The various companies of CFW focus on different aspects of fashion, from fashion week platforms, creative events, media, sustainable fashion, education-based programs, and fashion brands. The key direction of CFW is to create globally relevant solutions through products that impact the industry in a way that its development has a positive impact on the environment and society. This is the basis of everything CFW does.
In 2020, CFW embarked on a first-of-its-kind program, Responsibility in Fashion and introduced a scoring system, the Responsible Meter, where each garment presented carries a score measuring how accountable and transparent it is. This is an unprecedented move to encourage both designers & consumers to be more aware of the fashion industry’s negative impact on the environment and to take measurable steps towards leaving a positive mark on our planet.
The values below make up the spirit of CFW as a Group and we stand by these commitments in all aspects of our operations.
In keeping with our identity and expertise, CFW comprises of several brands that create high quality products and services.
Colombo Fashion Week is a developmental project that aims to drive progressive change in every aspect of the fashion industry in Sri Lanka.
A movement that started in 2003, Colombo Fashion Week has, in a systematic manner, created formats that demand transformation across the key pillars that would define a fashion industry. Colombo Fashion Week’s mission is to establish, develop and maintain an efficient fashion eco-system that incubates the best of Sri Lankan fashion design before it is presented to the world.
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Swim Week Colombo is Asia’s first and most premier swimwear fashion platform and facilitates a responsible ecosystem from Design and Manufacturing to Retail, showcasing the best of Sri Lankan, regional and international swimwear designers, and encouraging fusion with regional crafts. Swim Week Colombo aims to create a global platform for swimwear and position Sri Lanka as the swimwear capital of the world. It also boasts a high-quality production destination as Sri Lanka is home to some of the best production facilities in the world.
Read MoreThe Responsible Fashion Movement consists of like-minded individuals in the Sri Lankan and international fashion and design communities, who have come together to bring about a change in the consciousness, a shift the mindset in the industry towards a New Normal; where the actioning of Responsible, Responsive, and Accountable choices is the norm and not an option. At the very core of our movement, we believe that education is the key to positively impact not only the fashion industry, but the global community. Therefore, one of the key focuses of our movement is Knowledge-To-Action.
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The Responsible Fashion Summit (RFS) is a high-level knowledge sharing platform which brings together thought leaders, creatives, and thinkers from Sri Lanka and around the world to discuss ideas which can be implemented to create real solutions for a sustainable fashion and apparel industry. The Responsible Fashion Summit is a part of the Responsible Fashion Movement which was launched in 2017, with the key objectives of showcasing Sri Lanka as an apparel sourcing destination which has made considerable progress in creating a supply chain that is responsible and accountable.
This journey continues as Sri Lanka consistently makes progress and creates solutions which are relevant to issues that are faced by the global fashion industry. This movement also places Sri Lanka ahead in the region as one of the leaders of sustainable fashion in Asia. The Responsible Fashion Summit aims to create an international thought leadership platform aimed at driving sustainable practices and accountability in the fashion industry.
Read MoreCFW Fashion Edit entertains and engages its audience by providing an insider’s look into the fashion industry, showcasing the latest in Sri Lankan fashion including fashion shows, sustainable fashion, design thinking and lifestyle. CFW’s TV channel caters to its audience by providing innovative, entertaining, and informative programming with a unique viewpoint honed throughout nearly two decades of having developed a strong fashion system in Sri Lanka.
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Retail has always been an important focus of CFW, and thus one of the key aims has been opening up interesting commercial opportunities for Sri Lankan fashion designers. CFW aims to transform shopping into a unique experience for both designers and fashion-conscious consumers. From ramp to retail, the CFW Retail Edit is a carefully curated pop-up retail experience, where designer collections showcased on the runway will be retailed shortly after the event.
In addition to this, under its portfolio, CFW has focused on nurturing a cohesive group of lifestyle brands instilled in the responsible journey. These brands are distinct and relevant across a diverse audience, and includes Arugam Bay Beachwear, Conscience, Stringhopper, and Pigeon Island. In addition to this, under its portfolio, CFW has focused on nurturing a cohesive group of lifestyle brands instilled in the responsible journey. These brands are distinct and relevant across a diverse audience, and includes Arugam Bay Beachwear, Conscience, Stringhopper, and Pigeon Island.
