Heard of Reformation, a luxury label turning around fashion garments to re-purposed material? Kudos to the brand for taking up the cause of slow fashion seriously and succeeding in upcycling the new fashion statement.
And designers across the world are following the league. Closer home, the concept is apparent in the works of designers such as Abraham and Thakore, Rajesh Pratap Singh and Aneet Arora. Similar efforts are being made by young designers towards sustainability in the accessories genre. We explore Indian labels that are looking beyond the obvious to give us trendy accessories crafted from discarded material.
Vasundhara Sharma, a textile design graduate from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru, is the founder of Orunie-an accessories brand in New Delhi. She believes in creating designer goods that are ecologically responsible and don’t cost an arm and a leg, while retaining their exclusivity. “I love incorporating upcycled material into the process,” says Sharma, who sources surplus fabrics from factories and creates her own designs to make products, such as bags, lamps, scarves and jewellery. Folksy is her latest collection of handmade jewellery.
“We create each piece with nostalgia of how our grandmothers used to repair and reuse every garment dozens of times before deeming it unfit for use,” says Delhi-based designer Kriti Tula, co-founder and creative director of Doodlage. Primarily into slow fashion ethos, the brand’s first accessory collection includes duffel bags, wallets, card holders, jacket covers and totes made by patching and quilting small fabrics left out post-cutting from the running women’s collection. “We also provide a repair kit with all garments,” she adds.
Denims have caught the fancy of Kochi-based designer Ranjini M Ravi, founder of Meg Design and Alter. She finds it difficult to bear the pain of throwing out an old pair of faded jeans. She brings out the discarded jeans in a new avatar. “I like to remake them into an endless variety of products ranging from mobile pouches to carry-alls with pretty embellishments. I am also working on a new line of jewellery made from discarded clothes,” says Ranjini.
Chinanshu Sharma, who founded Paarisha as a platform to express herself through jewellery, calls herself a boring banker-turned-designer for whom playing around with different materials, whether it is recycled motor parts, hardware supplies, denim, fabric, found objects, sea glass or buttons, is really exciting. Her first project in recycling was a street art fest of recycled motor parts, and she made a filter bracelet for herself. “My endeavour is to perfect the pieces without losing the character of the material and to let the imperfections of handcrafted beauty stand out. If a necklace or bangle breaks, I ask my clients to bring it to our studio, where I turn them into a new accessory,” she says.
The next time you are looking for a laptop bag and your conscience nudges you to be eco-friendly, browse through whitenife.com, which offers over 500 socially empowering products. Their
signature line is a range of laptop bags, backpacks, and ties, made from recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. Sonia Agarwal Bajaj, CEO and founder, whitenife.com, says, “Our campus sling bag is an impeccable combination of technology, style and comfort. It is made by recycling 20 PET bottles and saves 300 gm of CO2 per bag.”
Driven by her passion for green ecosystem, Urmi is entrepreneur Kavitha Chandran’s contribution to the booming ethical fashion industry. The label produces superior quality handbags using non-degradable plastic waste. The leather used for the straps is vegan. Urmi trains women to earn their living in Coimbatore and the adjoining areas.
Promoting the three Rs—Reduce, Reuse and Recycle—brand LoveThisStuff.com ties up with eco-friendly entrepreneurs. Founder Vatsala Kothari says, “Pieces of old clothes are mixed and matched to make bow ties, and old jeans are converted to hip sling bags.”
Working for a cause comes with its own challenges. But these young designers are taking forward the concept of going green.