Fireflies For LanterNs

Meet Sasmitha Dellawa,  founder and designer of Fireflies for Lanterns, a sustainable and ethical brand that has been recognized by the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards as a one-to-watch Canadian brand. The brand is one of many that will be featured at the Calgary Sustainability Fashion Show this weekend hosted by The Nobles Management (for more information, click here). Born in Sri Lanka, raised in London, England, and currently based in Calgary, at the young age of nine Sasmitha knew she wanted to be a fashion designer before she could even conceptualize what working in fashion would mean. “I have memories of standing in front of a mirror, draping fabrics over myself or cinching waistlines on t-shirts, altering necklines. The fascination has always been there.” 

Having been inspired to become a designer by growing up in London, Sasmitha debuted her first couture collection at the 2016 Autumn/Winter London Fashion Week at age 19 with no formal education or training, a moment she had spent her entire childhood dreaming about. The collection, entitled ‘Journey to the New World’ consisted of dreamy, romantic dresses hand-embroidered by Sri Lankan artisans. Some of her favourite designs come from these pieces with their intricate florals and beadwork on tulle and other delicate fabrics. 

“It was absolutely exhilarating,” she said of the collection. “Having made it there so young, I felt invincible”. At the same time, the designer reflected that she hadn’t entirely considered the ramifications of debuting so young on a platform where high standards and artistry were the norm, and harsh criticism was to be expected. “A lot of mistakes were made in the process,” she acknowledges. Now she finds herself grateful for the room and grace she’s been given having made those mistakes at such a young age- grace that might not have been given had she made those mistakes at an older age. 

After a few years of showcasing her collections at London Fashion Week, in 2018 Sasmitha decided that switching gears to create a ready-to-wear line and establishing it back in Canada made sense, and founded Fireflies for Lanterns. The name of the brand is taken from the spirit of having humble beginnings and using your ambition- of using fireflies to light your path forward even if you don’t have a lantern. The designer is inspired by visual images, and is often inspired by photographs and images, as well as the emotions and stories that these pictures inspire within people. Whether her collections have had themes based on an era, place, or a novel, the inspiration behind them can always be traced back to an image or collection of images she’s seen at some point.

“We always say that the Firefly promise is to be Local, Ethical, and Sustainable.” Fireflies for Lanterns maintains this from beginning to end, from design to production by partnering with local artists to create prints, sourcing only natural, deadstock, or recycled fabrics, producing their designs in small batches, and working with manufacturers that uphold fair and ethical labour standards. 

Sasmitha DeLLAWa’s collection, Journey to the New World, AW2016 London FASHION WEEK 2016. PHOTO BY SHAHID MALIK.

For the brand, trying to make changes from every aspect of production to distribution felt like swimming upstream. “There’s a certain formula to affordability in fashion manufacturing- in many ways we’ve self-imposed a lot of barriers against it to adhere to environmentally friendly standards.” This has included refusing offers from bigger brands to mass-produce Fireflies for Lanterns designs with synthetic fabrics, refusing to partner with fast fashion platforms that would require using materials and price points acceptable to fast fashion, and finding alternative factories as the majority of manufacturers find sourcing eco-friendly fabrics or small-batching designs as unprofitable compared to standard manufacturing practices.

“Sustainable production increases costs at every stage of the retail chain,” Sasmitha stresses, making the end result more expensive in a retail space where unrealistic, exploitative fast-fashion prices are expected. One of Fireflies for Lanterns goals is to make sustainability affordable and practical for women who are eco-conscious, who want to invest in well-made, timeless, unique pieces without having to pay the ‘green’ price tag. 

Love Letter to Nostalgia collection by Sasmitha Dellawa at London FASHION WEEK SS17 2016. Photo BY SHaHID MALIK.

