The Handloom industry is unarguably one of the most prominent craft industries in Sri Lanka. The growing concerns for sustainable trends in the global fashion industry are in favour of craft industries such as the Handloom industry which already operates in the ambience of sustainable eco-friendly environments causing minimum atrocities to the ecosystem.
This industry practices conventional methods which are carried forward by the artisans over the generations remaining untouched by the rapid modernisation in the world. However, within the parameters of warp and weft and limitations of traditional methods, artisans are crafting genius textiles products.
There has always been a niche market segment for Handloom textile and apparel produced in the country, despite the development of the industry has shown a very lethargic upturn. Given the recognition of its quality and authentic products, the Handloom industry still has huge room to improve with the right opportunities.
Addressing that, the project: “Reshaping the craftsmanship” aims to make the Handloom industry diversified in the current consumer market by providing novel designing approaches that would substantially lead the industry to be more sustainable and competitive in the contemporary fashion world. The project chiefly expects to upgrade the techniques and methods used in the handloom industry through the exchange of expert knowledge from contemporary textile design approaches.
In other words, this project is an investigation of the Handloom industry as a way of crafting modern textiles in the view of future-directed craft embedded with functional and dynamic aesthetic characteristics. Nevertheless, the outcome will contribute largely to the extenuation of Sri Lankan Handloom, enabling the sector to be knowledgeable and skilful in the production of design-oriented, future-directed craft. Team headed by Dr Wickramasinghe together with Dr Gopura is conducting this study.