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sitanshi talati-parikh

sitanshi talati-parikh

Tag Archives: Eco-friendly

The Price of Sustainability

14 Friday Jun 2019

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

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Chindi, Eco-friendly, Econyl, Nadiya Paar, Sustainability, Sustainable Fashion, Verandah

Published: The Voice of Fashion, June 13, 2019

Working for the sustainability industry may be a noble choice but it is an ongoing struggle for those who must also make it commercially viable

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A label or company that offers sustainable products or services has many challenges in a consumer world that is still unclear about the need for sustainability. These include agreeable pricing, finding suitable collaborators, marrying retail expectations with sustainable production cycles, raising awareness, and through it all, making ends meet.

Here Mumbai-based founders of Chindi, Nadiya Paar and Verandah, who are trying to make a difference with their entrepreneurial ventures on how they negotiate the odds.

 

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Chindi

The Pricing Bubble

An enterprise driven by sustainability has to deal with the lack of awareness about what goes into creating a sustainable product, and consequently, the rationale behind its higher price point. Chindi, a social enterprise that recycles textile waste into luxury accessories handmade by low-income craftswomen in India, finds that sustainability is still a niche space. Says founder Tanushri Shukla, “It’s also difficult to compete with fast fashion brands who have changed customers’ perception of how much products should rightfully cost.” This renders the retail of sustainable products difficult, with the consumer unwilling to absorb the cost.

Therefore, such an enterprise may not always be profitable—and seeing this prevents other entrepreneurs from taking the leap. Also, there is no benefit from a funding standpoint—as Shukla points out, with social enterprises not being legal entities in India, they do not get the same benefits available to non-profit organisations.

On the other hand, Anjali Patel-Mehta, founder of resort label Verandah, finds that while the concept of a sustainably-made garment is not understood by many, it is being used as a marketing device. Thus, there is a blurring in the minds of a consumer.

Patel-Mehta struggles to replace her luxury staples like cotton and silk with more sustainable fabric alternatives which have the same texture but are not as taxing on the environment (cotton, for example, requires a great deal of water in its production). She also stresses the need for industry-certified sustainable vendors.

One of the biggest challenges faced by conscious designers is the slow and limited production cycles. Says Megha Kanera of Nadiya Paar, that specialises in handloom saris, “A big challenge is the pace of the ethical industry versus fashion cycles. A piece takes a great deal of effort to produce and stores want new products every four-six months.”

 

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Verandah

The Impact of Change

Shukla feels that change doesn’t have to come from the customers as much as from non-sustainable brands making their money by flogging cheap products that exploit their labour force. She says, “They are the ones who have conditioned customers and their voice is loud—so that should be the first point of change. Customers, on their part, would benefit from building a sense of empathy and awareness about what goes into making and selling handmade, sustainable products.”

But as awareness slowly rises about the searing need for a sustainability conversation, more brands begin to buy into the philosophy, automatically increasing the scale, acceptance, and viability of the sustainability dialogue. For example, Verandah didn’t start out as a conscious label. Patel-Mehta says, “Initially we didn’t stress on sustainable textiles. As our awareness grew about the ‘true cost’ of fashion, we felt it imperative to have sustainable practices.” Today, Verandah’s RTW (ready-to-wear) lines speak the language of upcycling, azo-free dyes and mindful fabrics, while their eco-friendly swimwear line, launched this summer, mostly uses ECONYL® yarn, regenerated from waste materials.

 

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Nadiya Paar

Making Sustainability Work

Shukla started Chindi in response to witnessing first-hand the vast quantities of tailoring waste dumped in Deonar (Mumbai), Asia’s largest landfill. Says Shukla on the motivation to keep going, “It is all on the belief that the work is making an impact. The word ‘chindi’ (which means thrift), which was once considered a negative thing, has now entered the daily parlance of designers.

She also points out that, “As social entrepreneurs, we cannot always measure our success in the same terms that a commercial entrepreneur does. Money may not always flow in, but the impact goes beyond money. We need to pay attention to our stories of change as much as our bank balances.”

