AOD presents Sri Lanka Design Festival and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka 2019; where fashion, design, technology and business merges
View(s):Sri Lanka’s lead innovation catalyst—AOD announces the upcoming editions of Sri Lanka Design Festival and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka for November 2019. AOD’s design centred education philosophy will shape the two international events taking place in Colombo, directing local and global talent collaborations towards new career frontiers where creative thinking intersects with technology. November 15-24 in Colombo.
For over a year, Sri Lanka has been paving a new path towards growth. One towards a future where human creativity, ideas, intellectual property, business and technology are in constant interplay, creating new knowledge-based economies from communities around the island. One of the key dynamics behind this is an education institute—AOD; a unique design academy that has become the epicentre of a modern South Asian creative movement based in Colombo. Pushing forward two of its signature initiatives contributing to this broader work, AOD recently announced the upcoming dates for Sri Lanka Design Festival And Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka. These two events are known as powerful platforms for local design, facilitating international participation to mingle with Sri Lanka’s design, apparel, tech and business communities, as well as AOD students, leading towards new collaborations and knowledge exchange. AOD managing director Lin Gong-Deutschmann said that this kind of exposure and real interactions with local and global industries have been a central part of AOD’s vision for educating young designers. “For AOD education it’s not just about instilling knowledge and skill. Educators also have a role in bridging the gap between talent and business. Our annual platforms Sri Lanka Design Festival and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week derive from this vision, and serve as hotspots of connectivity for young designers, where they really get to experience how these industries work, and more specifically, where their talent fits in.”
AOD x Sri Lanka Design Festival And Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka
Speaking further, Lin mentioned that it is in fact, fitting for an educator to take the lead to inspire the business world to taker deeper look at how best to bridge talent and industry. “Isn’t education the birthplace of a country’s economy? It’s the breeding ground of our future professionals. So, this is why AOD is doing all this. We don’t see it beyond our scope—rather, very much our scope.”
Every year, over a hundred young fashion and design graduates from AOD take part in the two events where they meet future employers, collaborators and mentors, connecting local and international employment networks to talent. The two events attract the top levels of local industry decision makers, HR managers and design specialists with international opinion leaders and recruitment agents. In 2018, the events had the likes of Ashroff Omar—chief executive officer of Brandix Lanka Ltd.
Shirendra Lawrence—managing director of MAS Active, Ranil de Silva—managing director of Leo Burnett Colombo and Nikhil Hirdaramani—director of sustainability at Hirdaramani as well as industry professionals from Triad, Hemas, Dilmah, Jetwing, Star Garments and Coats Thread Attending from the local industry. From the international design world, Adrien Yakimov Roberts—director of education at Accademia di Costume & Moda, Jane Rapley—Prof. emerita of Central Saint Martins UK, The Future Laboratory UK, GT Nexus USA, Neonyt Germany, C&A USA, Northern Clothing and Textile Network Europe, Hagger Clothing USA, Studio Tjeerd Veenhoven from Netherland, Upasana from India and Denmark’s top designer Henrik Vibskov were present. Being part of this kind of a network is priceless to a young graduate; and this exposure is exactly what sets the AOD student apart from the rest.
What to expect at SLDF and MBFW with AOD’s design innovation in 2019
The two events, with their impressive breadth of graduate talent and tech interventions with design and fashion, becomes Sri Lanka’s largest showcase of emerging designers, with exhibitions, installations and a series of fashion runways curated by AOD’s international faculty and student talent. While the exhibitions present the designers’ work with a deeper insight into their research, and process, the runways and installations present the work in their living form.
Industry-designer collaborations are also a central part of both events, portraying how the local industries and value chains are beginning to work closely with design talent, to present cutting-edge innovation from Sri Lanka. These collaborations outline how Sri Lanka’s business world is spearheading a fresh innovation movement with progressive design driven entities like AOD at its centre. The graduate-industry collaborations are a perfect portrayal of the unusual design education methods employed by AOD where young designers are directly exposed to the business of fashion, pointing it out as ‘AOD designers’ signature industry relevance’.
What’s in it for Sri Lanka’s industry-talent dynamic
For the business world, the two events become menting pots of talent and new ideas, fueling the all important industry-talent dynamic. It allows businesses to see how young graduates are capable of bringing commercial relevance to novel ideas, or enrich existing products and services with the essential user experience paradigm that design thinking brings in.
For graduates, these two events are part of AOD’s powerful employment infrastructures in place, allowing them form useful networks with other designers and gain invaluable exposure as they step into the professional world. Sri Lanka Design Festival and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week are two events that open up a world of opportunities for AOD’s graduates every year. This year’s editions will only take this a step further.
For more information on AOD, its Fashion and fashion marketing degree programmes, their course structures, employment opportunities and the 2019 editions of Sri Lanka Design Festival and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, contact AOD on 0775727772 or log on to www.aod.lk or visit No 29, Lauries Road, Colombo-04