Sri Lanka's Sustainable Fashion Movement

Why Sri Lanka Must Address Textile Waste: Insights from Lonali Rodrigo

In this episode of 'Sri Lanka, Modern Perspectives from an Ancient Melting Pot,' host Dee Gibson interviews fashion entrepreneur Lonali Rodrigo, discussing the pressing need for Sri Lanka to address textile waste. Lonali highlights the country's history in garment production and the growing challenge of pre- and post-consumer waste. Through her brand, House of Lonali, she exemplifies sustainable practices by up-cycling textile waste into new products, collaborating with local artisans, and engaging in educational initiatives. The episode provides a comprehensive look at the environmental and economic reasons driving Sri Lanka to tackle textile waste head-on.

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast

01:00 Meet Lonali Rodrigo: Fashion Entrepreneur

02:52 House of Lonali: Sustainable Fashion

04:45 Sri Lanka's Textile Industry

08:19 Challenges and Opportunities in Sustainable Fashion

17:45 The Upcycling Process at House of Lonali

21:44 Collaborations and Projects

36:31 Educational Initiatives and Oxford Fellowship

43:22 Future Outlook

About Lonali Rodrigo

Founder & Lead Designer, House of Lonali

Lonali Rodrigo is a designer, changemaker, and the visionary behind House of Lonali, a conscious designer brand and social enterprise rooted in ethical fashion. With a deep commitment to people and planet, Lonali creates uncompromisingly stylish designs that champion circularity, creativity, and entrepreneurship, all aligned with her mission to Design a Better Future.

She holds a First Class Honours degree in Fashion Design from Northumbria University and a Master’s in Sustainable Management from the University of Bedfordshire. Lonali’s work and values are further shaped by her experience as a Chevening CRISP Fellow (Research, Science, and Innovation Leadership Programme) at the University of Oxford.

Through House of Lonali, she continues to inspire a new generation of conscious consumers and creators by proving that fashion can be both beautiful and responsible.

https://www.lonali.com

Title: Sri Lanka: Modern Perspectives from an Ancient Melting Pot
Host: Dee Gibson — Sri Lankan-born, award winning designer based in London and founder of boutique hotel Kalukanda House in Sri Lanka. www.kalukandahouse.com | instagram @deegibson2017 & @kalukandahouse

Podcast Themes:

• Modern Sri Lankan identity and culture
• Architecture, art, and design
• Sustainability and heritage
• Diaspora experiences and storytelling

Why Listen:
This podcast offers deep, intelligent storytelling about Sri Lanka’s evolving identity — a blend of East and West, ancient and modern. It’s for listeners who love culture, travel, architecture, and thoughtful conversation.

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome back to Sri Lanka, modern Perspectives from an ancient melting pot, the podcast that shares conversations of a dynamic modern day. Sri Lanka. I'm your host Dee Gibson, a British Sri Lankan designer living in London, and founder of Boutique Hotel Calcan House on the South coast. I speak to actors, artists, architects, authors, and more all on the global stage and all contributing to this thriving culture. This is an old world island with a long indigenous past predating centuries of colonization, followed by independence. A long civil war and now on our radars as a holiday destination, but there is so much more to it. These conversations are deliberately uncut and unfiltered, and we show the truth of the Sri Lankan narrative straight from the amazing people who call this island their home.

1:00

Narly Rodrigo is a fashion entrepreneur with a difference, and this episode is an eye-opener on the different attitudes we have to waste between east and west. Sri Lankans don't waste a thing, and the concept of waste is alien. Garment production has long been part of Sri Lanka's economy with large brands like Tommy Hilfiger Gap and Abercrombie and Fitch, amongst others, creating products in Sri Lankan factories. Sadly, there's always overproduction or waste as a result, and Lennar and her island wide team have been using their creative genius to ensure that these pre-consumer waste materials don't end up in landfill. But are used to design beautiful products in their own right. As the world becomes homogenous and a consumer mindset hits the market, Sri Lanka is now looking at post-consumer waste building up in piles, and Lennar is bringing her skills to repurpose unwanted items. Even working with companies like Sri Lankan Airlines to look at unwanted fabrics, She shares a story of being a fashion lover turned passionate, sustainability activist, and how she's collaborating with others in the Sri Lankan fashion space to push back against consumer waste. She's educating through example and collaborates with others in the industry to tackle waste issues created by foreign manufacturers and modern consumer attitudes.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 2:33

