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sitanshi talati-parikh

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Tag Archives: Doodlage

The Story Of Scrap

19 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Fashion & Style, Publication: The Voice of Fashion, Sustainability

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Chiharu Shiota, Doodlage, Fashion, Ka-Sha, Kishmish, Scrap, Sustainability, Sustainable Fashion, Tenant of Culture, The Voice of Fashion, Tilla

Published: The Voice of Fashion, September 19, 2018

Few zero-waste fashion labels are giving discarded fabric a new lease of life

Screen Shot 2018-09-22 at 1.59.09 PMBanner photo, from left to right: Doodlage, Tilla, Ka-sha by Karishma Shahani Khan

While consumer waste and the need to upcycle and recycle are ongoing and pertinent dialogues, how do designers in the fashion industry set a standard by being thrifty with the waste from their own manufacturing process? Scrap may be defined as the textile remnants left behind during the design and manufacturing of garments. In the garment districts of Dhaka, the jhut are left in go-downs (where fires are a regular occurrence), sold at the curb, dumped reaching landfills, or burned, causing immense pollution. Kriti Tula, of the upcycling label, Doodlage points out: “Approximately 120 billion square metres of fabric end up as waste in India, China, Bangladesh alone, and this does not include garment rejections during quality checks. Considering cotton takes one to five months to decompose while polyester sits around for 200 years, fabric scraps need to be managed better.” On an average, the Delhi-based Doodlage upcycles up to 600 kilograms of waste fabric every month—working with post-cutting waste, fabrics discarded for small defects and rejected garments.

The Art of Upcycling
All garments are cut from fabrics which come in rectangular panels, leading to up to 16 percent of the fabric being thrown away in cutting and stitching processes. This is the raw material for designers keen on saving resources that would have otherwise gone into the production of virgin fabrics. Karishma Shahani Khan, the founder of Pune-based label Ka-Sha believes in negligible waste in an endeavour termed ‘Heart to Haat’. She uses fabric waste extensively in embroidery, footwear, patchwork, stuffed toys, macramé and bags; reaching out to friends and other designers in the industry for their scrap as well. When clients come to Shahani Khan for a bespoke piece, she first checks if there is anything in their wardrobe which could be reconstructed. Says the designer, “Upcycling gives something that could have lost its actual value a new meaning. It is a creative process to ensure longevity, which works best if the garments are of high quality and are made to last.”

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Designs for Longevity
Aratrik Dev Varman from the Ahmedabad-based slow-fashion label, Tilla, finds the waste from the cutting to be valuable because so much time and effort is invested into the sustainable textiles he uses for his garments. “Odd bits and pieces—like the negative spaces under the armholes or neck—tend to normally be discarded, but since we produce the fabric ourselves, we consider it precious, and we save it all.” Varman gives the scrap a new lease of life: all the fallout is immediately categorised according to colour or fabric into a ‘library of scrap’, while the design process involves parallel thinking about artfully using the textile along with the leftover bits. The designer doesn’t believe that there is any scrap that cannot be used, “Waste is the failure of the imagination,” he points out, using the mantra of Douglas McMaster, founder of a first-ever zero-waste restaurant called Silo, in Birmingham.

For the Mumbai-based duo, Rekha Bhati and Nikki Kali, from the sustainable label, Kishmish, leftover textiles—which are grouped into bundles or ‘potla-potlis’—are designed into thoughtful products, like clothing, scarves and bags, leading to a ‘Potla Potli’ collection.

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Historically, handcrafted garments were designed with thrift in mind: saris, dupattas come off the loom in that shape, styles like ponchos, anarkalis or kalidar clothes use artful cutting without waste, and in cultures like Japan, the Kimono as a garment uses narrow strips to make a whole. Austrian Lenzing Group’s innovative Refibra technology (launched last year) upcycles cotton scraps from garment production along with wood pulp into Tencel™ Lyocell fibres from which new clothes may be made—brands like Zara and Cone Denim (USA) have begun using it.

Scraps have their own non-linear life journey, and it may not be wrong to say that the garment is richer for it. Japanese artist, Chiharu Shiota, who has created installations out of well-worn dresses (Memory of Skin, Yokohama Triennale, 2001), has said in Chiharu Shiota – Memory of Books, in conversation with James Putnam: “I am not interested in using a new dress because there are no memories or stories inside it.”

