Apupa slowly and meticulously spins a cocoon and one fine day emerges as a beautiful butterfly to flutter away. But what if you needed the cocoon for silk production? The butterfly would probably never see the light of day. It was this vision that disturbed Germany-based Indian fashion designer Chandra Prakash Jha. It spurred him to make silk in such a way that no silkworms would be harmed in the process. It was a collection made from this silk that we saw on display at the Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) 2021. Not only that, the collection also won him the German Sustainability Awards—Design, for this year.
Jha founded Cocccon in 2012, when after spending a decade in the Indian and international fashion market, he redirected his attention to his home state, Jharkhand. He began to work closely with organic silk farmers. “After some initial challenging years, Cocccon managed to be the world’s largest manufacturer of what we call ‘peace silk’,” he says, and explains as he sees your incredulous look, “Peace silk is the process of producing silk where the beautiful silkworm doesn’t have to give up its life. Every creature has its own uniqueness and by killing the creature we kill the unique ability they have. The world has adopted an inhumane path of business. Peace silk tries to revolutionise the concept of not killing any living creature for our greed.”
In this process, no kind of pesticide or genetic spray over leaves or trees is used. To keep silkworms safe from harmful insects or birds, large mosquito netting is attached to protect each tree where the silkworms live and breed. In some cases, bio-spray is used. Once the cocoons are ready, they are placed indoors on a bamboo platform. In the case of tussar silk, the cocoons are hung vertically from the ceiling using jute strings. In about a week, silk butterflies (moths) hatch out themselves. After checking each empty cocoon, they are forwarded to the brand’s degumming department. This is why the silk is known as peace silk or non-violent silk.And as Cocccon does not use any chemicals on the host tree for silkworms, there are also possibilities of double crop production. “Ecologically, the entire region appears significantly greener than in the past,” Jha adds.
Purn Vritt, the brand’s latest avant garde collection showcased at the LFW, is based on the ancient Indian philosophy of life where every aspect of life is related to the completion of its lifecycle. “Refined and sophisticated, with a striking edge and a luxurious spirit, it offers exquisite craftsmanship, premium materials and timeless design from Germany to the world,” says Jha, adding that the collection is a perfect blend of German Bauhaus and indigenous art from Jharkhand, where the process is completely decentralised and allows the silk farmers, spinners and weavers to work directly from their own areas.
Elaborating further on sustainable fashion making inroads into the Indian fashion spectrum, Jha says, “The percentage of sustainable clothing in India is still too small compared to developed countries. Lack of education/information has made this progress very slow. But in recent years, because of the wider reach of the internet and surge in people using social media, there has been a positive impact. Many western celebrities wearing only sustainable dresses during galas or award ceremonies have spread information about how fashion is made. More and more consumers are asking questions about how their clothing has been crafted.”