Ani. Rodrigo, my podcast.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 2:36

to be here.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 2:39

Oh, it's lovely to have you. So we've just been having a chat online. You've told me how hot it is there, So I hope you're sitting next to a fan for the next hour we've met a couple of times and I've been such an admirer of, your. Work I'd love you to describe a little bit about House of NAR and what you do today.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 3:01

so House of Ali is a sustainable lifestyle brand in Sri Lanka just like me, born and breaded in Sri Lanka. And what we basically do is we upcycle textile waste, we started off with pre-consumer textile waste, but now we are very much open to pre or post-consumer textile waste. And also quite interested in looking at upcycling, any other waste that we get an opportunity to. So we are more like a design house where we take waste and create new products and give. New life to products. So that's basically what we do. Our key area is fashion but we are almost open to it, do any upcycling and any opportunity that we get to work with waste. On very much sustainability. At the same time, we work with more of cottage industry, artisan with women to create all the products. So that's basically what happens as House of Learn is I design and I work with women to create the products. And then we work with third party retailers and consumers to bring it back to life. Right.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 4:17

What an amazing business model and what you've created is a great example of how to be skillful as a designer, but also to think about circularity and how we're kind of making sure that we're looking after. Our environment as well as our supply chain. I think it's absolutely fantastic and so relevant these days. And what's interesting is that Sri Lanka has a long history in the textile business, doesn't

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 4:52

I think I mean if you look at the history, there is prehistoric like reference where the King Vi who came from India at that point there was Kui was spinning cotton. So there's quite historic reference to say that Sri Lanka was making textiles. Even though if you really look at it, we don't have a lot of fibers. We don't grow cotton, we don't have silk. So we are not a textile making nation. But since 1970s, the open economy, we were known to be a upper manufacturing hub. So the field goods. And With that, I think there was a lot of mills that came in. There was a lot of industry industries that came in at this time. whatever you need to make a garment. We have basically everything around in, so,

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 5:56

it's interesting that history because I was quite surprised to hear that a lot of the, the big. Brand names in the UK, even to this day, are still having some of their garments made in Sri

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 6:10

Srilanka app industry is known to be one of the most sustainable places to make your clothes. It's bit of a difficult task for us to compete with the labor where India, China is quite cheap labor. So as an industry, I think where we kind of see our value is high-end sustainable goods. So whoever the sustain brands who are looking to make it sustainably is vast. Sri Lanka. Here we are. We can make the sustainable clothes. Our factories are quite environmentally friendly. We have eco-friendly cooling systems, sunlight, bio you know, the boilers there. We manage waste. At the same time, our labor rules are quite high. And therefore I think that the, the code of conducts, most of the brands that give a factory, you don't have to stick to these code of conduct. And I think our factories are quite good at keeping up because we anyway have high a, a, a really strict labor regulations. You know, you go to an aral industry, I've seen that most of the factories have to provide transport for their staff. Morning and evening and they provide meals sometimes tea, lunch, and tea again in the evening, even if it's sometimes subsidiary. Uh uh. Amounts, but you know, actually, some of them have daycare centers for the sewing girls to come and keep their children within the factory premises and do the work. So there's so much that Sri Lankan app industry has done to actually be different from the rest.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 7:56

Mm, and make.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 7:57

think that's a very good sort of a selling point a value proposition for Sri Lanka. And that's why I think we've, even though it's been a tough journey with, you know, the GSP or the economic crisis through all these, somehow we've been resilient because we've done the right thing.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 8:19