London-based Hendrickje Schimmel working under the name, Tenant of Culture, archives found or damaged pieces of anonymous clothing—and through her work, attempts to extend the longevity of the products as opposed to discarding them. She is quoted in 1 Granary, a publication by the students of Central Saint Martins saying: “[…] We live in such a remix culture. I don’t really believe in authorship and so naturally I feel that an artwork or garment should have more than one lifecycle.”

Finding the Right Balance
Evidently, post and pre-consumer scraps are one of many practices of the fashion industry which are set to have a long-term impact on our environment and the world we live in. While they make a garment textured, can scrap solve the problem of the cutting waste from the fashion industry? The duo from Kishmish, like all the others attempting to make a difference with thoughtful design, agree: “If every fashion label upcycles, it will eventually create a balance between consumption and the earth’s regenerative capacities.” Says Tula, “The situation is slowly heading towards a point of no return and the only way to effect a change is to reform the mindset of those who create as well as those who buy.”

Can Fashion Save The Planet?

09 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Fashion & Style, Publication: Elle, Sustainability

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Anavila, Doodlage, Elle India, Fashion, Gautam Vazirani, Maku, Rajesh Pratap Singh, RiverBlue, Sustainability, Sustainable Fashion, The True Cost

Published: Elle India, April 2018
(Additional images and videos added to this post.)

Designers the world over are making a slow but steady shift towards sustainable fashion, but does the average consumer know what eco-friendly fashion really is? 

 

The sobering 2017 documentary RiverBlue follows international river conservationist Mark Angelo as he brings into focus how some of the world’s key rivers are being destroyed by the mass manufacturing of clothing. Angelo asserts that any major global fashion brand uses approximately 28 trillion gallons of fresh water every year. And that hazardous chemicals like mercury, cadmium and lead from the fabric are polluting rivers that supply drinking water dyes that filter into them. These chemicals do not break down and travel around the world destroying aquatic life and causing damage to humans in the form of cancer and sensory loss.

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As consumers, we tend to chase beauty over benefits: if it looks good, it couldn’t have harmed anything on its way. There are no aubergine-hued pollutants in the rivers, no underage children making those sensational ruffles, and no worker was paid inadequately to sew those pastel sequins on. Are we wrong, ignorant or simply apathetic? Perhaps all of the above. The True Cost, a film on the fashion industry, brings to the forefront the materialism that drives the economy of fashion, and the heavy price that is paid for cost-effective fast fashion. Parallelly, brands are voraciously driving new trends, while discounting the previous season’s styles. How many pairs of jeans is enough, when baggy or cropped is in one month, and skinny or bootleg fit next month’s #goals? “The consumer didn’t wake up one morning, saying, ‘I want to buy five pairs of jeans.’ We were literally introduced to this concept by the fashion industry,” a commentator in RiverBlue says.

It is clear then, that of the many things it is — expressive, cathartic, good for the economy, and great for Instagram — fashion is also dangerous to the planet. Thankfully, and finally, the industry is now paying heed to its potential legacy of environmental destruction. At Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort (LFW S/R) 2018, Rajesh Pratap Singh used Tencel, a soft fabric made by Austrian textile group Lenzing. It is made from the plant cellulose of sustainably harvested trees in a ‘closed-loop’ production sequence that recycles almost 100 per cent of the solvent. Mumbai-based designer Anavila Misra (of Anavila) has made linen, created from fibres of the flax plant, shine in her subtle-hued saris. Guwahati’s Nandini Baruva (of Kirameki) uses sustainable fabric, made from banana and pineapple (pina fabric), and Eri silk (also known as Ahimsa silk) in her designs that are laced with an ethnic touch. Globally, eco-warrior designer Stella McCartney’s Falabella Go backpack, going strong since 2017, is created using recycled polyester fabric made from ocean plastic. VivoBarefoot’s shoes are made using algae biomass — each pair helps recirculate 57 gallons of filtered water back into natural habitats.

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(L) Anavila linen saris; (R) Maku natural indigo and white handwoven jamdani scarf. 

While high-street giants like H&M are exhorting you to ‘Rewear, Reuse, Recycle’, Kriti Tula, founder of upcycling relaxed fashion label Doodlage, is keen on waste-management: “Upcycling is the ethos of our brand. Each garment is created using industrial scrap, defective and end-of-the-line fabrics, which are all part of pre-consumer waste, and often end up in a landfill.”

