Female empowerment has been a central focus in one of the most known and respected apparel industries in Sri Lanka, the batik industry. Darshi Keerthisena, Director of the country’s most renowned brand Buddhi Batiks, speaks about recent developments in the demand of adapting to contemporary necessities, dynamics of growth incorporating progressive technologies and the impact on existing states of batik production.

Darshi states that in moving forward with the world, she has always been drawn to developing the combinatory aspects of new techniques and innovative capabilities of technology. Batik is a traditional craft that began in Sri Lanka in 1952 when Soma Udabage started working with the production of the craft, soon to be followed by eminent contemporaries such as Ena de Silva, Wickra Dharmawardene, Yolande Aluwihare and Buddhi Keerthisena, the Founder of Buddhi Batiks. Darshi herself learnt much of the art from her parents, stating “It is an industry that has by and large been passed down from generation to generation of which much of the production process takes place in the back gardens of people’s homes”. Most notably, the industry has always been driven and is still led by women. The designer is currently making advancements and changes in the manner of which the village of Koswadiya, where the production of Buddhi Batiks is primarily based, operates in many ways befitting opportunities in ecological imperatives and female empowerment through the potential inherent in technological innovation.

Development Dynamism & Sustainability

The designer explained how the dyeing process of batik production often results in excessive amounts of water wastage. The fashion industry is reputedly one of the most polluting industries in the world, generating encompassed waste from cosmetics to apparel fabrication. However, a growing number of young and prominent designers have been taking up zero-waste, organic trends of fashion design. From a pragmatic point of view, increasing the use of digital technology in batik production would promote the yields of scalability, adding a sense of innovation to a home-grown community looking for ways to expand.

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