I guess what you are saying is that there's such a stock contrast to the sweatshops that we hear about because it is high volume. It's long hours. I. But the workers want to work, so to give them proper working conditions and enable women to have proper childcare as well as being fed, et cetera, if there's a demand from the worker to work, then let's make sure that they are really, really looked after. But still, it's still cheaper to have things made in Sri Lanka than it would be.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 8:52

It's competitive. I think we might be a little bit more higher than because our labor is also quite a little bit more high price than India and China.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 9:04

Oh, absolutely. I'm just wondering if it's, it's as you said before, a good value proposition, which is why Sri Lanka is still a hub for manufacturing.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 9:15

are quite small as well. I mean in China and Bangladesh China may produce about 32% of apples to the world supply. And Another 6% coming from Bangladesh total, 39% coming from China and Bangladesh. But rest is like all small Vietnam to India. You know, we might be even 1%. Yeah.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 9:46

Okay. Okay. I mean, we've dived straight. We've dived straight into it, which I love to do because there's, it's just so interesting. But whilst we're on this. Subject. Before we came on, I sent Lennar a little Instagram post, which I, it feels like this is the right moment to talk about that before we get back to more to You, which was a post about sheen and someone was calling out Sheen and, it's, it is a fantastic, IM impactful imagery about, I mean, certainly in the UK when my daughters were growing up, there was a sheen frenzy. I mean, there were constantly packages turning up. Unbeknownst to me, by the way, before I, I had a word and said, we've gotta stop that. But they really have cornered the market. And that must be so frustrating for someone like you when you know that probably. A lot of people would be appalled to understand that the clothes are cheap because something is going wrong in that supply chain,

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 10:50

Yeah, it's just always I was always amused and always kind of. Keeping myself open to see because, you know, there's a lot of data that comes out saying the young teenage, the new generation wants to be more sustainable, wants a different lifestyle that us, but buying sheen, when you really talk to them, they seem to have more value at 18 than. When I was 18, I didn't, I don't know whether I was that much conscious, but they seem to be more conscious. They seem to be really facing the climate change. they are living in it really. So I'm like. It's you and the data shows that you guys are changing the world, changing the lifestyles and changing consumption patterns. But then you, what we also see is you buying a lot of sheen. It's.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 11:48

Yeah. but it would be interesting to dive a bit more into that data because my observation was that by the time they get to 18, they absolutely see it for what it is, and they, they've already stopped. But I think now with the ability to buy online, you've got this, the sheen buyers are the girls who are sort of. 14, 15, 16. You know, so perhaps we need to try and educate them a bit more. I don't know. But anyway, we, we probably shouldn't be throwing mud like that somewhere else.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 12:21

I also see a lot of sheen on secondhand selling sites. So usually it would be a good clothes that are stitched, high quality, you know, vintage, good, better brands, unique products. But here you get like sheen sheen on secondhand, so. Is cheaper, quick buying, and it's going around fast as well. I mean, I hope the quality is good enough to at least go a few circles but it's very interesting to see that and observe what's really happening.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 12:51

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, it's, yeah, I think, I think let's keep an eye on that. I think certainly in this house anyway, both my girls not only know not to buy sheen, but they also say that the quality's rubbish. Well, let's come back to the sort of concept of close going back into the resale market let's put a pin in that and come back to, to you, because what. This is an interesting conversation and your business is so relevant and so exciting, particularly the quality of the design pieces that I've seen that have come out of House of Lenar have been really phenomenal. But I'd like to kind of take you back a few years if I may, and ask you, what were you thinking about doing at the age of 18? You are a. Today and absolutely rooted in sustainability. But was that always something that you were.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 13:49

