Lishini Karunatillaka, business lead at Leveza, a new nonwoven clothing company, speaks to Jessica Owen about the company’s innovative fabric and brand.
On the whole, travelling is a great experience – you can discover new places, meet new people and learn about different cultures. Yet, the logistics of travelling can be stressful for some. For example, living out of a rucksack limits the number of items you can take with you and it can be a heavy and inconvenient load to lug around.
Leveza has a selection of bralettes, shorts, cami tops and bikini bottoms
Now, a newly created brand called Leveza has developed a nearly invisible, lightweight and compact clothing range which can fit into a small capsule, allowing a generation of full-time travelling women to rethink how they travel.
Founded by MAS Design Inc, a subsidiary of MAS Holdings, Leveza launched last month (October).
“The team working on innovations for the company were adventure-seeking travellers and often faced problems related to apparel while on holiday,” says Lishini Karunatillaka, business lead at Leveza.
“Clothes can be too heavy to take away, too restrictive and uncomfortable for long journeys, and swimwear often dries very slowly. To resolve these issues, the team tried to find a solution, and eventually developed an innovative fabric called LIZ.”
LIZ is made from 100% thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and it is manufactured using polymer extrusion. The fabric air dries in less than 30 minutes, is 50% lighter than normal apparel, and is eco-friendly.
Leveza uses sustainable methods and materials from start to finish
“Leveza is a reusable nonwoven clothing range designed from an innovative fabric that is ultra-lightweight and air dries in less than 30 minutes, revolutionising minimalist travel,” adds Karunatillaka. “It’s the first of its kind to be introduced to the global market.”
Leveza uses sustainable methods and materials from start to finish. As water is an important resource to the world, it was the company’s ambition to work around a solution that used almost nothing in the process of making it. Leveza products use less water consumption in pre and post manufacturing than any other fabric in the market.
“At the stage of producing the LIZ fabric, the process uses zero water and when manufacturing the Leveza garments, we use zero water,” says Karunatillaka. Leveza products have a 60% smaller carbon footprint than cotton too.”
Leveza designs are digitally printed too which means that less toxins are released, and less waste is created. Additionally, Leveza can be recycled back to polymer for reuse.
LIZ is made from 100% thermoplastic polyurethane
Due to the uniqueness of Leveza and the LIZ fabric, the company claims that the garment can be worn and washed for a minimum of 10 wash and wear cycles.
“Apparel standard for testing any garment for wash is to test for 25 wash and wear cycles. Leveza garments too have gone through this testing and have passed for 25 cycles.
“Leveza products are required to be hand washed and air dried,” adds Karunatillaka. “However, because of the uniqueness of Leveza, and the LIZ fabric, we claim for 10 washes as we don’t know a consumer’s wash and wear habits.”
Just like any other start-up, Leveza has also experienced challenges while setting up the brand.
“Due to the innovative and new concept of the LIZ fabric, the team faced many challenges when trying to understand what the limitations were when making the garments.
“With being a new brand, we also needed to figure out a way to build awareness and trust with consumers.”
The company set up several pop-up stores around the world, starting from Sydney, to Barcelona and to Sri Lanka, where it was able to take the products directly to different travellers and get their feedback and insight on the brand proposition and product.
“This helped immensely to improve our brand and products before we launched our website.”
Currently, Leveza has a selection of bralettes, shorts, cami tops and bikini bottoms. All the products have stretch recovery to outlast the longest travel days, and the fabric of the bralette and hip hugger conforms to the body, so it feels like wearing nothing.
Karunatillaka adds: “We are working on new styles of products for the women’s range, and we are also working on menswear.”
To find out more about Leveza, visit: https://www.leveza.com/
