AOD sets up international collaboration between top Danish designer Henrik Vibskov
- #MBFWSL
- Feb 21, 2019
- 2 min read

As the business of fashion morphs itself across the globe in preparation for the fourth industrial
revolution, Sri Lanka aims to establish its own place in this transformation. AOD— a
longstanding contemporary design and innovation partner of the local apparel industry and the
handloom SME sector, in its influential catalyst role of discovering a sense of place and identity
for Lankan fashion. Gaining new momentum for this work of over ten years’, AOD recently
announced a new global collaboration that helps in establishing Sri Lanka’s unique international
identity as ‘Innovation Island’—the South Asian creative hub where designers, brands and
entrepreneurs from all over the world can discover a new kind of fashion destination. This is
through a collaboration with the award-winning Danish fashion designer Henrik Vibskov, local
handloom artisans and the apparel industry. Drawn up as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Sri Lanka 2018, this collaboration will take on the runways in front of a powerful audience of
buyers, retailers, designers and media from around the world.

This global collaboration is actually part of an ongoing series of Scandinavian partnerships that
AOD has been linking up with local industries. Previously, AOD’s Textile associate Island
Collection collaborated with the Danish brand DAY for their DAY NATIVE luxe series where Sri
Lankan artisans’ handwoven fabrics were manufactured into Day Birger et Mikkelsen’s coveted
looks by STAR garments. The new international collaboration where Lankan handloom
becomes the material of choice for the award-winning Danish fashion designer Henrik Vibskov
comes at a time when the local fashion industry is transitioning into a new age. Henrik, an
alumnus of the iconic Central Saint Martins’ College in London, has exhibited across the world
from New York, Paris, London, Stockholm, Seoul, Copenhagen, Kyoto, Rotterdam and
Washington, to name a few. Henrik’s work has been deemed ‘phenomenal’ and ‘extraordinary’
by fashion critics and he has been invited to show at iconic fashion festivals including the Paris
Fashion Week. He is currently a professor at DSKD and has frequently given lectures and been
a jury member at institutions such as Central Saint Martins in London, the IED in Madrid and the
Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Art. Henrik is currently working with the handloom weaving
community in Divulapitiya, Gampaha, through AOD, where his Paris Fashion Week 2018
collection silhouettes are finding new life through textiles handwoven by Sri Lankan artisans.
This work will be premiered at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka 2018’s ‘New Sri Lankan
Style Runway’ which features outstanding work done by local and international designers using
local themes, craft techniques and textiles. The runway will take place at the Dimo 800
Mercedes-Benz Centre of Excellence in Colombo on 27th October.

AOD believes that ‘design’—the process that uses creative thinking to connect products and
markets in the most effective manner—is the missing link between local textiles and the global
fashion product. While AOD has nurtured and educated hundreds of local fashion talent to drive
this thinking through their work, AOD also finds that forming collaborations with international
sesigners to also be important. By cultivating interest in Sri Lankan handlooms through global designers like Henrik, AOD aims to influence new thinking in fashion to draw in major benefits
for the local textile sector. With more and more global designers and international brands
working with silhouettes, looks and styles that demand for the textures and finishes that Lankan
handlooms can cater to, AOD believes that local textiles will have greater demand in markets
abroad, and the apparel industry too will have new reasons to incorporate locally sourced
fabrics in their production.

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