That's something that I love the question because, a lot of people ask what's what, how do you see yourself in next 10 years? But I really like the fact that I have to think, oh, what was I like 20 years ago? So I think there were few things that. I would say I was exactly the same. very simple things. I would, I, I love being outside, enjoying the nature And I will. Very much a people person. I'll talk to anyone, anyone on the road. I, I st I'm the on, I'm the only one who still talks to the postman and the garbage guys down my lane. No one else talks to them. I make connections. I love to talk to people. I love animals. I think I have a very kind heart when I see animals. So things like that, I feel like I've haven't changed at all. But like I said before. I at 18, I don't think I had this kind of values built in me at 18. My personality, my confidence my knowledge, everything, experience, everything was somewhere in a very different level, I But I kind of always had the interest of. Clothing. Mainly because my grandmother who I think influenced a lot to, in different ways. She was, she started women's Association Sampa Summit back in 19 seventeens with a lot of women. And they did butting, they did shadow work, hand embroidery, made cheese. Cloth and I know that she always says that she exported cheesecloth to Sweden during the time where the hippie movement was very famous. Yes. Yes. Some I mean, not the whole movement probably, but in that movement, I think there was a lot of things that were coming from the Asian region. Of course.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 15:58

Yeah, it's interesting because you do think of Sweden and the Nordics very much associated with cheesecloth, right?

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 16:08

So, so my, my grandmother had visited Sweden few times in 1950s. Therefore my mom's name is Inga. I mean when she passed away, I was just 11 years. So not that shared a lot of moments or knowledge, but there's something I think everyone says you are like, Archie are like your grandmother. plus my father being an entrepreneur himself he ran a catering business at home with the women around. So I think again, how he did a business at home, the workers were more like family, their children, and we played together. We grew up together. So I think that was a culture and the definition of a business, the enterprise that I kind of, I. Experience as a child. And that's where I think by 18 maybe I I didn't have a focus of being a fashion designer or being an entrepreneur. That word entrepreneur was not even in the work vocabulary at the time. but I. did creative things. I made my own clothes because I've, Archie there was people to stitch, I love hand work at, in school, not maths or science.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 17:28

and, and you can see just what you've described as well, that love of the world, and that fashion lineage from your grandmother and the enterprising nature from your father it just makes you this perfect blend of what you are doing. I'm, I'm curious, your design process, it, it's in your blood, but I'd love to know more about how does it work with House of nar from an upcycling perspective. Can you take us through the process of maybe of the favorite piece that you've designed, how it ended up in your hands, what was your design process and where is it now?

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 18:12

so I think as a designer, how I've learned design was to find inspiration, do some developments, and find a product, and then you start sourcing. But unfortunately, I mean doing my upcycling business, I don't get to do what I've learned. I have to shift the process around. So I basically start with the resources. And how we get the resources is we have two form of finding material, which is textile based. One is directly working with the factories. So some of the factories will allow us to get the discarded materials. At the same time. In a country like Sri Lanka, we also have a whole. Ecosystem who lives out of way. So there are people who collect, people who segregate and resell more like the smaller pieces they bundle. There are old ladies in villagers who bundle similar squares or something, you know, they'll bundle the similar fabrics together and the new resell. So this is a whole livelihood of many people. So we want to support that as well. So we either take directly from the factories or indirectly from the people who are involved in this supply chain or I would say the ecosystems. And it's, now to do with a lot to do with my eye. When I see something really beautiful, like I could imagine things coming together now I see different, different, different fabrics. It comes to the studio where I am right now. And sometimes the fabrics wait for good five, six months to find the best a partner, basically another piece of fabric, because you might not be able to make the garment full in one fabric because we get small off cuts. So you have to wait for sometimes to find the best matching fabric and then make something out of it. So it's not a process where, you take a, a inspiration, you sketch something, you know, you don't do the pro usual design process but have a lot of patience. Bring things in, collect whatever the waste you feel is beautiful and then put together. I think that's where I come in and my skill of, imagining things coming together, this part and this part, and suddenly I feel like, oh.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 20:43

Hmm.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 20:43

Amazing for that fabric, which I haven't, I already have. So it's a kind of lot of imagination inside your head that comes together. It's okay, this is gonna come to this product. Then I design and do the sampling with the makers who are at home. So I visit most of the makers weekly. We do a sample.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 21:05

Mm-hmm. And where are they?