Seven years ago, LFW began a dialogue on sustainable fashion and now dedicates a day to it each season, which focuses on grass-roots-level artisans and craftsmen, with enthusiastic participation from the country’s established and upcoming designers alike. Last season’s #RestartFashion show saw post-consumer waste-fabric makers team up with brands like Chola and Doodlage, while Craftmark by the All India Artisans And Craftworkers Welfare Association collaborated with designers like Anshu Arora, Hetal Shrivastav and Sonal Chitranshi, to showcase ethical garments that were handwoven without generating any waste.

Yvon Chouinard, founder of the outdoor gear label Patagonia, reminds his customers in The Usual, a New York-based publication with a focus on culture and the outdoors: “Think twice before you buy a product from us. Do you really need it or are you just bored, and want to buy something?” This echoes designer Santanu Das’s philosophy for his sustainable Kolkata-based brand, Maku. “Fashion is an industry, it responds to consumption patterns. You don’t need to go on a buying spree — even if the product is sustainable or organic.” Maku’s calls to action are the organic indigo dye and natural fabrics (that are essential to the brand) — its LFW S/R 2018 collection, In Transit, glorified indigo on khadi — and to limit the products on offer.

Screen Shot 2018-04-09 at 10.22.39 PMImage from Doodlage’s Instagram. Photo by: Tanvi Julka.

While fashion players are galvanising into action, consumers can and should do their part too. Gautam Vazirani, fashion curator, IMG Reliance, stresses on individual responsibility. “We are constantly trying to find the next cheapest sale, and we are not conscious about how much we really need,” he says. “In India, we are blessed with easily accessible sustainable fashion. For instance, a consumer can buy a sari made by a craftsman like Chaman Premji from Bhujodi village in Kutch that is handwoven with organic cotton and naturally dyed. Such fashion keeps the environment safe, and empowers the smallest producers in rural areas.” Today, with the rise of seasonless runways and unisex products and attire, we can make a difference by focusing on learning more about and investing in eco-friendly products and fabrics, and buying fewer but value-driven classics that will endure through time and trends.

Perhaps we should shop for a greener wardrobe because really, it is about making sustainable fashion fashionable. And that begins at home so that our heirlooms aren’t merely Chanel and Dior, but a habitable existence on earth. As Das points out, “Fashion cannot save the planet, you can.”

Say It With A Tee: The Enduring Appeal Of The Slogan Tee

01 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Fashion & Style, Publication: Mint Lounge

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Ashish Gupta, Dior, Doodlage, Fashion, Nasty Woman, Politics of Fashion, Prabal Gurung, Slogan Tee, T-shirt, Vivienne Westwood

Published: Mint Lounge, March 31, 2018 edition.
Additional images added to this post.

Giving voice to historic movements over the years, the slogan T-shirt has been a powerful canvas for activism

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Ashish Gupta’s Autumn/Winter 2018 show at the London Fashion Week.

Last month, at the London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2018, Delhi-born, London-based designer Ashish Gupta’s rainbow-hued sequinned slogan shirts took clever digs at excessive consumerism, with credit card brand names and logos rejigged into: “American Excess”, “Masturbate” and “Viva(L’Amore)”. An ongoing exhibit at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum, T-Shirt: Cult – Culture – Subversion (till 6 May), charts the T-shirt’s ability to bring about social change, via 200 iconic archival pieces.

While actor Marlon Brando may have popularized the classic tee on screen with A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), it was American Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey who used the first-ever slogan T-shirt in 1948 for his “Dew it with Dewey” presidential campaign—albeit with not much political success. Over the years, the slogan tee grew in popularity with the setting up of Disneyland and sale of their graphic tees in the 1950s, iconic pop artist Andy Warhol’s silk-screen printing technology of the 1960s, and the rise of pop music fandom (think The Rolling Stones) and anti-war protests, specifically the Vietnam War, during the 1960s.

The 1970s and 1980s were seminal for the tee out to challenge the establishment. English designer Katharine Hamnett launched politics on cotton—she met the then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984 sporting a T-shirt with an anti-nuclear message. Hamnett was quoted in The Guardian (2009): “Slogans work on so many different levels; they’re almost subliminal. They’re also a way of people aligning themselves to a cause. They’re tribal. Wearing one is like branding yourself.” British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood pushed forth her punk movement with slogan tees, while also reflecting political causes like nuclear disarmament and climate change, the latter as recent as 2013.

