How we started
Amesh spent much of 2020’s lockdowns in Sri Lanka with his family, using the experience to fuel a new creative process. “I was kind of stuck at home, but then I started cleaning up and found all my mom’s saris. They had been there for all these years in her cupboard and she would wear them like once a year, [and they were] like rotting away. I thought, let’s use what’s around me,” he said. “So I cut up all my mom's saris and turned them into more tailored pieces.” Wijesekera also restored some of his grandmother’s saris, adding embroidery and hand-painting, in other pieces.
Who we work with
Because of the pandemic, many of Sri Lanka’s artisans and factories were also suffering. Wijesekera notes that the country, a massive manufacturing hub for fashion, has also become a repository for its waste, with companies sending tons of textile waste to the island. His solution was to work with artisans on creating one-of-a-kind knits. “Sometimes I feel like the artisans are treated like machines,” he says. “They have years and years of knowledge, craftsmanship, and skill, and they never get to show their creativity or skill. I would give them a rough idea, but I said there is no right or wrong way to make it.”