Patel-Mehta, who believes she still has a long way to go, says, “I think success is in the efforts and goal-based approach by setting small metrics for your personal philosophy. There is no finish line.”

At the end of the day, the strongest impact is in building a mindful community. Kanera, who shares best practices—like the brand’s seed tags—with her fellow designers, puts it best when she says, “We share vendor or material detail with other labels who now use a similar concept. I also travel with fellow designers to craft hubs so we can give combined bigger orders to weavers to make it viable for them. We do not treat anyone as competition, rather as people working and walking in the same direction.”

Sustainable Indian Weddings. Really?

11 Saturday May 2019

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

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Eco-friendly, Indian Weddings, Opinion, Sustainability, Sustainable Luxury, The Voice of Fashion

Published: The Voice of Fashion, May 9, 2019, Opinion piece

More than 10 million weddings take place in India each year, but how many of them would ever be eco-friendly?

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Have you ever heard of a muted desi (local) celebration? Or, the words: “I am getting married, but it’s not really a big deal.” That’s not the way India rolls. The grand cinema of weddings is a metaphor for life. It tells the world that this is so big, that it cannot, will not, and should not fail. In this ode to matrimony lies the foreplay of the bride and bridegroom. They are made to feel so special—nothing is bigger than them at this moment, nothing can trump this card. Certainly not environmental concerns.

The Indian wedding market is estimated at approximately ₹33,000 crores, the world’s second-largest, after the US market; while growing at an estimated 20 per cent a year, the Hindu Business Line reported in 2017. The same article reports that an average Indian spends an estimated one-fifth of their wealth accumulated in a lifetime on weddings.

Weddings are largely—like most luxury purchases—what you want to communicate to the world about yourself. And as the Amazon Prime series Made in Heaven (2019) suggests, weddings are a societal farce, a suggestive discourse on tradition and morality that lends itself to deep hypocrisy. As the video documenter of these weddings, Kabir Basrai (played by Shashank Arora), asks in the show—why is this the biggest moment of a woman’s life? As if everything she is and has done leads up to this point? It’s who you are, as a person, sure, but particularly, it is your standing in society. Royal, regal, rich and very unsustainable.

According to a 2016 story published by Fashion United, a UK-based fashion industry network site, as per industry estimates, in the top 15 Indian cities people usually spend between two to 20 million rupees for three to five days of extensive celebrations, from mehendi, sangeet, haldi, baraat and pheras to bidai. The immense cost to the environment to generate the orchestra of the grand wedding, including but not limited to the intricate invitations, wasted food, elaborate décor including fountains, stages and mandaps, services flown down from various parts of the world, heavy use of non-biodegradable products including plastic (think of the many barely-consumed bottles of water) and fabric (synthetic and otherwise) drown sense and sensibility.

A great start would be for Indian parents to forget the number of weddings they may have attended and curate a guest list comprising a select few, while simultaneously restricting the affair to a single event. And in a fell sweep, reducing the burden of ‘the biggest party they would ever throw’.

If a host would dare to change the mindset that organic is not skimping on the finery, then sourcing local, bio-degradable elements or going au naturel and keeping it minimalistic would be de rigueur. Couples in America have been reported to be open to second-hand garments and opting for no-paper-or-plastic and zero-waste catering. For the invitations, choosing recycled or seed paper, or sending e-vites. Perhaps one could give up gold-silver-and-bone-china gifts in favour of an eco-friendly registry (or accept donations to a charitable or sustainable organisation) and mindful favours.

The Fashion United article also suggested that the average clothing budget for an Indian wedding is $375,500 (₹26,257,197) and up to 80per cent of a designer’s business comes from bridal couture. In 2017 The Economic Times, a business daily, reported that weddings could save costs by renting outfits and jewellery. The most ethical and sustainable option for jewellery is vintage or heirloom, even if redesigned and updated in style. After all, ethically-made jewellery from lab-grown diamonds and recycled metal are better alternatives than new jewels, which bear the burden of mining.

Perhaps wearing a sari that is not brand new to even your own offspring’s wedding would make a statement—that the environment and their future on this planet matter.

