Hi, I’m Arya.

It started with a question.

One night I asked my dad if there was a word for missing something that was never really yours. He said yes — saudade. I asked for another. Then another. Ubuntu, meraki, ikigai. We kept going until the food was cold.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Somewhere in the world, a person felt something so strongly that their language built a whole word just to hold it — and I’d never even heard it. Komorebi: sunlight coming through leaves. Jeong: a bond too deep to explain. Every word felt like a tiny door into how someone else sees the world.

I didn’t start a clothing company. I started collecting the words we don’t have in English.

It was just supposed to be a summer thing.

We started learning a new word each week and sharing it. We didn’t expect anyone to care that much. But people did. They wanted to vote on the next word. They wanted to wear it. They wanted in.

So that’s what LIT is now. We find a word. You vote. One word wins, and we make it — a small, numbered run, then it’s retired for good. Every shirt comes with a card that tells the word’s story, so the meaning sticks around long after the drop sells out.

Learn. Share. Preserve.