Former LDA Head of Fashion Programmes Judith Rosser-Davies attends Sri Lanka's 2011 Design Festival and uncovers a sector on the verge of reinvention and expansion.
© Judith Rosser-Davis
Garments Without Guilt: uncovering Sri Lanka's untapped fashion and crafts potential at the national Design Festival (2011)
(by Judith Rosser-Davies)
On my first day in the country, while registering for the Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF), I struck up a conversation with Gail Shreeve of the Kandula Tea Company. Shreeve, who spends half of her year in Sri Lanka running her UK-based tea business, was registering to attend the craft shows at the Festival because of her interest to expand her business and start importing Sri Lankan crafts to Britain. I asked what her impressions were of the craft industry, and her reply was to become a common message that I’d hear over and over the next few days: the crafts are of excellent quality but often haven’t moved beyond producing tourist souvenirs, so they need more design to appeal to broader, international markets.
In the evening I met with Ranmali Mirchandani (Head of Arts at the British Council in Sri Lanka) for the official opening of the SLDF, attended by the Minister of Economic Development, and which included the Island Crafts Grand Opening and the Island Crafts Fashion Show. The crafts' potential that Gail pointed out in the morning became clear for me, as I realised what a huge opportunity they could represent for Sri Lanka.
Thursday was my big day! I gave my presentation to a small but interesting group of delegates, which included Stephen Roman, Regional Director South Asia for the British Council and Viji Jegarajasingam from the Ministry of Traditional Industries & Small Enterprise Development. I sat next to Ms Jegarajasingam at the lunch for delegates following my presentation, and got a chance to find out more about their policies to support the design and fashion sectors. Many of their policy interventions focus on supporting cottage and traditional industries. I felt that the challenge for these industries was to identify more how cross-cutting issues such as design can become relevant to government departments, and how they can ‘think bigger’ on a more international scale. Ms Jegarajasingam felt that the biggest challenge was brining together very disparate groups, departments and activities across the private and public sectors in order to work together.
The British Council hosted two evening events that night: the ‘Close up on Young Talent’ and the Design Exhibition Grand Opening. Tony Reilly, British Council Sri Lanka Country Director, spoke of the initiatives that the British Council has in place to support young fashion talent internationally; and also showed clips from the British Council’s latest project IDEATORS, an ‘Apprentice’ style television programme where contestants work with local businesses on design projects. The programme is to be aired in Sri Lanka in 2012.
© Judith Rosser-Davis
‘Looking at the quality of the crafts in the exhibition I can see there is a huge potential opportunity for Sri Lanka in exploiting this talent.’ (Flickr user dennis.tang)
The following day I attended the South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum. I was absolutely fascinated and found it a real insight into the apparel industry, not just in Sri Lanka but worldwide. How different the high volume apparel industry is to the designer fashion industry, which is where I have had most of my experience! Delegates attended from apparel manufacturers across the region and trade associations, as well as very senior managers in sourcing and merchandising from a range of - mainly UK - clothing retailers such as George at ASDA, Marks & Spencer, Warehouse and Ted Baker. And yet there was no government representation. The second session, on ‘Factors that can make Sri Lanka the next global success story,’ was my favourite. It began with a fascinating presentation from Rohantha Athukorala, Head of National Portfolio Development for Sri Lanka for the United Nations. The standout statement in his presentation was that they estimate that civil war cost Sri Lanka an estimated $6bn in tourism revenue lost alone.
Sri Lanka is facing many challenges in recovering from war and natural disaster. Most of the day’s discussions talked about ‘chasing the cheap needle,’ i.e. low cost apparel manufacture. M&S have reduced their production in China by 10% in the last year as it becomes more expensive to produce there. Vietnam and Bangladesh are the last places to have cheap production, so the message to Sri Lanka was very much to position themselves so that they can move with the demand and find their unique selling points: quality & ethical production. Linda Speldewinde, organiser of SLDF and founder of the Academy of Design, spoke passionately of the need to look at how Sri Lanka can become more involved with the design, and not just production, of apparel.
In the evening we attended the ‘Emerging Talent’ fashion show featuring collections from the first and second year fashion students at the Academy of Design, underlining Linda’s belief that the young design talent in Sri Lanka is the future.
© Judith Rosser-Davis
I went to bed reflecting on how in all my years of working in economic development in the UK I’d never seen a room of such influential UK companies. So why weren’t there more representatives from the government? I had posed the question of the government’s role to the panel in the second session and it seems that trade associations still find it difficult to engage with the government on issues. My personal view is that this might be only part of the problem – perhaps the issues are not so different to the UK’s after all?
At the end of the festival, after a busy few days, and still slightly suffering from jetlag, it was with some relief that I found I had time to sit by the pool and relax. No rest for the wicked though, as many delegates were there too! I had a fascinating chat with Holly Sherwood Brown, the Sustainability Manager for Ted Baker. She has now made several trips to Sri Lanka, and is impressed with what she has seen, but can’t find a manufacturer who will take on the lower production volumes that Ted Baker requires.
The fashion show that evening showcased the Sri Lankan apparel industry, with key apparel manufacturers showing key pieces of their work. Sri Lanka is most famous for the production of childrenswear and underwear, so it was a very eclectic show!
Sri Lanka Design Festival is the biggest annual celebration of Sri Lankan design, craft, fashion & apparel and it took place for the third time from the 16th to 20th of November 2011. The British Council has been an active supporter of the event since its inception.
