Starter Kit. Idea 409 of 500. Cluster 20
Print and pattern studios licensing Sri Lankan motifs to the fabric mills of the world
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans make the world's underwear to the world's standard, and the country has no fashion brand of its own that the world has heard of.
The first step
Draw 10 patterns from Sri Lankan motifs, temple paintings, lacework or batik, using only designs that are yours or free to adapt. Put them in a small digital catalogue with a licence fee per pattern, and send it to five fabric mills or textile buyers abroad. One licence sold is your proof, and the patterns they ask about show you what to draw next.
- Who pays first
- A textile mill or fashion brand abroad looking for original patterns with a clear source, and willing to license them rather than copy.
- What leaves today
- The island's motifs earn nothing while they sit in temples and museums; licensed patterns turn them into income that comes home.
Ask first
- National Crafts Council. Ask whether any traditional motifs are protected or restricted in use.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask which business registration suits a small pattern studio.
Check before you spend
That every pattern is yours or free to adapt, that sacred motifs are used respectfully, and a clear licence contract for each use.
Find out these three numbers
- What licence fee per pattern do mills pay?
- Which patterns do buyers ask about?
- How many patterns does a catalogue need to be taken seriously?
A comparison from the book
Zespri, New Zealand. Chapter Eleven
"Then Zespri did the thing that made the real money: it owns its plant varieties."
Own the designs and license them per use, the way owned varieties earn year after year.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.