The world of fashion is following in the footsteps of the sustainable sector. Words like ethical, organic, conscious and slow are very popular on the runways and on the streets. As a slogan, it has given rise to eco-friendly movements and activists propagating brands and collections.
Is it possible to design sustainable fashion? Is it a change that will be followed by creators and consumers in the future? We think the reality is close to what we think.
The sector needs more to be called a pure, clean and green industry if it is to be blamed on our lifestyle to adopt fast fashion or creators using processing techniques like digital printing.
Anju Modi is a veteran fashion designer and she says thatSustainability is a utopian thought. When it sustains itself and doesn’t destroy the order of the planet, it’s pure. When printed in a pattern, vegetable dyeing is a beautiful technique but has some irregular shapes. When we need a lot, we use digital printing methods to mass produce.
Gen Z is demanding ethical, eco-friendly brands.
Some handcrafted products don’t use fossil fuel, but that doesn’t mean they are green. Archana Shah, who has been reviving and collaborating with textile artists for over 40 years, says that a once-nascent conversation about sustainable practices has evolved into a full-scale priority.
She says the process to cultivate and procure milkweed in the northeast is small compared to other areas. Some people are reviving old fibres like lotus and bamboo as they are stronger and softer than the contemporary ones. Shah’s book talks about how handcrafted production is inherently sustainable and how the process of production can cause pollution.
Efforts have been made to create awareness to use Indian fabrics and to create a design language. Natural dyes can be used to reduce the pollution caused by the fashion and textile industry. Whatever is good for the environment is good for the body, according to textile revivalist Lavina Baldota.
The challenge of going back to traditional practices has always been a challenge but we are able to push boundaries. Gaurang Shah is a textile designer from Hyderabad and he did a pichwai painting in patan patola, a one-of-a-kind piece. Natural dyes lead to promoting ikat in a different form.
You can’t mass producesustainability. It is difficult to afford or weave handlooms. If one adopts handloom-wear, there should be no problem with it being imperfect. The colors are natural. It is not the same as the previous one. The concept of a circular economy and sustainable lifestyle is growing in young people as they want to learn and avoid fast fashion. Someone wants to know who made their fabric. They think buying less and buying good is worth it. According to Baldota, these are the conversations one should encourage.
The affordability factor can be a problem. Sometimes we make a watered-down version of a design into a luxury prt or ready-to-wear collection so that it can reach the upper class. Homegrown weavers are used to create patterns. The artisans earn a living by making this. Modi believes that an all-sustainable world is about sustaining all these values and the craftsmen work so that it’s a win-win for all.
Indians are closer to their traditional roots and know how to recycle more effectively than the West. It means one has to stop using fast fashion or synthetic fashion which is equally bad for the country and the heritage when people say they want to wear sustainable clothing. According to Ritu Kumar, the idea of preservation and recycling is ingrained in the country.
Our country is the only one that has a lot of patronage for crafts. It didn’t go into museums. Many craftsmen have abandoned their crafts because we must not stop supporting and marketing traditional crafts. Western concepts include throwing or not recycling. It’s not sustainable. We create patch work sarees or cut old designs to make a new one in order to support the concept of sustainable living. Kumar says that it is a myth to say that the world can be sustainable.
What is it that makes traditional crafts and textiles popular? Modi says, “If we keep on using them in an eclectic way, there is enough demand created, we can give more work to the artisans, and so economic development can happen in the region.”
She shows an example of a fabric that has been in the spotlight for a long time. It goes on for a long time. You can wear the product for many years if you want to preserve it and give it to the next generation. It gives value for money even though it is expensive. It is possible for workers and labourers to get work from home and teach techniques to the next generations if they are willing to work from home. Modi, who takes 200 hours to make a couture outfit and feels slow living and slow fashion are sustainable, feels that a similar adoption and acceptance need to be done for other handlooms and handicrafts.
