Sisi

Textile Technician

Sisi

Sisi chose creativity at nine years old and has never reconsidered. Making for her is not a job or a practice. It is the clearest expression of who she is.

At a boarding school run by nuns, Sisi was offered a choice: academic subjects or creative ones. She chose creativity for the freedom it offered. A near-expulsion in her first week was followed by a second chance – a strict routine of chores and discipline and the discovery that sewing could be both refuge and focus.

The influence she returns to is not a person or a school of thought but a standard. How a piece is made, she believes, says everything about the person who made it. Quality and attention to detail, whether the object is humble or precious, are non-negotiable.

“Making things, I discovered, was a way to breathe. That sense of escape is what has kept me rooted in my craft.”

Sisi is drawn to natural, luxurious materials – Italian silk, linen, lace. Fibres that are delicate, tactile and expressive – and that demand both respect and care.

Her Exiled workspace in Hull is designed around an equally mindful philosophy: calm and deliberate, everything within reach, soft light, plants, gentle music and a candle burning. A world away from chaos, where tranquillity allows her to focus, and that focus shows in the work.

For Sisi, Exiled represents hope and offers her a freedom she cherishes dearly. Freedom to be creative and use years of craft and skill to transform the discarded into the beautiful. She wants the wearers of Exiled items to understand that they have chosen to support ethical manufacturing, value quality, and do right by the planet.

Some things Sisi keeps for herself. What she will say is that the values that shape her work – care, quality, intention – are the ones she brings to everything. The work is the most honest version of who she is.

Products by artisan

ALL PRODUCTS
Loading products...

Quote from artisan

“Every Exiled stitch is an imprint of values. A way of leaving something thoughtful in the world.”

Meet your makers

This is our circle of makers: artisans, designers, technicians and technologists, each bringing a distinct craft and a shared conviction that the material others overlook still has more to say.

View All
Bridie Rimmer

Bridie taught herself to work with leather because nobody else was making what she could see was needed. Seven years on, she brings that same rigour to Exiled.

Bridie Rimmer
Bridie Rimmer
Designer

Bridie Rimmer

Designer
Jo Smith

No material that reaches Jo is truly at the end of its life. She has spent her career proving it – one rescued, reimagined piece at a time.

Jo Smith
Jo Smith
Textile Technician

Jo Smith

Textile Technician
Kelimune Handloom Centre

The Kelimune Handloom Centre, supported by Exiled and Fibershed Sri Lanka, is a community of skilled handloom weavers, sharing knowledge and keeping alive an ancient tradition for new markets.

Kelimune Handloom Centre
Kelimune Handloom Centre
Group of makers

Kelimune Handloom Centre

Group of makers
Polonnaruwa Artisan Community

The Polonnaruwa Artisan Community, supported by Exiled and Fibershed Sri Lanka, nurtures a group of hand weavers to carry forward a centuries-old craft into products and places it has never reached before.

Polonnaruwa Artisan Community
Polonnaruwa Artisan Community
Group of makers

Polonnaruwa Artisan Community

Group of makers
Roxey Lebedynska

Roxey always knew she was going to be an artist. Music shaped her eye, chaos fuels her process and fashion became the medium through which she says what she wants to say.

Roxey Lebedynska
Roxey Lebedynska
Textile Technician

Roxey Lebedynska

Textile Technician
Sam Grannon

Sam is not just interested in making things. He is interested in what becomes of them. Everything else – the materials, the process, the precision – follows from that.

Sam Grannon
Sam Grannon
3D Designer

Sam Grannon

3D Designer
Sisi

Sisi chose creativity at nine years old and has never reconsidered. Making for her is not a job or a practice. It is the clearest expression of who she is.

Sisi
Sisi
Textile Technician

Sisi

Textile Technician
Syd Newman

Syd was always looking for the next skill she hadn’t mastered yet. She found it in clothing construction and hasn’t stopped looking since, also finding that craft is what makes her feel herself.

Syd Newman
Syd Newman
Textile Technician

Syd Newman

Textile Technician
Tendai ‘Tee’ Murairwa

Some people grow up making. Tee started in her forties at her kitchen table, discovering that what she’d been looking for had been waiting in the fabric all along.

Tendai ‘Tee’ Murairwa
Tendai ‘Tee’ Murairwa
Designer

Tendai ‘Tee’ Murairwa

Designer