- Lihini Weeraratne on the art of tie dye and her T-shirt brand
An ardent love for tie dye and a few days of boredom led Lihini Weeraratne, a 20-year-old medical undergraduate at Manipal University College Malaysia, to begin experimenting with the art of tie dye at home. After a few stained hands, ruined shirts and days of going back to the drawing board, Weeraratne finally mastered the craft and decided to start her own online brand: Tie Dye by Lil.
In conversation with Weeraratne, she told us that she has always been a creative soul but leans more on the introvert side, and despite this, to her close friends and family, she’s the bubbliest person one would meet. She fuels all of this energy and emotions into her work and comes up with designs accordingly.
Tie Dye by Lil, found on Instagram as @tiedyebylil, has been a dream of hers since 2016, and sharing the inspiration behind starting up a brand, she told us that she and a friend wanted to purchase tie dye T-shirts for an event, but then realised it wasn’t readily available in Sri Lanka.
“It was rather surprising, but to be honest that was the day I realised that maybe I wanted to make tie dye clothing one day,” she said. Quite obviously, she got wrapped up with school and the idea faded away, until 2020, and tie dye was one distraction that she stumbled upon during quarantine. “It was an upcoming trend around the world and undeniably, I wanted my own. It started out as a hobby that I used to kill time with, but after a few experimental T-shirts, I realised how much I enjoyed it and I decided to build a brand of my own.”
After much consultation with her family and peers and of course with a start-up capital from her father who’s always believed in her, she decided to take a leap of faith and Tie Dye by Lil was launched!
Despite her career being far from the field of fashion, Weeraratne reckons she “has a fairly good sense of style”, but believes that when it comes to tie dye, fashion doesn’t really matter, and that’s the best part about it. For her, playing around with colours and peculiar requests from her customers are one of the best parts about the manufacturing process.
Giving us some insight into the manufacturing process itself, Weeraratne told us that in the beginning it was a one-woman show. “I had to manage everything, from going and shopping for raw materials to making and packing the products on my own,” she told us, adding that later on, her friends and family pitched in with any help they could offer, which to this day, she is grateful for.
Weeraratne gets her T-shirts made from scratch prior to the tie dying process, which provides her with the opportunity to customise the piece of clothing according to the customer’s preference. From there, it’s basically adding colours and waiting for the magic to happen.
“A T-shirt takes around four days in total for the manufacturing since it’s a wash-dry-wash-dry process, and rainy days are never in my favour,” she told us, but all in all, that’s the basic process, adding: “It’s quite simple but very time consuming.”
Nevertheless, she added that the positive feedback from the customers make it all worthwhile.
Her current collection ranges from onesies for newborn to month-old babies to 4XL T-shirts, and since tie-dye is gender-neutral, there’s always an option for everyone. Despite this, she believes that there is always room for improvement and maybe someday Tie Dye by Lil will have options for interior decor.
With all the upcoming brands and competition for tie dye, Weeraratne noted that it was quite the challenge to keep customers attracted to something that’s very readily available. In her opinion, she thinks it was mainly the colours of the dye that made it unique.
“I’ve gotten a lot of positive comments on the shades of dye and the packaging, which is eco-friendly and very minimal,” she said, but most importantly she noted it was the aesthetic of her Instagram page and her best friends who modelled for it that uplifted the brand entirely. Overall, she said it was a constant change and a very interactive process that kept the brand alive.
When asked if she has anything coming up for the brand, she told us that she is a one-day-at-a-time kind of person. So at the moment, she’s happy with where things are headed and right now and is focusing on her degree.
She added that she is immensely thankful to her mother and brother for stepping up and taking care of the business while she’s away, but noted that there’s always room for tie-dye.
“I’m excited to see what the future holds! Hopefully someday Tie Dye by Lil will expand to a place with parking space,” she shared.
