Our founder, Liz Steiger, is one of you. Liz is a world traveller and fashion lover who calls Europe and Asia her homes. She left a corporate career behind to make a difference and founded Pelagona where she co-creates fashion and homeware with talented artisans across the globe. Pelagona celebrates the people and their stories behind every product and seeks to empower artisans by increasing the potential reach of their products and contribute to sustainable income opportunities.

Liz is always on the lookout for special items and remembers the times when shopping around the globe was interesting and fun. The shops and items where unique to the location celebrating the local style and heritage. Over time, the market changed. The small boutiques had to make space for big fashion brands. Whether you live in Europe or Asia, the items are available anywhere. Liz was bored with this uniform offer and kept looking for unique items whenever she travelled. She searched the local markets, visited the studios of up-and-coming designers and browsed in small boutiques.

During this process, she experienced the negative impact of globalisation at first hand. She saw that increasingly, traditional artisanry has been replaced by souvenirs and garments which are mass-produced under questionable circumstances. Liz also started to carry out a lot of research about the supply chain of fashion brands and realised that high price points and recognizable brands do not necessarily stand for true craftsmanship and ethical and sustainable work processes anymore. She founded Pelagona to not only create unique and beautiful items but also to empower the people who make them, pay fair and sustainable wages and preserve culture, techniques and heritage.