The amount of plastic waste needs to be calculated. Shah said that one never bought 200 pairs of clothes. Slow fashion is where you don’t buy much and the best. Power looms have a similar look and feel to handlooms. We need all kinds of production so it’s not against the other. The world can’t be dressed by handlooms. Different kinds of fabric are needed. Natural dyes can be used to make power looms lesspolluting. Shah says that people might have a variety of handcrafted scarves within their wardrobe.
Handmade production uses more hands and is not an organised sector. There are still handcrafted products that don’t use fossil fuel. People are starting to realize what is happening to children and the environment. Changes to processes and thoughts are being brought about by small initiatives.
Farmers in the Himalayan region are using natural dyes to make their waste water toxic free so that it can be used to grow vegetables. In Kutch, a village has stopped using naphthol dyes, which is a hazardous chemical, instead using handmade dyes or installing effluent treatment plants for waste water.
A sustainable approach to lifestyle is being adopted by companies and consumers after the Pandemic. There is a lot of awareness in the fashion world, at the same time giving support to small brands, startup and independent businesses through shopping online, feels Chennai-based Malavika Shivakumar, managing director of Vastrakala, a company that designs and manufactures high-quality hand embroidered clothing
The use of social media by craftsmen has increased. People understand the value of crafts in the Pandemic. Staying in an interdependent world is something they realized. There are more youngsters involved in sustainable practices. Shivakumar says that they are creating fabric, artworks from recycled fabrics and designers as well as the brands are supportive in the process.
She says that there’s still a need to be aware of what’s left behind.
The fashion industry, one of the major polluting industries in the world, has made the production and distribution of the crops, fibers, and garments used in fashion contribute to different forms of environmental pollution.
Fast fashion refers to quick and affordable trends available to consumers, and mass production combined with cheap labour makes clothes cheaper, but the amount of waste produced is huge. The share of the carbon budget could jump to 26% if the fashion sector continues on its current trajectory. According to the foundation, more than $500 billion of value is lost every year due to under utilization of clothing.
As it recycles post consumer waste and post cutting scraps to new fabrics, upcycling factory waste into short limited edition collection benefits. We have been led to believe that fashion creates waste in industries such aslogistics and animal farming. A kilogram of cotton used more than 10,000 litres of water. Cotton production uses pesticides at a higher rate than the rest of the world. When we consume fresh cotton, we use a lot of water and add pesticides and other chemicals which end up in the water. Every year, 70 million trees are cut to make plant-based fibre. 343 million oil barrels are used by fashion to make plastic fabrics.
A sustainable fashion brand that creates season-less well finished garments upcycles waste to create accessories, soft furnishings and paper to make packaging or stationery products. Instead of using more natural resources to create fresh material, we should recycle or upcycle what we already have. The carbon footprint of each product that travels back and forth between production, packaging, warehousing, quality checking before it reaches the store shelf or consumer is reduced by working locally.
The brand’s waste is converted into accessories, soft furnishings, and paper to make products. The packaging for the pieces and fabrics is plastic free.
Many couturiers have changed their designs to make luxury buying sustainable. It takes a long time to make a couture piece. “Our patrons don’t buy us today and throw away a month and a year later,” says fashion designerJJ Valaya, whose brand is accessible bridge-to-luxury line based on occasion wear with nearly 80% of the collection made using sustainable, eco-friendly fabrics with Tencel Luxe
Tarun uses a lot of cottons in ready to wear clothing. Digital printing is used to reduce pollution. Our brides are taught how to re- style and wear their bridal wear. I don’t believe that sustainable fashion is a fad as the world is in need. A lot of talk of sustainable fashion is just an eyewash and brands jump on to the bandwagon.
Falguni andShane Peacock, known for their luxury brands and collection, say that sustainable investment is in a garment that one is able to wear over and over again, in multiple styles and combinations. A sustainable lifestyle starts with small everyday steps. The designers say they try to give each garment a design language that will never go out of style.