Textured Jersey, Sri Lanka's pre-eminent producer of value-added knitted fabric is to unveil a creative and colourful initiative that employs the fashion catwalk to highlight the untapped potential of knitted fabric at the third edition of the Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF), The Island reports.

In the new initiative, Textured Jersey, the official Fabric Partner of the 2011 Festival, will present a glamorous facet of the knitted fabric it produces, the use of which is largely limited to the production of intimate apparel by the company's international customers.

Elegant evening wear specially designed by a group of final year students at the Academy of Design and produced with a range of Textured Jersey's knitted fabric will be presented by models at three fashion shows during the festival. On 19th and 20th November the exclusive designs will be presented to a distinguished audience comprising of top-notch local and international designers and high profile personalities from the apparel sector as a part of the main industrial show of the SLDF.

The designs will also be presented on 18th November at a fashion show organised by the Academy of Design for students. The Academy jointly organises the Sri Lanka Design Festival, the country's most prestigious annual celebration of design, craft, fashion and apparel, with the government and key industry stakeholders including the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF). Textured Jersey is said to be the first textile mill in the backward integrated supply chain to sponsor this prestigious annual event.

"The sponsorship of this premier design festival presents an ideal forum for Textured Jersey to raise awareness among key target groups of the diverse array of applications possible for knitted fabric," a spokesperson for the company said.

"The new dimension we present could open up an exciting new avenue for the apparel industry."

Complementing its sustainability driven business approach, Textured Jersey will also contribute towards the enhancement of skills of Sri Lanka's young fashion designers by initiating an exchange programme in collaboration with the Academy of Design. The programme will commence in January 2012. Textured Jersey employs one of Sri Lanka's most sophisticated production facilities for the manufacture of knitted fabrics for the intimate apparel and sportswear industries.

A specialist in the manufacture of high quality, weft-knitted and dyed stretch fabrics, Textured Jersey is a supplier for top-notch international brands of the calibre of Victoria's Secret, Marks & Spencer and Intimissimi. The two major shareholders of the company are Brandix, Sri Lanka's single largest apparel exporter and Pacific Textiles, a Hong Kong based company with one of the largest manufacturing facilities in China.

Source: The Island