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 21:08

They are around in and around Cobo. Mostly there's one in Kaka, a little further away from Colombo, but in some cases I also work with artisans in different communities. I worked with communities in jfna, Palmyra communities in a different particular project where I explored palmyra weavers and textiles together, like weaving the textiles with the palm. Then I have,

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 21:36

So these are

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 21:37

yes.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 21:37

leaves. And can you describe an an item that where you've

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 21:44

so it was a interior project that we did for a factory in Occi, a MAs factory in Occi. So they wanted to combine the factory waste, which from Occi. And then we did a sort of a basket with Palmyra and the fabric put weaving together.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 22:08

That sounds absolutely amazing. I love that. It's just so innovative and it's pure creativity, isn't it? I mean, earlier you use, you use an expression. Sometimes something beautiful comes in. We have to wait for a partner. Fabric and it's, you know, I just immediately thought it's like the marriage of two, two pieces coming together to create something so unique. And I had no idea as well that your reach went so far, even as far as Jaffna and across the island. So you've really created this incredible network. And do people know. That when they have something that they want to pass on, it no longer has use for them, that they can see the value in the fabric. Do they know that House of Lenar will receive,

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 23:00

yeah, I mean, I do get a lot of people reaching out to me directly I mean, initially we started on post indu post industry, which is pre. Consumed because Sri Lanka, if you look at the, again, just to give the background the western, the textile waste that we're talking, especially in the Western world, it's the post-consumer waste because, trends move faster. There are seasons and there's overproduction, there's a lot of unsold garments. So that's the problem the western world has. But a country like Sri Lanka, I think we don't have that problem I don't think we as a country, a cultural thing. We don't throw clothes. It's not, it doesn't happen in our houses. I don't think we do that at the moment. Thankfully. But our problem is being a manufacturing hub, we have most post-industrial waste, which is, which is pre consumed. So that's the initial problem that I saw when I started the business that there is industrial waste that is a bigger component for us.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 24:11

that is just a, a real education for me as well, to see the distinction between the west here where I'm sitting in London, as you say, post consumerism and in Sri Lanka, I. That's really been an eyeopener for me, actually. Yeah. So how did you decide to tackle that?

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 24:31

So that's where, when initially the brand started back in 2012 it's almost 13 years now, that we thought, okay, we are going to work with factories. And then later on figured out there is ecosystem. So we start working indirectly and directly supporting both, both the supply and creating more products outta the industry based. But lately, interestingly, now that they know me, that we upcycle after 12 years, there's a lot of individuals who reach me out and say, oh, I have this, I have this. Can you make something out of me? Out of this? You know? Now we look at post-consumer waste quite a lot as well, because I think Sri Lanka is also moving into fast fashion. Then we've also realized there's other post-consumer waste within the industries. Like for example, we work with Sri Laan Airlines where they have textile waste, like seat covers to things like that. They use it in blankets and things like that they use in the aircraft. So we work with them to upcycle that waste into new products for them, actually it was a project called Matika that they launched to upcycle the waste. And initially we made a collection of bags out of seats. Because they had to give back a aircraft, which was on lease. And all the seat covers, which is branded, had to be taken out. Usually if it's branded, most of these branded textile is being burned. So then we used the seat covers and made a collection of bags, which are showcased at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2021. So that was sort of the launch of the the collection. And then we moved into producing and lafa the last, four years we've been producing most of their promotional items. Whenever they have a campaign, we do their bags, we do the books. we even sent it out for many of the other offices, Sri Lankan Airlines offices in different other states. And yeah, it's been a great project and a good case study to talk about as well.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 26:57

Yeah, I love the fact that the, the national airline carrier also embraced this idea and kind of threw their hat into the ring in order to, to make sure that they avoided landfill or fill in the atmosphere with. carbon monoxide burning, all of these things. It's interesting what we're observing here in the uk. And I dunno what it's like elsewhere in other sort of western countries, but there is a real push to buy. Pre loved, they call it pre loved goods from sites like Vintage, but even some of the big brands are having pre loved pages on their own websites saying, don't throw it away. Send it back to us. There'll be other people who, who want to buy, and It's also a sense of individuality. I mean, I buy a lot of vintage things and my daughters are obsessed and whenever we talk about it, they will both say, but we will then buy things that other people aren't wearing because you can create your own style. You don't go around looking like everyone else. So there's that kind of. Identity statement sort of conversation that is another plus. you said a few moments ago. People are now sort of saying to you, look, here's this piece. Can you do something with it? Are they commissioning you to redesign an existing piece for them, or they're just saying to you, can you do something with this? It's too good. I don't wanna throw it away. Take it. Convert it. Let someone