One of the challenges Sasmitha and the brand faced was finding the correct market and audience. While consumers are pushing for more eco-conscious and sustainable options, it’s impossible for Firefires for Lanterns to compete with fast fashion price points. In the early years of Fireflies for Lanterns, the brand struggled to find their audience as it was hard to strike the correct balance between affordable price points and the high price points of ethical production. Another challenge that the brand still struggles with today is sourcing eco-friendly or natural fabrics for their small-batch productions. Fabric mills have a production minimum of around 1000 yards, and as a smaller brand, it’s hard for Fireflies for Lanterns to purchase so much of one type of fabric when not all of their designs use the same fabrics.

As a Canadian-based designer, Sasmitha believes there is a lack of opportunities and a severe lack of programs and platforms for those wanting to work within fashion in Canada, not a lack of talent or diversity of independent brands. For Fireflies for Lanterns, knowing who to reach out to in Canada for support of the brand and their expansion into retail wasn’t immediately obvious without extensive research or knowing someone who knew the correct person. However, she has found that as the average Canadian consumer is becoming more aware of the sustainability movement, the more retailers are looking for sustainable brands, something that has supported the growth of Fireflies for Lanterns.

For consumers wanting to be more sustainable in their fashion choices, there are a few things that Sasmitha recommends. The designer recommends investing in high-quality clothes, and caring for them well to expand their lifespan, rather than just recycling and donating clothes. While recycling and donating clothes is a start, many of the garments that are sent to recycling/donation depots are burned or dumped in landfills, and if you’re still overconsuming, recycling and donating your clothes won’t offset this. Natural fabrics, she states, are not perfectly sustainable in comparison to synthetic fabrics. “While natural fibers are more sustainable than synthetic in the sense of being biodegradable, producing them on demand still requires large quantities of water; whereas recycled or deadstock fabric may serve as a slightly better alternative as these utilize pre-produced materials." Lastly, Sasmitha warns consumers to be wary of brands and retailers eager to capitalize on the growing sustainability movement without actually putting in the work. “Greenwashing is rampant within the industry, and it dilutes genuine efforts made by truly environmentally conscious brands. Demand more from the brands you’re shopping with and dig deeper than the vague and glossy eco-branding to know what efforts they’ve actually made to be sustainable.” 

AUTUMN’S GARDEN COLLECTION BY SASMITHA DELLAWA - FALL/ WINTER 2020-2021. PHOTO BY ELUVIER ACOSTA.

Being the Creative Director and Founder of Fireflies for Lanterns is not Sasmitha’s main job. Her day job consists of working as a technology analyst, and when asked to describe what it’s like to balance having a full-time nine to five with a start-up brand, Sasmitha described it concisely as “exhausting and demanding”. She’s had to make many sacrifices within her personal life in order to keep the momentum of both her corporate career and her brand. For those looking to do something similar, she stresses that there has to be an understanding that it’ll be an uphill battle. Ultimately, however, a safety net of a daytime job will give you and your business room to breathe until the business itself is self-sustaining. 

With Covid-19 striking in 2020, the brand decided to use the pandemic as a break to step back, re-evaluate where the brand was going, and re-group. During this time, they found a larger, more experienced production facility to partner with, sourced more recycled/deadstock fabrics, and started the process of producing their prints in-house together with local artists. For the upcoming Spring/Summer 2022 collection, Sasmitha is particularly proud of the printed pieces as those particular pieces used custom prints created for Fireflies for Lanterns by local Edmonton artist Megan Simonson, something she had always wished to do. “Seeing the pencil sketches from the artist transform in full colour onto fabric was such a gratifying process to witness”. 

SPRING/SUMMER 2022 COLLECTION BY SASMITHA DELLAWA - Follow Fireflies for Lantern @FIREFLIESFORLANTERN to see when the collection comes out.

Photo by Eluvier Acosta.

It’s not always easy to turn your dreams into a reality, something that Sasmitha has had to contend with over the past few years. It has taken her and her team a lot of hard work, mistakes and mishaps to learn from, and detours in order to dream Fireflies for Lanterns into a reality. The brand is determined to defy social constructs and traditional fashion requirements in order to carve its space into the fabric of Canadian fashion no matter what detours or stumbling blocks they might come across in the future. As Sasmitha clearly puts it, “I may not have always known how to get here, just that I needed to. I never aspired to anything else.”