V o l a n t i s

The Story of Volantis – Our Journey

Volantis began not as a business, but as a meeting of two creators, two paths, and a shared reverence for form, beauty, and the power of textiles to carry history and spirit.

We are Jonny Lawrence and Giada Alazraki. We each arrived in India following different paths, seeking new ways of creating.

We met in Goa, drawn together by an instinctive pull toward aesthetics, travel, and the tactile poetry of antique fabrics. What began as an exchange of ideas — artistic, aesthetic, spiritual — soon grew into a deep collaboration. Two different languages, two distinct sensibilities, blending into one.
In those early days, we scoured markets and remote villages for ancient tribal prints, mud-dyed cottons, and rare silks. What we found, we paired with contemporary natural textiles — raw silks, refined cottons — and began creating instinctively, intuitively.

Our first capsule collection was a patchwork of heritage and experimentation, crafted without a blueprint. One of us took that collection to New York; the other remained, still dreaming.

As our partnership grew — both creatively and personally — so did our vision.

From this spontaneous beginning, a rhythm emerged. Winters were spent in Goa, where in 2009 we opened a beach shop called Dust, a bamboo structure with a sand floor, coconut leaf roof and three tailors working beside us.

Summers were spent in Sardinia.
We lived between worlds, between textures making, selling, moving.

What sustained us was the community we lived within — an eclectic, international gathering of artists, musicians, dancers, and wanderers.
They inspired us. They wore our clothes. They became muses.

Between 2008 and 2012, Dust was less a brand than a living, breathing experiment. As our bond grew, so did our ambition.

In 2013, everything shifted. We began printing our own textiles, designing custom block prints carved into wood, printed by hand in Jaipur on pure silk.

From that moment, we let go of found fabrics. We let go of cotton. Our voice became sharper, more intentional. Our own.

The next year, we presented at Paris Fashion Week. Encouraged, we went on to Milan Fashion Week. Our work was received with warmth, curiosity, and recognition — and we began to grow, slowly and organically, without compromise.

The Story of Volantis – Our Journey

Our collections are made entirely in Goa by a growing atelier of 34 craftspeople, many of whom have been with us since the beginning. They are not workers; they are our extended family.

Today, Volantis has evolved. We now work predominantly in digital print, allowing greater fluidity and a broader spectrum of colour, though we remain rooted in natural fabrics — silk, and more recently, linen.

Every year, we design a new print collection — but we carry forward timeless pieces that defy trends and seasons.
We follow our own current — moved by art, conversation, and our travels across the world.

In 2020, we moved as a family to Tuscany, where we opened our first flagship store in the art town of Pietrasanta. In 2026, we’ll open our second — in San Pantaleo, Sardinia, where our story first began to grow roots.

We continue to travel to Goa several times a year, where our design studio and production atelier still live. Our story is made between these worlds.

Volantis is not defined by trends. It is made to endure — in spirit, in beauty, in craft.
It is a feeling. A silhouette. A memory. A moment of transformation It is everything we’ve lived, touched, dreamed — and all that still calls to be created.

Our Pillars & Values

Our atelier is a space of collaboration, creativity, and continual learning.

Craft with Dignity: The Atelier

Each garment is stitched from beginning to end by a single tailor, allowing for mastery, continuity, and pride in every step. This is not production-line fashion. It is slow fashion — not as a trend, but as a principle. Of the 34 people in our atelier today, 29 are women, many from the local village of Mandrem. Many began with no formal training and have since become masterful silk tailors; some joined in their 40s or 50s, starting a new chapter in their lives through craft, while others are younger women building skills and independence.Empowering women, locally.

Sustainability Through Practice:Our Materials

We work exclusively with natural fabrics — predominantly silk, and recently, linen. We strive to reduce waste wherever possible: from reusing offcuts to create small carry bags for our ecommerce packaging, to using biodegradable wrapping in our shipping. We are not perfect, but we are always refining — aiming to create responsibly.

Timeless Over Trend

We do not follow trends. We follow form, feeling, and the freedom of self-expression. Our garments are timeless — meant to be cherished, re-worn, and passed down. We design with longevity in mind: pieces that hold their own outside the cycle of seasons. Fashion, for us, is not disposable. It is a language of identity, transformation, and beauty that lasts.

The Volantis Effect

We’ve heard it time and again from women who wear our clothes: something changes when they put on a Volantis piece. A shift in posture. A light in the eye. A sense of being adorned — not for others, but for themselves. This is one of our deepest values: To create garments that empower. That elevate. That help women remember they are, and have always been, goddesses.

MEET THE FOUNDERS

JONNY LAWRENCE
Fashion designer, UK-born. Studied fashion at Northumbria University in Newcastle. Co-founded an art studio before moving to India to deepen his design practice.

GIADA ALAZRAKI
Artist and photographer from Milan. Studied photography in Milan and
fine arts in Florence. Brings an artistic, visual, and intuitive voice to the
Volantis creative process.