At the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in 2022, a modest stall with plain, cotton T-shirts drew unexpected attention. By the end of the festival, not a single piece was unsold. Behind this venture were two young mechanical engineers: Vishnu Girija Gopal and Jithu J S, who had just begun reimagining sustainable fashion with their brand, Naeth.
What started as a side hustle has since grown into a label built on innovation, culture, and a vision for a greener future — a journey that has now led to their biggest breakthrough yet: a fabric made by recycling plastic bottles and blending them with bamboo fibres.
Vishnu and Jithu had always wanted to create something meaningful for society, even when their careers began far from fashion. “We were interested in material innovation during college, but in Kerala and even South India, this space was almost non-existent,” says Vishnu. With no prior experience, they travelled to Tirupur, the country’s textile hub, only to be told their ideas were ‘not so practical’. “But we never let that stop us,” Vishnu recalls
Balancing full-time jobs with trips to Tirupur, they worked nights and weekends to grow the idea step by step. Eventually, they quit to focus fully on their vision, even taking delivery jobs to stay afloat. That persistence paid off when they launched Naeth with just 200 pure cotton T-shirts at IFFK, selling out in two days. The response gave them both the confidence and capital to take their next leap
From the outset, Naeth stood for more than just fashion. One of their early milestones was a T-shirt printed with the phrase ‘The Sun Shines for Everyone’ in both text and 3D silicon Braille, allowing visually impaired people to read the message by touch. With that, Naeth became the first Indian brand to introduce Braille into fashion. Profits from the collection funded 400 more T-shirts and helped them establish a small unit in Tirupur.
The biggest breakthrough came when Vishnu enrolled in an MTech in renewable energy at the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram. Passionate about sustainable materials, he began researching ways to upcycle plastic into wearable fabrics — work that led to their latest innovation, ‘PET Bamboo Fabric’.
“We clean, shred, and process discarded plastic bottles into fibres, then mix them with pulp from bamboo stems to create a breathable, durable fabric. Each T-shirt repurposes 10 to 12 bottles,” says Vishnu.
The fabric made its debut at the Kerala Innovation Festival in Kochi, where it drew immediate attention. To underline the ‘waste-to-fashion’ idea, they also organised a beach clean-up at Veli in Thiruvananthapuram, collecting and separating PET bottles. The next clean-up will see volunteers wearing T-shirts made from those very bottles.
“The fabric meets Global Recycle Standard parameters and has passed biomedical tests for safety and durability. It’s soft like virgin polyester but releases fewer microplastics,” Jithu adds.
For both, Naeth is as much about community as clothing. Their first production featured designs from seven artists, from Technopark employees to college students across Kerala. “We want to grow as a brand, but also give artists a platform to grow with us,” says Jithu. Today, a team of 12 — from architecture graduates to business professionals — carries the mission forward.
With Onam approaching, Naeth is launching a special upcycled collection on September 4, featuring Balaramapuram handloom sarees and mundus reworked as co-ord sets and oversized T-shirts. Later this month, the PET Bamboo Fabric collection will officially drop, marking a milestone for both the brand and the state’s fashion landscape.
“Plastic is one of the world’s biggest problems. We can’t fix it overnight, know we can’t clean it all up overnight, but we can take small steps,” says Vishnu. “If segregated properly, Kerala alone could produce 10,000 to 20,000 T-shirts a day from recycled bottles.”
Naeth’s products are available at Tangerine Lane in Thiruvananthapuram, Lila Art Café in Kochi, and at naeth.in.