CFW’s sustainable fashion brand Pigeon-Island is an eco-friendly and sustainable swimwear label with a focus on plastic-to-fabric products, which is representative of the innovative spirit that drives CFW. Each pair of Pigeon Island shorts is made out of 7 PET bottles.CFW’s sustainable fashion brand Pigeon-Island is an eco-friendly and sustainable swimwear label with a focus on plastic-to-fabric products, which is representative of the innovative spirit that drives CFW. Each pair of Pigeon Island shorts is made out of 7 PET bottles.
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Colombo Fashion Week is one of four fashion weeks in Asia that is over fifteen years old. Ajai has fathered a movement that has built pride in Sri Lankan designers, which Sri Lankan fashion consumers now buy with joy. 85% of Sri Lankan designers that we see today are the product of CFW’s development system. The designer mentorship programs, the retail presentations and the Responsible Fashion Movement are just some of the initiatives which are used to differentiate Sri Lankan fashion designers. This design development format pioneered by Ajai is now being followed elsewhere in the region as well.
While fashion is in Ajai’s DNA, ethical or ‘good fashion’ as he likes to call it, is very close to Ajai’s heart. Fourteen years ago, he coined the phrase ‘Garments Without Guilt’ for Sri Lanka’s apparel industry and was instrumental in developing its global promotional programme, which won him the prestigious Global Effie in New York, USA, making Garments Without Guilt the only Asian campaign and Sri Lanka the only country in Asia to win this award. Garments Without Guilt is still the mainstay of Sri Lanka Apparel’s brand positioning.
In 2015, Ajai was instrumental in founding the Fashion Design Council Sri Lanka, to give Sri Lankan designers a formal structure. He is an Executive Board Member of the Council. That same year, Ajai was invited to be a Founding Member of the Commonwealth Fashion Council based in London, UK.
Today, Colombo Fashion Week is the voice of Sri Lanka’s fashion design industry. It has not only grown in stature in Sri Lanka but is now seen as one of South Asia’s most important fashion weeks and its most ‘international’ one. CFW, as it is popularly known, is a developmental project that has firmly put Sri Lankan fashion on a strong footing.
Having initially qualified and worked in Business and Technology, Fazeena entered the Fashion industry in 2013 with a keen interest in establishing a strong, ethical retail presence. Upon entering the system, Fazeena soon oversaw the expansion of the fashion week calendar to include and foster other creative industries like Art, Food, Music and the intrinsic connections between these creative pursuits, taking Fashion Week beyond a mere runway show to a week-long celebration. A key part of her initiatives were the lasting creative collaborations with artists in other disciplines. with which emerged the Celebrate Colombo concept.
Fazeena has been widely recognized within the industry for her instrumental role in realizing the vision of the organization to the glamourous show it is today. In doing so, she has provided integral support to the emerging designer segment, and insisted on unearthing young, homegrown talent.
Along with the Founder of CFW, she has spearheaded ventures such as the Responsible Fashion Movement, making CFW one of the very few in the world to establish a platform for responsible fashion, paying attention to sustainability and ethical sourcing, while also retaining a Sri Lankan identity. She is also an executive member of the Responsible Fashion Movement.
Growing up in an entrepreneurial environment, her early passion for retail catapulted her into co-founding the brand Pigeon Island, a swimwear brand anchored in responsible fashion and marine conservation. Fazeena overlooks the womens’ line and retail segment of the brand.
In 2019 Fazeena was made Director of CFW and now with CFW Founder and Managing Director, Ajai Singh, she has embarked upon a strategy of developing CFW Holdings at industry-level to push the envelope further.
She lives in Colombo with her husband and two children.
Raj Omprasadham joined CFW Holdings in 2018 as Group Financial Director. He is highly skilled at providing long-term financial strategy and ensuring business performance of digital and technology based organizations.
Prior to CFW, he has held many senior positions in the power industry, most notably with The Asia Power Project in Sapugaskanda and the Ceylon Electricity Board’s Anuradhapura-Trincomalee high tension transmission line.