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 28:34

So. I do get people reaching out to me just like, here I have some old shoes that I'm throwing away, will you take it? But I do not take it because I want them to be more responsible of their waste rather than me trying to take responsibility. Right. Because I'm not a I mean, we are a design house. We just don't want to collect waste and Give charity we want to focus on creating something new. So I always say, I I will create something for you from your own waist if you like that. So that's the approach that we take. And we've done very interesting things. Like we've made a pair of shoes out of a handbag. Which was very interesting. I remember the husband bought a wife's old handbag, which we created a really nice pair of shoes last year we did a project to Try to trace upcycling in Sri Lanka because there is no word in Singhalese for upcycling. But we felt that it's a process that we've been doing since forever. it's said in Buddhism also how to reuse Rob in 10 different ways. So it's, it, it does go back to prehistoric time And that's probably why our grandparents didn't throw anything for that matter and didn't throw a piece of cloth. They will either patch it, they will either make a dust or they do something you don't throw. So that culture is still there, that practice, you know, valuing the textile. So we wanted to trace back and see. How it comes. So in that project we actually worked with four different artists. One was a architect who gave us a leftover pieces from a tapestry of one of his architectural project. And we made a shirt out of it. Then we worked with Anoma Vi, an artist. She does a lot of her art in textiles. And her art, we bought it into fashion. She wanted to wear her art which she didn't want to throw the testing samples and things like that. We put into a piece of fashion. Then we had a writer very young writer. She gave a, a, a bag, which was given to her by a friend who read her first poem. So there was a huge attachment to.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 31:02

Oh yeah.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 31:03

was broken, but she didn't want to throw it because that was a gift that she got from a friend who read her poem. So it was like, you know, you go in depth to see the values people have, the connections you build with products. So we made it into a book so she could write it in the, in that So it was, and then finally we worked with Taji, who's a dancer. Third generation coming from Chitra in a dance school. She was,

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 31:32

Oh.

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 31:32

opened even my eyes when we were talking about how her grandmother really preserved the costumes and reused it from 1940s to, you know, each time they'll add something, they'll remove something, how they would fold the jacket so that it doesn't, you know, amazed so much detail, how to preserve a, a, a garment. So how we kind of. Changed RIA into a new pant so that it allows you to move your legs. And so she was a lot of individual upcycling we did with each one's waist. Or I wouldn't even call it waste sometimes because they, I remember tadi saying, you won't get any waste from my house because our family doesn't throw anything. So it was just trying to find something that she didn't use. And then giving it a new sort of a life. So very interesting project. And then that project allowed me to actually reach out to many individuals. And very interestingly, people bring their own old things, like kind of wants a new look, which I love.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 32:42

It's actually not, it's not dissimilar to some of the, the things that I've done in, in my design work and when I've worked with clients and they've inherited a piece of furniture, the number of times I've worked with different couples and, one of them has inherited a piece of furniture and the other one doesn't like the style of the in-laws. And they'd be saying, well, obviously you'll get rid of that. and I will see the, like you, I'll see the value in a piece and I will get it upcycled. And I've worked with a lot of amazing piece from the sixties, which don't necessarily work in a contemporary interior or the, a particular client's interior. And I've sent it off to someone who. Specializes in upcycling furniture and we'll choose the pattern on the colors and how it's gonna be used. we've changed term sideboards into music centers and all these kinds of things, and it comes back and, and I. And quite often I have to sort of say to the client, just trust me on this. And if you think about it, it's similar to what you've just said, nar. It's taking something that's had a life and you've inherited it, but now you are giving it a new life and it's a new part of the story. And they don't make furniture like that anymore. They don't make clothes like that anymore. So wear. And a lot a change in style that's kind of made it made you think. It has no value, but the intrinsic value of the piece is in the way it was made and its longevity. I mean, if you are dealing with something that was made from 1940 and it's still going strong, it's incredible,