While the lack of knowledge about the heavy carbon footprint of celebrations plays a role in choices being made, one could argue that in India particularly, the environment would not be a factor in the decisions. Also, as suggested by Viswanathan Raghunathan in Games Indians Play: Why We Are the Way We Are, socially, Indians are not primed to think about the greater good versus the private need. Savings, loans and investments are considered for education, marriage and health, and among certain income groups, marriage trumps all the others. If only marriage could be evaluated as a meaningful relationship with a person and the environment we live in—low-key, natural and organic, subtle and meaningful, like life and love should be—perhaps we could visualise an eco-friendly wedding in India. Until then, the industry just grows in the most unsustainable fashion.

Crafting Wearables: Fashion’s New Frontier

24 Wednesday Oct 2018

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

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3D Garments, ArtEZ, Eco-friendly, Fabric From Waste, Interactive Clothing, Lab-grown Leather, Stella McCartney, Sustainability, Sustainable Fashion, Wearable Solar

Published: Biology, Technology, Fashion in The Voice of Fashion, October 24, 2018

It’s a time of grand intersections, and we could soon be wearing garments that were once alive in some form or could charge your mobile on the go

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Fashion’s new frontier is taking nature’s methodology and applying it to create new materials in an interdisciplinary approach, moving organically towards possibilities and dynamic solutions to problems that are rife in the fashion industry today, including waste, over-production and non-biodegradable materials.

The first manifestation of the collaboration between British designer Stella McCartney and California-based biotech company, BOLT Threads, using manmade vegan silk, Microsilk, was on display at The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, ‘Items: Is Fashion Modern?’ earlier this year. A similar garment is currently on view in, ‘Fashioned From Nature’, at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum until January 27, 2019.

“We live in a very special time in history, a rare time, a time when the confluence of four fields is giving designers access to tools we’ve never had access to before. These fields are computational design, allowing us to design complex forms with simple code; additive manufacturing, letting us produce parts by adding material rather than carving it out; materials engineering, which lets us design the behaviour of materials in high resolution; and synthetic biology, enabling us to design new biological functionality by editing DNA,” said American–Israeli architect, designer, and professor at the MIT Media Lab, Neri Oxman, at a TED 2015 event.

Traditionally, scientists would initiate innovations in materials, fabrics, or technology, after which, designers would step in. “This is not a very productive and effective way of collaboration—since the designer can help direct scientific innovation towards a desirable product,” says Jose Teunissen, the curator for the recently-concluded State of Fashion 2018 exhibit in Arnhem, Netherlands. Teunissen, who is also a Professor of Fashion Theory at the University of the Arts London and Dean of London College of Fashion, explains, “As scientists and designers start to work on the challenges with the aim to make the planet and our living better, they both work from their own expertise, while also learning to collaborate at an early stage, learning each other’s’ language and philosophy to understand that both disciplines have specific knowledge that can contribute to a solution.”

One of the interdisciplinary and collaborative projects showcased at the State of Fashion 2018, ‘The Future of Living Materials’, started from the observation that designers have begun working with new kinds of biomaterials, such as mycelium, fruit leather, or with bacteria that produce colour. “We believe that fashion is in dire need of more value-based critical thinking as well as critical (design) practices to explore, disrupt, redefine and transform the system. In addition, we believe that research through artistic and creative practices leads to new insights regarding urgent societal challenges,” says Dr Danielle Bruggeman, Professor of Fashion, at the ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem.

Picking some innovative collaborations in the fashion industry:

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Pauline van Dongen’s wearable solar garments

Wearable Solar Garments
Dutch designer Pauline van Dongen has designed a range of garments as a part of the on-going collaborative research project ‘Wearable Solar’, which aims to create garments that can harness the sun’s energy. It is designed with transformable silhouettes, where side panels that contain the arrays of solar cells can be folded towards the body. A smartphone can be connected using the cable in one of the side pockets. In bright sunlight, it will be fully charged in roughly two hours. In a practical application, Van Dongen and sustainable clothing brand Blue LOOP Originals have also designed a garment that could provide tour guides with solar energy and shelter them from the wind and water.

