my story
Hi all, my name is Nelly and I am the founder of Wastra Indonesia London. I am an Indonesian Traditional Textile enthusiast and environmental campaigner to support the reduction of fast harmful textile production. I do this by encouraging and supporting the production of ethically and sustainably made handcrafted textiles, signifying traditionally made textiles from Indonesia.
Over the past 10 years, I have been very involved with the weavers’ community in Indonesia. Please CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY JOURNEY THERE.
Originally Indonesian textiles were made for ceremonial purposes and for family use only, but in the past few decades, the demand for Indonesian textiles nationally in Indonesia and globally has increased sharply, particularly textiles that are made using ancient traditional methods, and textile artisans’ communities in Indonesia is taking this opportunity to develop their economy without the need to destroy the environment and abandon valuable culture and tradition.
After several years working closely with the weavers, I came to realise that making these textiles available to international buyers online will help me to spread out my environmental campaigns, and at the same time help preserve this beautiful culture and help develop the weavers’ economy.
In 2016, I started a small online shop in one of the global online marketplaces, to find out more about the tribal textile market globally. Taking our precious textiles to online public markets places has been rather frustrating, as we often compete with other sellers on the platform selling fake Indonesian textiles with misleading information. It makes me deeply concerned about the people who purchase these fake textiles who might be confused and lost trust in Indonesian textiles as a result.
This website is created and dedicated to hosting selections of genuine traditional Indonesian textiles made by the textile artisans we are connected to. We endeavour to provide our customers with genuine textiles with honest information about them which will be useful to guide any textile enthusiast when venturing into the Indonesian textile arena.