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 34:23

I think I, like you said before, the the personality, I think in Sri Lanka, I think we. Don't have that school a lot like we in, especially when it comes to fashion, we are not like the ones who would, you know, wear something we feel confi. It. It's, it's like confidence is about looking like everybody else. You wanna look the odd one, right? So that, we've lost that individuality, I think where we had few icons back in the days who kind of did the crazy things and you know, they were icons because they were standing out from the rest. But right now we've kind of. Don't see any fashion, uh uh, because we also don't have like red carpet events or the Lady Gaga, so we don't have that culture here. So fashion is not a mode of expression here to show who you are. I try to use it. It's even if it's not upcycling, how nice to say you're still wearing your grandmother's, sorry, converted into a jacket the value your parents preserved, it, you, the amount of effort that everybody has put to keep it that way and the person who made it, made with so much effort and quality to remain for like 40, 50 years. That's the story.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 35:40

I, that is the story, and it's beautiful, and I absolutely love everything that you've described about your own process and how you are looking at every piece of textile that comes your way, whether it's from the bundles produced or pulled together by the ladies in the villages to. Consumerism or post industrial manufacturing and, and given it some kind of future, you know, how am I gonna pair these things together? I feel like you've gotta, you've gotta have an exhibition of your favorite pieces. I mean, how amazing would that be? It would be a real showcase as well. Wouldn't an exhibition with a, the story of

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 36:25

had a plan, but every year get busy up cycling the day to day waste, so.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 36:31

So you, you've been doing all of this work and I know that you've been in the uk last year you were in Oxford doing some further studies. What was that about and what was the intention for this sort of

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 36:46

So it was a fellowship on mainly on science, innovation, research and leadership. for me it was a very much a surprise. Coming from a design background, I would've imagined me ending up in Central Saint Martin, but never thought that I would go Oxford. But I think the, innovation and the science that goes with sustainability and upcycling process. At the same time, the work I do is not just the design, but we also do a lot of awareness building knowledge in fashion, how from chi children, like from schools to offices, we do a lot of programs to educate. So I think the leadership, so these are the three angles, I think, where I fit into this program. And it was a three months fellowship organized by the Oxford St. Cross College. And there were, for me it was very interesting because we've had different 1214 of us. In different fields from transport, a lot from med tech and then aerospace to all different people. And I was the only designer and for me it was like completely a new. Periods to like think differently and see how other people, because my brain works in a most sort of, you know sketches and, colors. A lot of colors and things like to understand from different other perspective. I think that was a good. Learning for me how design involves in the, the different things. Because I also feel like that now that I've worked a lot, design for me is not just designing a product. Designing means you design a process, you design a system, you design a lot more, but I mean, you create you. Not just a para, but you can do more with design. So I think that opened up during my fellowship and gave me a bit more exposure. I. And we visited very interesting places from farms to universities to, you know, the transport of London. We visited many, many places, which gave, you know, we went to Scotland. So all those exposure was really good. For me during, I would say mid-career, it's for the program is was for a mid-career program. And it was perfect because I was trying to think differently and trying to find inspiration. So that worked perfectly.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 39:34

Yeah. I've been hearing more and more about from education to communities where you get a lot of cross pollination of ideas where you might have one central theme. Which is this sustainability leadership. And then people from all walks of life come together and you realize actually there are many challenges that are the same in all these different industries and how can you collaborate? thinking outta the box and thinking about the whole system change because we have to change things, don't we? We have to think about how we are moving forward. before we close, because we're sort of almost coming to the end of our time, but. Get you to talk a little bit about your collaboration with Celine Textiles. 'cause we had Selena Paris on recently and obviously she's in that sort of textile space and thinking about how she can give work to her workers and think about craft. And I know that you've done a collaboration, so can you tell me a bit more about

