Wearable art – the ‘Lulea Kallax’ way
Supun Ranaweerasinghe’s passion for travel and to introduce Sri Lanka to an international forum, through a local brand was what spurred the thought of ‘Lulea Kallax’, a Sri Lankan clothing brand which was launched recently.
Supun
The idea to start a clothing brand came with Supun’s background, which is spans more than 16 years of experience in the apparel industry, within the areas of merchandising and ERP consulting. He hoped to market this brand, as he travelled.
“You can come up with a brand, but building it is difficult,” Supun tells us. As we talk, Supun explains that he developed a close friendship with Lakshman Wimalasena (the artist for Lulea Kallax), while they studied together at the University of Sri Jayawardenapura.
“The one thing we have in common is that neither of us is scared to try out new things,” Lakshman tells the audience at the launch. After their graduation the pair went on different paths, but still kept in touch.
It was just last year, when Lakshman was back in Sri Lanka, Supun had told him about his idea. The more they talked about it they realized that the products, which would come under the brand had to be unique. But neither of them knew what this sense of uniqueness could be.
A few weeks later Supun got in touch with Lakshman and told him that he had found the edge and that was Lakshman’s paintings. He was very keen on Lakshman’s work, that’s why he decided to have his work on the clothing, Supun tells us.
Lakshman took up painting as a form of stress buster, whilst reading for his PHD at the Herriot Watt University, Scotland. His first painting, to his surprise was met with a lot of positive comments from his friends and that encouraged him to pursue the craft.
Today he always tries to do a bit of painting during the early hours of the day and sometimes during the weekend. “Doing it commercially is not my main motivation, but I aim to make other people happy with my work.”
Lakshman’s art is unique in a sense that it colourfully captures the raw human emotion on a canvas. It also brings a fusion of colour and light, whilst relating a story. And just like their friendship Lakshman’s art binds itself with ease to the high quality garments in the ‘Lulea Kallax’ range.
Lakshman
“He sometimes draws inspiration from a model,” Supun tells us whilst pointing at an Angelina Jolie and an Axl Rose painting. “Lakshman also paints actual people such as his niece for example, who is also featured on one of the t-shirts.
Once Supun figured out what his products were and what was going to be included on them, the next step was to come up with a brand name. “Lulea is a city in Sweden and Kallax is a nearby village. Lulea’s airport is in Kallax, Supun explains. He adds the brand name was suggested by Lakshman after Supun had given him a few guidelines.
“He came up with various names. But once he typed out Lulea Kallax, I was certain. I checked and the domain was available and that’s how I decided,” he recalls.
Currently Supun is the designer, founder, marketer and project manager of ‘Lulea Kallax’. He acknowledges that the products are very basic at present, but adds, he hopes to involve different designers in the future.
‘Lulea Kallax’ is a certainly a brand for those who love and appreciate art and fine quality garments. Aside from that, it is also something for those who aren’t afraid to dream.
The fusion of Supun’s vision with Lakshman’s work resulted in an original range of clothing. And Supun finally hopes to see his dream of travelling the world fulfilled, when he takes ‘Lulea Kallax’ to 100 different cities across the globe, in an attempt to promote the brand.
For more details on the brand and their line of clothing log on to luleakallax.com
Pix courtesy Lulea Kallax