Lab-grown Leather
Modern Meadow, a New York startup, has been experimenting with cultured animal cells and tissues to create an alternative biomaterial to traditional leather. This lab-grown leather could offer a more sustainable alternative and could eliminate defects generally seen in leather while controlling properties such as durability, elasticity, strength and water resistance. Meanwhile, Dutch product designer, Tjeerd Veenhoven, has invented AlgaeFabric, an H&M Global Change Award winner 2015, through which vegan leather can be made from algae, which by their nature form a sustainable source.

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Mycelium Materials
Dutch company Fungi Fashion combines 3D technology with mycelium (mushroom roots), producing custom-made clothes out of this new natural fibre that is sustainably grown in a lab. Once worn out, the garments can be simply buried in the ground to decompose. MycoTEX, as the fabric is known, by NEFFA, is 100 per cent biodegradable and is an H&M Global Change Award winner. Earlier this year, BOLT Threads released a material called Mylo, grown in New York by the biomaterials company Ecovative, made from mycelium cells dyed with English Breakfast tea, which forms the base material for leather bags.

Fabric from Food Waste
Innovative fabrics have been developed putting to use waste from the food industry. For example, discarded Amazonian freshwater fish skin becomes leather by Brazilian luxury brand, Osklen. Italian silk manufacturer, Canepa, has created the SAVEtheWATER® Kitotex® project in partnership with CNR-ISMAC Biella, where the polymer from the exoskeleton of shrimp forms the fibre. The Italian company, Orange Fiber, winner of the H&M Global Change Award 2016, has created sustainable fabrics from citrus juice by-products that would otherwise be thrown away—Salvatore Ferragamo is the first fashion house to employ Orange Fiber fabrics. UK-based eco-fashion designers VIN + OMI have been focusing on eco-processes and textile development since 2004, including a plant-based textile ‘leather’ made from chestnuts.

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Digital Fabrication and 3D
Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato’s ‘Freedom’ collection created a system by using digital fabrication that allows various materials—like cotton, wool, and nylon—to be combined freely, without the use of needles and threads. Unlike the usual method of making sewn clothes, the 3D Unit Constructed Textile can be adjusted to the size and shape of a garment to create a precise fit to the wearer’s figure.

Meanwhile, a dress from avant-garde Dutch designer, Iris van Herpen’s Spring 2018 haute couture collection, ‘Ludi Naturae’, is made from innovative material ‘foliage’, the result of a collaboration with the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in which leaf-like patterns are 3D printed as thin as 0.8 mm. Then tulle is laid into the 3D printer to print directly onto the fabric, creating exceptional softness.

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The Future Footwear Foundation develops alternative ways of footwear that are sustainable for the environment and body. Shoes usually do not reflect the natural shape of your feet. 3D-printed and made-to-measure footwear—inspired by indigenous handcrafted footwear like the Kolhapuri chappal—are slated to be out in the market by the end of this year, commercialised by Vivobarefoot, London, U.K.

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Interactive Clothing
Canadian designer, Ying Gao, focuses on the relationship between the wearer and the garment, as well as the relationship with one’s environment, in ‘Possible Tomorrows’. A design was developed from a series of algorithms associated with the realm of pattern recognition. Her interactive dresses respond to the touch of others; the material is only activated in the presence of strangers whose fingerprints are not recognised by the material—latently addressing notions of privacy and individualism.

 

In Search of the Elusive Eco-Friendly Garment

12 Wednesday Sep 2018

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

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Eco-friendly, Fashion, Fashion Retailers, Fashion Revolution, Natural Dyes, Sustainability, Sustainable Fashion, The Voice of Fashion, Upcycling

Published: The Voice of Fashion, September 12, 2018

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The grande dame of fashion, British designer, Vivienne Westwood, said it simply to Newsbeat at London Fashion Week a few years ago: “Buy Less, Choose Well, Make It Last.”

Fashion is the biggest pollutant in the world after oil: clothing consumption produces 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per household per year—the equivalent of driving 6000 cars—as noted by the environmental documentary film, RiverBlue. 2700 litres of water are consumed in the production of a single T-shirt. Since countries with large fabric- and apparel-making industries rely mainly on fossil fuels for energy production, it is estimated that making 1 kilogram of fabric generates an average of 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases, as noted in a 2016 McKinsey article, Style That’s Sustainable.

