Drawing towel patterns with pen on paper

It's time to tell you the secret

Meet the designer

the towel designer, Aelia Anna

A double surprise

My journey with Pestemal started when I rediscovered a primary school friend I hadn’t seen in over thirty years. At our first meeting she gave me a Pestemal towel. I touched the fabric and loved it at once, feeling that it was somehow symbolic of having found my lost friend. Since I loved it I knew my friends would too. Not only did they love them, but they couldn’t get enough of them.

At our Mediterranean island villa my husband had become used to seeing me carry big bulky bags of towels to his boat whenever we’d go sailing. One day he noticed how small the bag was and asked why. When I showed him the Pestemals and how compact they were and then later how useful they were he was sold on them too. That was it. We had all started using the Pestemal and were never going back to normal towels again.

Towel 's pattern pencil illustration

I’m passionate about Aelia Anna, and about providing you with a product to promote your business in a practical and stylish way.

Towel 's pattern pencil illustration
Girl wrapped in towel in front of sea

A life long passion

That summer feeling, illustration

The best expression of my love for the
Greek summer

Simply enjoying Pestemals wasn’t enough for me though. I grew up in Australia where my family had been in the clothing industry and where I had also taken several designers courses. I knew then what I really wanted to do - express my love of the Greek Summer on Pestemal. It seemed clear to me what I had to do: combine my love for Pestemal and the Greek summer into a business.

I spent many long hours conceptualising designs, combining Mediterranean and modern themes to be what you can see here on this site. Today, I still wake up at night with fresh ideas, get up and sketch them down while they remain fresh in my mind. As the designs began to come, I developed a design and production team around me, skilled in bringing my designs to fruition and production of prototypes for trial and then final hand loomed production.

Towel 's pattern pencil illustration