Paradise Road, established in 1987, was as a quaint store selling olde worde handpicked antiques and contemporary local handicrafts. PR, the concept store of the chain, started as a curation front for select designers before Annika, the elder daughter of founder Udayshanth Fernando, started her own label Maus in 2013. Fernando exudes what PR stands for: a confluence of art, design and fashion. Here, she talks about the pandemic.
Designers the world over have been severely hit by COVID-19. How are you staging a personal recovery? How badly hit were you? What did you personally do for a course correction?
Annika Fernando: I don't know if I can even view it in stages of recovery. Sri Lanka has had an additional year (2019) to ‘recover’ from and who knows where we are even now?
Our little island shines so bright in its strengths that from outside few really see the challenges businesses have faced over the years. It’s like we keep coming up for air, while we are being sucked down under at the same time. Post-war, post tsunami, post-Easter Attacks, is there a ‘post’ COVID yet?
We give resilience a new meaning; all we do is adapt.
This period of time has been challenging, but we are a small team at PR and even smaller at Maus who multitask, stepped often out of our usual roles, learned new skills and rode the wave.
Financial growth was disturbed no doubt; our goal for the hardest times was ensuring our team was supported and paid. That literally became our sole goal during the most difficult times, just keeping our designers supported, overheads covered, and staff paid with no delays. We succeeded.
Designers do not have deep pockets like big brands and manufacturers. How are you holding up at a time of constant supply chain bottlenecks and the financial crisis in Sri Lanka?
Annika Fernando: Maus is small. We have no choice but to rely more on local supply fabrics which comes with its own set of challenges due to the small market, along with huge delays in orders. We are trying to get the timing of orders right, but production for small labels is anyway challenging here. Our garment production is set up for the big numbers and local labels don’t always have easy access to this. Therefore, our design and process are often worked around what is actually possible, not the reverse. I’m currently in the middle of changing our manufacturer for Maus Swim and for Maus Organic. Local designers who work with batik for example, are struggling with fabric supply and quality dyes and increased costs.
When we produce small numbers, our costs are also higher. We’ve been all keeping our risks low and working on smaller collections, but the consumer often doesn’t realise this process and are frustrated at higher prices. The cost of slow fashion.
The poor economy means we are concerned about the dependence on the local market and hopeful that the tourist arrivals continue to increase as the exchange rates are attractive for the visitor. We are taking bigger steps to protect our savings.
Now, it’s about steering through the local challenges. We’ve definitely been relying more on local labels and #madeinsrilanka which was always the core of the business. We used to have more Indian designers in store, which with the import challenges and exchange rates is less desirable. We are playing it safer and really studying our numbers.
On which front were you adversely affected the most: raw materials, staff shortage, liquidity?
Annika Fernando: Staff shortage is hitting businesses now and most sectors. Many locals want to leave and for some reason it’s just near impossible, even with better salaries to attract staff. Many have moved on to small businesses of their own, changed course and perhaps even enjoyed more flexible hours.
Limited fabrics means I design around what we can access and with the knowledge that supply is limited. Print and packaging has been affected too, so we see prices rising and quality often dropping.
There’s an uncertainty even in numbers—suppliers may just raise prices because of demand, or because they foresee a raise in the future. Is it really because their costs have risen, we don't always know? Beggars can't be choosers.
I think we’ve been hit by different challenges at different stages of these last few years. At the moment, it’s staff shortage and a certain level of constant uncertainty and insecurity in the future.
But look, we have been smart and managed to stay afloat and look after our team and we've grown in different ways, I’m so proud of that.