Raj has been a Seed Investor and shareholder of Symphony Environmental of the U.K, patent holders and manufacturers of degradable plastic. The company is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange.
At CFW Holdings, Raj provides financial leadership across the organization, shaping its long-term financial plan and ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
Raj graduated with an Honors degree in Electrical Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Madras), India.
Colombo Fashion Week is one of four fashion weeks in Asia that is over fifteen years old. Ajai has fathered a movement that has built pride in Sri Lankan designers, which Sri Lankan fashion consumers now buy with joy. 85% of Sri Lankan designers that we see today are the product of CFW’s development system. The designer mentorship programs, the retail presentations and the Responsible Fashion Movement are just some of the initiatives which are used to differentiate Sri Lankan fashion designers. This design development format pioneered by Ajai is now being followed elsewhere in the region as well.
While fashion is in Ajai’s DNA, ethical or ‘good fashion’ as he likes to call it, is very close to Ajai’s heart. Fourteen years ago, he coined the phrase ‘Garments Without Guilt’ for Sri Lanka’s apparel industry and was instrumental in developing its global promotional programme, which won him the prestigious Global Effie in New York, USA, making Garments Without Guilt the only Asian campaign and Sri Lanka the only country in Asia to win this award. Garments Without Guilt is still the mainstay of Sri Lanka Apparel’s brand positioning.
In 2015, Ajai was instrumental in founding the Fashion Design Council Sri Lanka, to give Sri Lankan designers a formal structure. He is an Executive Board Member of the Council. That same year, Ajai was invited to be a Founding Member of the Commonwealth Fashion Council based in London, UK.
Today, Colombo Fashion Week is the voice of Sri Lanka’s fashion design industry. It has not only grown in stature in Sri Lanka but is now seen as one of South Asia’s most important fashion weeks and its most ‘international’ one. CFW, as it is popularly known, is a developmental project that has firmly put Sri Lankan fashion on a strong footing.
Having initially qualified and worked in Business and Technology, Fazeena entered the Fashion industry in 2013 with a keen interest in establishing a strong, ethical retail presence. Upon entering the system, Fazeena soon oversaw the expansion of the fashion week calendar to include and foster other creative industries like Art, Food, Music and the intrinsic connections between these creative pursuits, taking Fashion Week beyond a mere runway show to a week-long celebration. A key part of her initiatives were the lasting creative collaborations with artists in other disciplines. with which emerged the Celebrate Colombo concept.
Fazeena has been widely recognized within the industry for her instrumental role in realizing the vision of the organization to the glamourous show it is today. In doing so, she has provided integral support to the emerging designer segment, and insisted on unearthing young, homegrown talent.
Along with the Founder of CFW, she has spearheaded ventures such as the Responsible Fashion Movement, making CFW one of the very few in the world to establish a platform for responsible fashion, paying attention to sustainability and ethical sourcing, while also retaining a Sri Lankan identity. She is also an executive member of the Responsible Fashion Movement.
Growing up in an entrepreneurial environment, her early passion for retail catapulted her into co-founding the brand Pigeon Island, a swimwear brand anchored in responsible fashion and marine conservation. Fazeena overlooks the womens’ line and retail segment of the brand.
In 2019 Fazeena was made Director of CFW and now with CFW Founder and Managing Director, Ajai Singh, she has embarked upon a strategy of developing CFW Holdings at industry-level to push the envelope further.
She lives in Colombo with her husband and two children.
Raj Omprasadham joined CFW Holdings in 2018 as Group Financial Director. He is highly skilled at providing long-term financial strategy and ensuring business performance of digital and technology based organizations.
Prior to CFW, he has held many senior positions in the power industry, most notably with The Asia Power Project in Sapugaskanda and the Ceylon Electricity Board’s Anuradhapura-Trincomalee high tension transmission line.
Raj has been a Seed Investor and shareholder of Symphony Environmental of the U.K, patent holders and manufacturers of degradable plastic. The company is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange.
At CFW Holdings, Raj provides financial leadership across the organization, shaping its long-term financial plan and ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
Raj graduated with an Honors degree in Electrical Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Madras), India.
