Arts
Giving life to ‘Sri Lankan-isms’
“It is a brand with a tongue-in-cheek attitude and we want to honour Sri Lankan products, sayings and more generally ‘Sri Lankan-isms’”, sayKat Scott and Rashoon Hafeel, the brains behind — ‘Kirihodi’ one of the latest clothing brands to be launched.
With the aim of celebrating the overlooked and the nostalgia of Sri Lankan culture, Kat and Haffa, a recently engaged couple who have been working in the fashion and garment industry for more than seven years launched this clothing brand,named after the ‘golden elixir’ of Sri Lankan cooking, the often underrated ‘kirihodi’ a.k.a milk curry, during the lockdown.
“The brand launched over three months ago. Although it was envisioned a number of years ago, the pandemic made us sit down and make our dreams a reality. We are new to the market, but we have loads of ideas, inspiration and experience to continue to build the brand,” says Kat and Haffa.
“Launching a brand during a pandemic was always going to be a challenge and it has been difficult to read the market. However, we have grown from strength to strength and are excited to see what the future holds,” they added.
All t-shirts are hand-drawn by Kat, a Scottish textile designer who has a love affair with Sri Lankan food. Therafter the t-shirts are produced by Haffa, who is a t-shirt entrepreneur. All t-shirts are made in Sri Lanka.
Kat previously worked as the Programme Leader of Fashion at the Academy of Design while Haffa worked in a t-shirt manufacturing company for many years. One could say it was a creative match made in heaven.
At ‘Kirihodi’, after the designs are drawn, Kat then works to develop them digitally. Thereafter, Haffa takes over and works on the colours, sizes, printing and fabric. The brand hopes to appeal to all both old, young, trendy and not. “This brand is for all,” they say.
Further they added that they have loads of ideas and inspiration. They intend to extend their product range and want to keep designing and making the coolest and most original clothing in Sri Lanka.
‘Kirihodi’ is currently available only on Instagram. At the moment, however, they have also been at a few pop-ups and are talking to a few retail stores. For now the duo feel that being online has helped to support the vision for their brand. “We want to be able to move with the market and to be a fast moving online business,”the founders voiced.
Kat and Haffa hope customers not only enjoy the brand but would also embrace being different and having fun.
You can purchase your ‘Kirihodi’ t-shirts through their Instagram page
@kirihodi and for any queries you could email them on kiri.hodi.sl@gmail.com.