Creating global demand for the Sri Lankan handloom – The Island
Bringing Sri Lanka’s 2500 year history of hand weaving to the next generation of global designers
The London College of Fashion, a constituent college of the globally recognized University of the Arts London (UAL), with Selyn, Sri Lanka’s first and only fair trade handloom manufacturer, has launched a unique collaboration that brings together the Sri Lanka’s 2,500-year-old handloom history for the fashion capital and heart of London to meet future designers eager to create impact with design. Selyn has worked with all three London College of Fashion schools; Fashion Business School, School of Design and Technology and School of Media and Communication.
Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sri Lankan loom industry faces major obstacles to growth with rising production costs, limited access to global markets and an artisanal workforce. aging. Unfortunately, many have had to give up the loom and shuttle, retire or look elsewhere for opportunities.
Business Development Manager and Director of Selyn, Selyna Peiris, says: “An easy choice for us would have been to say, ‘the loom is affected, there is no longer a market for it’, to stop and to focus on other sources of revenue for the business, but that would have left our handloom artisans at a disadvantage and would have been contrary to our commitment that we have to elevate our community and the weaving industry to the hand as a whole. Instead, we saw this as the perfect opportunity to pivot, reposition and launch the Sri Lankan hand loom in a very different way from a high-end market of luxury while using blockchain technology to bring greater transparency to the industry.With seed funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a Covid Small and Medium Business Recovery Fund , not We were able to launch a new vertical business, Selyn Textiles, to reposition ourselves and gain entry into the UK market. , Europe and the world.
University of the Arts London is ranked 2nd in the world for Art and Design in 2021, much of this is attributed to its faculty, research, curriculum and forward-thinking approach to design while engaging students with global partnerships and opportunities. “We see this collaboration with Selyn as a fantastic opportunity to give our students first-hand experience of how industry works and explore alternative models of design, business development and teamwork by co-creating through supply chain and breaking down silo mentalities,” says Hannah Middleton Knowledge Exchange Lead at Fashion Business School at London College of Fashion.
Sandra Wanduragala, Founding President of Selyn, explains that “this year marks Selyn’s 30th anniversary and we are honored to partner with the schools of the London College of Fashion, one of the world’s top creative schools to inspire the next generation of designers. and raising awareness of an ancient craft that is central to the Sri Lankan DNA Our rich heritage and the ability to connect creativity, craftsmanship and technology with blockchain integration means we open the door to a inclusive and truly collaborative new path.
Professor Robert Meeder, Consultant at Selyn Textiles, says: “This partnership has been born out of a combined collective passion to bring opportunities to those who need it most – artisans in Sri Lanka – putting them at the forefront of the process. Design. Between all of us, we shared many discussions about the right opportunity, it had been brewing for a long time, but the key to the initiative was Dr. Emmanuel Sirimal Silva, a Sri Lankan-born UAL scholar. “It is such a pleasure and such an honor to connect brilliant creative minds with Sri Lankan heritage. Selyn is a brand with a social purpose that aligns with the values (people, planet, profit and purpose) that underpin the Fashion Business School at London College of Fashion. We look forward to further exploring this collaboration and studying market and consumer appeal in the UK through UAL’s Fashion Business Research Centre,” says Dr Silva, Head of Co-ordinating the research at the Fashion Business School.
Key launch partners and supporters included Truly Ceylon Tea and Global Fashion Exchange Founder and CEO Patrick Duffy: “I couldn’t think of a better collaboration to support education and social impact at scale. world. This is a unique opportunity to introduce the hand loom – the first and original “tool” of craft technology. The development and inclusive participation of weavers, designers, marketers, entrepreneurs and marketers signals a new way and a new opportunity to demonstrate full transparency. We need to shake things up, no longer “me, the designer, creating fashion for my own ego”, but embrace the future where we are all equal players at the design table that is inclusive, collaborative and transparent. »
Students at London College of Fashion, UAL will design, develop and work together to create designs, campaigns, business plans and products, some of which will be further developed into products to be showcased later this year.