Westwood3
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Designer Vivienne Westwood’s call for a climate revolution.

Inevitably, the feminist ball started rolling as part of the sartorial activism. Formed in New York in 1985, Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous group of feminist activist artists fighting sexism and racism within the art world, took their poster, Advantages Of Being A Woman Artist, on to a T-shirt, among other things. The Fawcett Society, a UK-based charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, teamed up with Elle UK and the high-street chain Whistles for the This is what a feminist looks like campaign in 2014—which, incidentally, faced a pushback with questions about the ethical production of the tees by the organization.

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Dior’s ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ campaign.

Maria Grazia Chiuri opted for “We should all be feminists” for her very first collection for the French fashion house, Dior, in October 2016, restarting the politics of feminism on a T-shirt; at the recently concluded Dior Autumn/Winter 2018-19 show, the statement sweater worn by model Ruth Bell, “C’est Non, Non, Non et Non!”, was a throwback to the defiant Youthquake spirit of Paris in the 1960s, and the nascent feminist movement gathering momentum at the time. You could’ve been living under a rock and still not have missed the slogan T-shirts on the runways at the New York Fashion Week 2017, with Nepalese-American, New York-based designer Prabal Gurung’s “The future is female”, and New York-based fashion and lifestyle brand Creatures of Comfort stating, “We are all human beings.” While questions may be raised about the imperfections of the fashion industry, such as the ethical and eco-friendly production of these tees, the power of a slogan T-shirt to keep the spotlight on topics like misogyny has remained strong.

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When statements are rife, so are controversies. Just a couple of months ago, Swedish high-street label H&M created a furore with an ad featuring an African-American child donning a hooded green sweatshirt with the words, “Coolest monkey in the jungle”, while online retail firm Amazon recalled children’s clothes bearing the slogan, “Slavery gets sh-t done.”

American high-street brands are uncomfortably familiar with T-shirt controversies. Running the gamut of sensitive topics are Abercrombie & Fitch’s Asian stereotype-propagator, “Wong Brothers Laundry Service: Two Wongs will make it white” (2002), Urban Outfitters’ anorexia-promoting “Eat less” (2010), American Apparel’s borderline-paedophiliac “Teenagers do it better” (2011), and JCPenney’s anti-feminist “I’m too pretty to do homework…so my brother has to do it for me” (2011) T-shirts. Not to forget popular sportswear brand Nike running with “Gold Digging” (2012) and pro-drug terminology like “Get High” and “Dope” (2011), with their affirmative tick mark logo featured below. Conde Nast Traveller’s October-November 2016 Indian edition cover with Priyanka Chopra wearing a custom tee upset some with words like “Refugee” and “Immigrant”, forcing the actor to issue a public apology.

Katy PerryKaty Perry in a ‘Nasty Woman’ T-shirt.

The democratic garment is no stranger to political controversies either. When Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during the final presidential debate in 2016, Amanda Brinkman, founder of ethical, women-driven lifestyle products site Shrill Society (earlier known as Google Ghost), created a satirical “Nasty Woman” T-shirt while the debate was live. Her creation went viral, selling nearly 10,000 pieces overnight. It became a symbol of anti-Trump resistance, with Hillary Clinton tweeting a video of actor Will Ferrell wearing the shirt. Says Brinkman, “Being able to identify with others through visual clothing choices is a powerful way to seek out and find like-minded individuals. When Trump called Clinton a ‘nasty woman’, it resonated with women everywhere who get talked down to despite (or perhaps, because of) their intelligence, ambitions, and desires.”

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Delhi-based ethical young brand Doodlage uses slogans as a part of its fashion vocabulary. Says founder Kriti Tula, “Clothing is a means of self-expression and slogans allow you to be more vocal and expressive, and make a statement.” Besides self-expression, perhaps, the T-shirt is really a neutral canvas on which you can paint your thoughts. Unfortunately, many of the T-shirt conversation starters over the decades are still relevant today. Which makes one wonder if there is enough change happening in the world, one slogan tee at a time.

|  Filling the gaps between words.  |

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