The question
UNESCO and the Endangered Alphabets Project estimate that of the roughly 700 writing systems in use today, more than half are at risk of disappearing within a generation. Indonesia is at the centre of that crisis: a country of 17,000 islands and around 25 indigenous scripts, most of which are no longer taught at school. We wanted to build something that put these letters back on the body.
The craft
We work primarily in batik cap — handstamped with copper moulds — with batik tulis accents on signature pieces. Our cap series allow us to scale without sacrificing the human hand: each motif is still pressed, aligned, and dyed by women artisans in our Yogyakarta workshop. Natural dyes appear in our Liris Loka line: indigo, mahogany bark, secang wood.
The community
Roughly 30 women collaborate with the atelier — local pembatik who were displaced by the printed-batik boom of the 2000s. Returning to hand-craft means returning to a living wage and to a knowledge base that older generations almost stopped passing on. Our scrap fabric becomes accessories and tote bags; nothing meaningful gets thrown away.
The intent
Modern silhouettes with ancient letters. We don't romanticise the past, and we don't sand it smooth for an Instagram grid. We design clothes you can wear to a meeting in Jakarta, to a wedding in Bandung, to a coffee shop in Berlin — and have someone ask, what are those letters? That conversation is the project.