There is a lack of transparency from luxury brands as well as fast fashion brands. For instance, it is not the case that paying more for clothes equals workers being paid well or given good working conditions.

What then makes a garment sustainable and how does a conscious consumer find one?

To begin with, research your favourite brands online to find out how they fare on the Fashion Transparency Index provided by UK-based global movement Fashion Revolution. The checklist below, while not comprehensive, helps understand the ways in which a garment impacts the world and what you can do to make better choices. Many labels noted below fall into multiple categories, but have been listed only once to avoid repetition.

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Natural Dyes or AZO-Free Chemical Dyes 
Toxic chemical dyes that contain Azo and fabric dyes heavy in lead, mercury and cadmium can reportedly cause cancer and sensory loss in humans and kill marine life. Look for garments that are made with natural dyes (using plant, insect or mineral bases), which are also healthier for the skin. Naturally-dyed garments must be handled carefully—they age and fade with time, so it is best to wash them in cold water with reetha (soap nut) or a mild detergent. Indian brands like Maku, Crow and Naushad Ali among others use natural dyes, while labels like Tilla also work with Azo-free chemical dyes. You can also opt for kora (undyed) garments from designers like Atelier OM and Suparna Som.

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Biodegradable or Organic Fabrics
Garments made from natural sources include organic fibres spun from seeds that do not require the use of pesticides or chemicals to grow and are biodegradable. Linen—used by labels like Anavila and Padmaja—made from the fibres of the flax plant is more sustainable and stronger than cotton. That Thou Art showcases garments cut from Pochampalli Cotton which is organic and naturally dyed, while No Nasties, like the name suggests, is a fair-trade organic label. Raymond has tied up with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission to hero handspun and handwoven khadi, while Anita Dongre’s Grassroots works with eco-friendly fibres.

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Recycled and Upcycled Materials 
These include fabric spin-offs from the non-biodegradable waste that could choke our planet. For example, the fibre ‘Nylon 6’, is made from 100 percent regenerated waste materials including reclaimed fishing nets. It is used in Swedish Stockings’ pantyhose as well as luxury brand Stella McCartney’s Falabella Go Backpacks. Indian label Doodlage’s entire collection is made from industrial waste and recycled materials. Whereas 11.11/eleven.eleven has a refurbished line which restores naturally-dyed indigo garments from their collections that didn’t make the first cut. Payal Khandwala makes accessories from recycled studio waste.

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Handcrafted
Buying from local artisans and groups encourages diversity and grass-roots level craftsmanship including that of weavers, dyers and embroiderers. Many Indian designers are going back to the loom for weaving fabric (like Akaaro by Gaurav J Gupta, Raw Mango, Injiri and Tahweave), exploring artisanal embroidery techniques (like Pero and Sabyasachi) or printing (like Poochki, Anokhi). During Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort ‘18’s Sustainable Fashion Day, north-eastern designers showcased collaborative collections reviving local crafts.

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Low Carbon Footprint Including Energy Consumption 
Designers like Soham Dave have made the low carbon footprint of clothing a part of their manifesto. His Ahmedabad-based sustainable eponymous label uses negligible electricity in the manufacturing process, which is entirely by hand.

Fair Wages and Working Conditions
Look for labels that establish higher labour and environmental standards for suppliers and set up mechanisms to make supply chains more transparent. Behno was founded in New York by Shivam Punjya to improve the situation of female artisans in Gujarat with an ethical garment factory, MSA Ethos. Designer Samant Chauhan works for the cause of his native Bhagalpur (in Bihar) master weavers, Gaurang Shah works with over 700 weavers across India and The Goodloom By GOCOOP enables handloom cooperatives and artisans to connect directly with consumers. Eka works with reliable supply chains across various parts of the country. Globally, the software company EVRYTHNG and packaging maker Avery Dennison have together launched an effort to tag clothing so consumers can trace how individual items were produced all along the supply chain.

