Name: Himali De Silva ⠀⠀
Born: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Lives: Colombo, Sri Lanka⠀
Handle: @himali.de.silva
After studying, living and working across the UK, US, Australia, Malaysia & Singapore for 14 years and being a Management Consultant for the Big 4, I returned to Colombo to be close to my family.
I am passionate about living a conscious lifestyle and as my way of making a difference and giving back to my beautiful island home, I launched Apé.
With the tagline of bringing Obé & Magé together
(Translation ~ Ours ~ Bringing Yours & Mine together)
A passion project to raise awareness of Sustainable, Circular Consumption and provide a platform for preloved items.
I initially started it 3 years ago but then my beloved father got diagnosed with Leukemia and subsequently passed away so there was a pause in my journey.
I rebranded + relaunched it a few months ago during lockdown as a tribute to honour my father’s generous and caring nature, and as he was the first and number one supporter of my idea.
Although, the preloved market is thriving in developed countries, the ecosystem was pretty non-existent in Sri Lanka and I have had to put in a lot of passion, hard work, effort and creativity into igniting it here.
It’s been a rewarding yet challenging journey due to lack of awareness of the numerous benefits of circular consumption in addition to the social stigma / taboo that is still attached to consuming preloved items.
In addition, I donate a % of every sale to AMITSU – a charity close to my heart as it provides a home for 24 abandoned children.
Thus, via the Apé instagram I hope to raise awareness and provide a platform from which we can all individually contribute to helping ourselves, our community & planet by extending the life cycle of items.
