend wearability which will appeal enormously to the western fashion market.

Aside from the clothing the accessories on offer also scored high in the fashion stakes, Palmyrah woven bangles, bags, hats and various items of jewellery were not only fashionable but also had a unique story to relate. Some of the jewellery created by Deeandra Bulner under her label Minnie uses upcycling and recycling whereever possible. The palmyrah woven products are done by a women’s collective in the East of Sri Lanka, all contributing to sustainable and ethical fashion. Kudos to Linda and her team for coming up with this exciting fashion website which augurs well for Sri Lankan fashion on a global platform.

Comments 

Linda

We are proud to present a total revolution in Sri Lankan fashion by introducing fashionmarket.lk which pays testimony to the talents of Sri Lankan designers and what our artisans are capable of creating.

Angeline Ondaatjie

Angeline (left)

Awesome shows! Loved the dumbara and Sri Lankan brands. So well curated.

Anoma Wijeywardene

The fashion is all Sri Lankan, handwoven fabrics from around the craft villages in the island, batik and dumbara weaving, Sri Lankan accessories handwoven and leather......absolutely Sri Lankan and absolutely stylish and NOW. This is Sri Lanka today.... Embrace it!

Lonali Rodrigo

This is a great opportunity for designers like us to take our fashion to a global audience.

Nithya Lamahewa

We have always wanted a portal like this and now that fashionmarket.lk has been launched the scope is endless.

Theonie

Beautiful, cutting edge design and presentation. So very proud to see what we are capable of designing and producing in Sri Lanka.

Tiana

This show has been the highlight of my stay here, great fashion!

Shamara

One of the best I have seen in Sri Lanka! I loved the hand-woven fabrics from the villages and the hand-woven accessories to match. Absolutely stylish and very Sri Lankan! I’m sure it will be a delight for the online shoppers.

By Tina Edward Gunawardhana
Photographs by Manoj Ratnayake