Jarana began with staying too long.
I came to India for a while and never really left. Working as a photographer taught me to notice overlooked things: faded colours, old fabrics, hand-painted signs, strange prints, objects worn by time. I started making shirts from textiles I found and wanted to wear myself. That slowly became Jarana.
India gave the brand its textile language: block prints, kantha, handloom cottons, quilts and embroidery. Sri Lanka became its second home.
Today, most Jarana pieces are made in one small workshop in Ahangama run by Nini, working closely with the same local team. Working closely with the same team keeps the process direct: ideas can change around a table, quantities can stay small, and the people making the clothes are never anonymous.
India remains fundamental for its extraordinary textile knowledge: block prints, kantha, handloom cottons, embroidery and the small family-run workshops that have shaped Jarana from the beginning.
The fabric still comes first: bedsheets become shorts, towels become shirts and bags, blankets become jackets. What remains becomes pockets, accessories or scrunchies.
Quantities are naturally small. Sometimes forty pieces, sometimes four, sometimes one.
Jarana sits somewhere between India and Sri Lanka, shaped by the textiles, people and everyday life of both places.
Jarana (ha-RAH-na) is a Spanish word for shared joy: music, movement, people together, staying a little longer than planned.
Sewing East & West.