Waste and Toxicity Management
Fashion waste comes from water, fabric, materials and energy. Tencel®, a fabric by Austrian company Lenzing, is made from sustainably-harvested trees in a ‘closed-loop’ production cycle that recycles almost 100 percent of solvent. Rajesh Pratap Singh’s androgynous garments use Tencel. Labels like Purvi Kabra, Kishmish and Ka-Sha believe in zero fabric waste, and use all the fabric scrap towards garments or accessories.

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Classic and Seasonless
‘The average person buys 60 percent more items of clothing and keeps them for about half as long as was the case 15 years ago,’ noted last year’s Greenpeace report, ‘Fashion At Crossroads’. Invest in well-crafted classics and have a timeless appeal, and create new looks with layered clothing. Scandinavian designers have mastered functional garments, while local labels like Door of Maai and UK shirt brand that is made in India, Badger Badger, believe in trend-less clothing which is sustainable.

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Eco-Friendly Packaging
While most sustainable designers avoid plastic and recycle their fabric scrap into bags, some go the extra mile. Eco-ethical label Nadiya Paar’s price tags can be planted, which will grow into marigold plants, while Canadian eco-ethical brand, Matt and Nat (started by a vegan Indian) has tags that can be used as bookmarks.

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Retailers 
While it is easiest to buy directly from sustainable designers online, reducing the retail footprint, curated stores like Janaki in Puducherry, Goa-based Paperboat Collective and Sasha’s Shop, Delhi’s Vayu at Bikaner House, Cinnamon, Raintree and Indelust in Bengaluru, Amethyst in Chennai, Byloom in Kolkata, Good Earth Sustain and Nicobar make an effort towards stocking sustainable products. Slow-fashion moving pop-ups like Pause For A Cause bring together young artisanal labels in a single space.

Disclaimer: The brand-related facts in this article, especially those with regards to fair wages and working conditions, are as reported by the labels and not verified by the publication.

A Truly Green Wardrobe

10 Saturday Feb 2018

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

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Bionic Yarn, Eco-friendly, Econyl, Fashion, Hemp, Linen, Mint Lounge, Recca, Stella McCartney, Sustainability, Sustainable Fashion, Tencel, Textiles and Fabrics

Published: Mint Lounge, February 10, 2018 Edition

Seaweed dresses, pineapple handbags and pantyhose made of recycled plastic—a lexicon of innovative eco-friendly fabrics

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From reclaimed fishing nets to algae biomass, and fungi fabric to banana fibre cloth, fashion has a new yarn to spin, and it’s singing a biodegradable tune. Eco-friendly fabrics are not only good for the environment, they also feel great because they are natural, non-toxic and breathable. Eco-fashion stems from sustainable sources, it includes fibres that do not require the use of pesticides or chemicals to grow, as well as biodegradable or fabric spin-offs from the non-biodegradable waste that is choking our planet. Lounge lists 13 fabrics that make the cut.

Bamboo Fabric

Bamboo fabric has come a long way from corset bones of the past. The fabric is durable, drapes well and absorbs moisture, while harvesting of bamboos is sustainable for the planet. London-based Thought and Asquith, Australian brand Shift to Nature and Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica use bamboo fabric; locally, it is used in Naushad Ali’s designs. A variant called Bamboo Charcoal is created by processing the charcoal from heated bamboo and mixing it with fabrics using nanotechnology.

Bionic Yarn

It is recycled polyester made from recovered waste, particularly from the oceans. Plastic bottles from trash are collected, broken down, shredded into fibres and spun into core yarn; then, this is woven into an eco-friendly fabric. Musician Pharrell Williams joined forces with the team behind Bionic Yarn and it led to initiatives like “Raw For The Oceans” with G-Star Raw denims.

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Ultra Bloom shoes.

Bloom Foam

Algae in your shoes? No fear, Bloom has the world’s first plant-based, performance-driven foam formulated with algae biomass, using renewable feedstock. Noticed in a capsule collection of shoes by London-based Vivobarefoot, which states on its blog that each pair of these Ultra Bloom shoes will also help recirculate 57 gallons of filtered water back into natural habitats.

