Idea 65 of 500. Cluster 3: Souvenirs that are actually from here
Handloom sarongs and shirts in the heritage colours of each district
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
Every idea in cluster 3 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Choose one district, work out its heritage colours with a weaver, and have five sarongs and five shirts woven. Photograph them in that district's own setting and offer them to a hotel shop there and a Sri Lankan shop abroad. Sales at the asking price, and requests for other districts' colours, are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Visitors and Sri Lankan buyers abroad who want clothing tied to a place, and hotel shops that want local stock with a story.
- What leaves today
- Handloom earns little when sold as plain cloth; district colours give it an identity and a price to match.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FiveThe Most Photographed Rock in the World
The Matterhorn water bottle and the souvenir that is from there
More from cluster 3
Idea 65 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.