With business doing well, March was looking bright and promising for Ashwajeet Singh and his newly launched startup, Bekar. Keeping sustainability at its core, the 28-year-old crafted scarves fashioned from the finest cotton waste—scraps of cloth, leftover threads, yarn, and other waste material from the textile industry and export houses.
Along with a group of talented and committed weavers, Singh would also turn the waste into home decor items. In fact, the four-month-old company’s turnover in February had filled him with hope. But as COVID-19 spiralled into a global crisis, it soon upset his well-laid plans.
The lockdown posed a litmus test for his sustainable fashion startup as his weavers headed back to their villages. Soon the entrepreneur was left to his own devices. Shattered initially, he turned the tables and started converting his merchandise into face masks, which are the need of the hour.
"When the Delhi government made it compulsory to wear masks, I shuddered at the thought of how disposable or one-time use masks will end up in landfills, and the numbers will be significant," says Singh, adding, "So I started making masks from my latest scarves collection and have made a design which is functional as it covers the nose, mouth, and ears, effectively."
Instead of selling these re-usable masks for profit, Singh is exploring the idea of giving them pro-bono. He has donated some locally and is currently looking at places where he could carry the initiative forward. The entrepreneur, who believes a product is truly sustainable only if the entire cycle - from sourcing to packaging of the product—is carried out in a sustainable manner, says, "Earlier we used to make shirts, throws, scarves and the likes.The products are cruelty-free and are made sans chemicals or excess water."
Viable fashion, conscious clothing choices, and digital buying are set to be the new future of the fashion industry, is what he believes in. Once the lockdown is lifted and industries begin production, Singh is of the belief that ‘going digital’ will be the way forward for most businesses. He plans to open Bekar for direct orders via Instagram and looks forward to collaborations to sell his products, which he was solely selling through exhibitions and physical interaction with his customers until now.