‘Cork Skin’

It is extracted from the cork oak tree, what Portuguese brand Pelcor calls “cork skin”, a natural, biodegradable and recyclable resource. The company offers accessories like bags, hats and shoes made out of cork.

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A Falabella Go backpack by Stella McCartney.

Econyl® Yarn

An innovative regenerated fibre, “Nylon 6” is made from 100% regenerated waste material, including reclaimed fishing nets. From Swedish Stockings’ pantyhose to luxury brand Stella McCartney’s Falabella Go Backpacks, a number of brands use this yarn in items like swimwear, sportswear and hosiery. Bloni showcased a line of Spring/Summer wear glorifying Econyl® at the recently concluded Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) in Mumbai.

Hemp

It’s an ancient fibre dating back to 8,000 BC, but it has remained on the fringe. A decade ago, Donatella Versace used a hemp-silk fabric for a gown, while Calvin Klein created a hemp-based pantsuit for the FutureFashion show at the New York Fashion Week. The durable and strong fabric comes from the fibres of the herbaceous plant of the species, Cannabis sativa, a high-yield crop. A hemp blend would look like linen, softening over time. Currently seen in American apparel brands like Bad Decision Adventure Club and Patagonia.

Linen

One of the earliest fibres known to man, the Europeans’ favourite textile was at one point used as a form of currency. Made from the fibres of the flax plant, it has been favoured for bedsheets and tablecloths. There is a value attached to vintage linen as it softens over time—it is stronger than cotton and can last for decades. Anavila Misra has made linen a hero with her handwoven saris, and Padmaja Krishnan uses linen in her handwoven fabrics.

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Products using Pinatex.

Piña Fabric

Made from the discarded leaves of the pineapple plant, it is malleable, and can be combined with silk or polyester to create a textile fabric. A cheaper alternative to leather, it can morph into anything from crocodile skin to glittering gold. UK-based Carmen Hijosa’s textile line Ananas Anam has made “Piñatex” chic; the ivory, glossy fabric is also used by Filipino brides for wedding dresses.

R | Elan™

Showcased in designer Anita Dongre’s Songs Of Summer collection at the LFW, R | Elan™ GreenGold is a fabric innovation from Reliance Industries that uses specially engineered fibres. GreenGold is made from 100% used plastic bottles and has a low carbon footprint.

Recca®

Made from pre- and post-consumer waste, it stands for recycled cotton and is manufactured by the Tamil Nadu-based Anandi Enterprises. Sohaya Misra’s label Chola showcased Recca® for the LFW Winter/Festive 2017 initiative “Restart Fashion”, with a monochrome palette and soft, layered silhouettes.

SeaCell®

It’s a fibre made from a mix of ground natural seaweed and wood cellulose, which locks the nutritious properties of seaweed into a wearable fabric. While manufacturers claim that the skin can absorb these nutrients, it depends on the quantity of seaweed in the mix. Made by German company Smartfiber AG, it can be seen in Lululemon Athletica’s VitaSea line of sportswear.

SoyBean Fabric

Also known as “vegetable cashmere”, it is made from fibres that are spun from the waste of the soy food industry, like the hulls of soybean. American designer Linda Loudermilk, considered a pioneer of eco-luxury, used this biodegradable fabric in her brand Luxury Eco years before it became cool to do so.

Tencel®

Last week, the LFW had a gently floating Tencel® chandelier installation in the heart of JioGarden in Mumbai that will be recycled. Produced by Austrian textile group Lenzing, the fabric is commonly known as lyocell. While viscose, rayon, modal and lyocell are all made from plant cellulose, the same fabrics produced by Lenzing are made from sustainably-harvested trees in a “closed-loop” production cycle that recycles almost 100% of solvent. It has a soft, smooth finish, drapes well and absorbs moisture. Skinny denims by Los Angeles-based DSTLD, mini-dresses by American slow-fashion brand Reformation and Rajesh Pratap Singh’s androgynous garments flaunt Tencel®.

We are watching out for the next-gen Refibra™ fibres that will go a step further in recycling cotton scraps left over from the lyocell production process, in a bid to eliminate all waste.

|  Filling the gaps between words.  |

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