Our ethics
Empowering women and girls
Dot & Mila is a 100% women-run business. Founders Nina and Alice Gage are a mother-daughter team, and among our dressmakers there are three sets of mothers and daughters. We are inspired by the talent, strength and spirit of women and girls, and seek to support them wherever possible.
We believe even our young wearers are are empowered by Dot & Mila dresses. We hope that when your little girl puts on her dress, she feels confident and special. We all know the transformative power of a fabulous frock!
Ethical production
Dot & Mila dresses are made by 10 female dressmakers working from their own homes in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Our artisans possess finely tuned skills that have been mostly passed down through generations of women seamstresses who know the intricate art of smocking and embroidery and have the patience to create these garments.
Every dressmaker is paid fairly, treated with respect and works autonomously. They choose to accept commissions, set their own prices and work in their own hours, enabling them to run their households and care for their children freely.
We feel privileged to have been able to provide an income stream for our skilled artisans at this time of social strife in Sri Lanka. Since we started Dot & Mila at the end of 2020, your purchases and interest in our dresses have facilitated the employment of two extra dressmakers.
A dressmakers sewing the Birdie smock, working from her home.
Supporting literacy
We have partnered with Room to Read to further our commitment to empowering women and girls in Sri Lanka, where our dresses are made. Room to Read is a non-profit organisation that works with communities and local governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and supports girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond.
Each season we offer ‘Room to Read’ dresses and donate a portion of the proceeds of those styles to the charity.
Sustainability and slow fashion
At Dot & Mila, we believe in quality over quantity, buying less and buying better.
Our dresses are all made by hand in limited numbers. The time it takes to produce the dresses accounts for our infrequent releases. Our prices are a little higher, but the quality of our dresses is exceptional – you’ll notice it in the details, the lining and the finished seams.
We believe in using every measure of fabric in our range and our production involves almost zero waste.
Each dress features a sash that allows for growth and we encourage our customers to choose a larger size to ensure more wear. We love to hear of customers passing down the dresses or saving them for the next generation.
Dot & Mila dressmaker Kumarina (left) and her mother (right) with project manager Kalika De Silva (centre). Kalika distributed Christmas gifts from Australia to our fabulous makers.
Preserving family connections
We are intrinsically connected to family. We work with just one small atelier, based in Colombo, which has been run by the same family for 70 years. Founders Nina and Alice Gage are a mother-daughter team, and among our dressmakers there are three sets of mothers and daughters.
We carry with us the values inherent to these relationships: the passing on of skills, cultural knowledge and a livelihood. We honour the ongoing bonds between generations of women even in our name – “Dot & Mila” represents the ties between mother, daughter and grand-daughter.