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 40:38

yeah, so hand loom while I was in college, hand loom was. One of the heritage craft that I loved, I learned purely because my, because of my grandmother had some involvement. I thought, okay, I'm gonna. And therefore I think in 2018 Selena and I have been very closely working on Fashion Revolution trying to build, even though we are both local sustainable brands competitors, we've been working together with many other sustainable small brands to make a voice like. More than competing with each other, we thought getting together, trying to find our path, what we should be doing. Can we do things together? I mean, we've had popups together. We would, we call it a Nile of small, like we would. Put things together because we could, if we can't afford it, let's get together, let's do this. So we worked together more collaboratively throughout. But in 2018, I think 19, we, I did worked on a collection with Celine. Mainly that collection was bringing out this particular traditional method called amp, where you dye the yarn and then weave. It's also very similar to Ike. It's a. Technique that's used in Asia, India, even in Philippines and a a Africa. But the Sri Lankan technique is called Hamis. So I was trying to recreate and give it a new sort of a look. And then in 2023 we did another collection with more. Textured surfaces trying to even give it a new look With the blazers and bringing in those modern pieces to Celine. I still continue to work with them helping them out with more of the design, curation and concert building.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 42:45

I saw some of your pieces because I visited the factories in Klo. I spent a couple of days with Selena and then she took me to the shop and she pointed out the house, Lina Ali pieces. So I really wanted to, to speak to you about that today because obviously you've both been guests on the podcast. It's really nice. for you to talk about how that, and she's such a collaborator, isn't she? And, and, and as are you and I love what you are both doing, which is really thinking very much about how can we as an industry come together and, shake things up and make everyone wake up to the way things need to be. I'm gonna ask you one last question before we go. The reason for this podcast is to shine a light on the. Creative entrepreneurs that we see in Sri Lanka. And you're also part of Herra Project X, which is specifically shining a light on the women. With your own background and your own knowledge of Sri Lanka and working life, why do you think this is so important in 2025?

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 43:55

really important, like Sri Lanka is a very much a different nation, which has a lot of skill and different industries and that allows the low tech can a very interesting low tech, high-tech working together. Like the industries we have the upper industry, we have the craftsman. So BlueTech Hightech mix is perfect. Where I think we don't have an opportunity to actually use it. we have either stuck it little bit in the traditional method, traditional products or we can't compete with the bigger big quantities or some in those kind of things. So I think that middle section, we're kind of stuck that, you know, we do good things here in Sri Lanka. But we are sort of a small medium brand that we do great things. We try to do the craft and take this and take this, but the platform for us has been very difficult, especially to get, I mean, I've been in the industry for the last 12, 13 years but getting the story outta Sri Lanka has been a great challenge. And every time I tell it to outside the world and they're like amazed about it, but I'm like, I've been trying to tell this story throughout, for the last 12 years. I think in that way, the project is a great opportunity for brands like us to take that story outta Sri Lanka. And take it to majority, people. I mean, sometimes it's nice to connect with Sri Lankans who are doing great things as well. We don't know. So it's, it's amazing platform for us to share knowledge share experiences, and sometimes collaborate in some opportunities and tell that Lanka story which is not. Which is a very different, very sweet, I would say story than most of the stories we've heard.

dee_2_05-22-2025_140726 46:02

What a beautiful answer. I, I think you've touched on a couple of things. I, I think that a lot of airtime is given to stories of Sri Lanka that are irrelevant, or blown out of proportion So. The entrepreneurs, like you don't get airtime. You know, outside of the country. But I also think that it's a real chance. think people like you and Selena should be given a platform as an example. Of what can be done, not only in terms of what you produce, but the mindset and the approach and thinking. I see Sri Lanka as very much an incubator of incredible ideas and I. The challenge is getting that small country to be seen in a different way by other people. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much. You've completely inspired me by the way. I've got some people I'm gonna come and bring to you and they are aware that there is great. Talent in Sri Lanka, but now we're gonna show them in person. So, nar, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been

lonali_2_05-22-2025_183724 (1) 47:18

Thank you so much for having me.