SUSTAINABLE FASHION BRANDS

SUSTAINABLE FASHION

Sustainable fashion is referred to the fashion that are manufactured, marketed and used in the most sustainable manner possible. It takes cares of both environmental and socio-economic aspects.

It includes improvement in all the stages of the product's life cycle, from design, raw material production, manufacturing, transport, storage, marketing and final sale, to use, reuse, repair, remake, and recycling of the product and its components.

The aim of the sustainable fashion is to minimize any undesirable environmental effects of the product's life cycle by:

• ensuring efficient and careful use of natural resources.
• selecting renewable energy resources at every stage
• maximizing repair, remake, reuse and recycling of the product and its components.

From a socio economic perspective, all the sustainable brands should work to

• improve the present working conditions for workers in the factories with good ethics, best practice and international codes of conduct.
• encorouge more sustainable consumption patterns, caring and washing practices, etc.

SUSTAINABLE FASHION BRANDS

These are the brands that work towards fashion in a sustainable way. They work diligently to make a difference.

Some of them are :

 MAATI BY NEHA KABRA

Maati by Neha Kabra is a contemporary womenswear label from Udaipur, Rajasthan. It is  an environment friendly brand, verified by PETA.

As the word 'maati' signifies our roots or soil, the label completely justifies the meaning and believes in 'all of us rise from soil and dissolves in the same'. 

It is a slow fashion brand and sells their products at affordable prices so that the people can buy them easily for daily routine in a way to achieve sustainability.

The ethos of the brand is all about striking the balance between efficiency and expression. 

SUSTAINABILTY  AGENDA

Sustainability and minimum wastage is the brand's first priority at every stage of the production.

It tries to be cautious and keeps the agenda of sustainability at every step.

Watch this below video to know more about the brand :

RAW MATERIAL

The brand’s choice of raw materials formulates the majority of its sustainable practices. 

They use up-cycled and naturally dyed fabrics in their collections. The dyes and print colors are borrowed from the nature without harming it.

It outsources fabric from two clusters based out of Bengal and Bikaner.

 

They do plastic free packaging. Their tags are plantable, made out of seed paper.

“Basically if you throw my tags, there is a possibility that a plant will grow out of it. It is the best use of something which is otherwise always wasted,” says Neha, the brand owner.

They use handlooms, as it consumes less water and thus, less carbon footprint. The fabric has longer life and even when it is discarded, it just goes back to the soil, so there are no residues.

STYLE AND SILHOUETTE

The brand uses very simple, pure and effortless silhouette. It wants the customers to feel the Maati, the rawness of the Earth. 

Every garment is very functionable and wearable , though very creative. 

They produce the fabrics by their own.

As the handoperated loom sheds a lot of yarn as scrap, Maati upcycles the wasted yarns into another cotton fabric of a special count, and uses both the resultant fabrics.

LESS IS MORE

It believes in "Less in More".

Thus, it creates limited styles by giving an unique identity to each style they design. They make silhouettes which are absolutely timeless.

They don't design trendy garments that fade fast with time.

It believes in the philosophy of 'The more comfortable you are the more productive you will be'.

TECHNIQUES USED

The brand experiments with traditional Indian painting techniques in their products which are all done by hand.

Its sustainable bouquet includes primary colours such as black, taken from iron oxide; white sourced from limestone; yellow created using haldi or turmeric; blue from indigo; green from spinach and red from kumkum and  gulmohar flowers. In order to prevent the colour bleeding that accompanies natural dyes, they mix plant gums with the fabric to stick the colour to the surface, which further reduces the need for dry-cleaning, a process which is criticised by several nature lovers.

The brand does majority of its production in a small village called Gajsinghpura, and the head of the set-up takes care of this human resource.

    

PROMOTE CIRCULAR ECONOMY, 

CLOSING THE LOOP

To promote circular economy, Maati provides its customers the chance to return the worn-out products that they once bought from the brand to close the loop. 

Depending on the condition, it upcycles the garments into accessories, or gives it away to orphanages or old age homes if they are in a better condition. 

They even do small-scale collaborations that involve upcycling saris to dresses to give back to nature.

THE BRAND'S IDEOLOGY

The Brand's ideology is to grow forward but along everyone else, creating minimal wastage, and protecting the environment and staying true to their own origin and style. 

The Brand aims to make their supply chain ethical, conscious and sustainable. 

According to Neha Kabra, the brand owner, masses are educated about sustainability, and they know well about RTW fast fashion brands. She believes that people are getting aware a little bit now-a-days.

In India, three things come into play, the huge population, the consequent consumption, and 

third and most crucial point, the poverty, which leads people to buy cheaper things and become averse to adoption of sustainable fashion.

She believes  smaller initiatives like their own label are now sprouting and these will one day cause a major change.

InSom by Sajal Jain

InSom is a Kolkata-based womenswear brand owned by Sajal Jain.

It is an organic and up-cycled clothing that guarantees 100% zero-waste production. The brand is an initiative towards contemporary clothing using organic and sustainable fabrics.

It uses leftover, discarded and defective pieces of clothing and transform them into wearable,  trendy and attractive new designs.

InSom's OBJECTIVE

InSom's aim is to change the society, break down the walls between different sections, and bring people together in support of sustainable fashion. 

They try to make people aware about why they should opt of an up-cycled or organic piece of clothing above all the other options available. 

They try to focus on youth because if  sustainable fashion is made as their staple choice, we will not have to teach the future generations the importance of sustainability. They will grow up knowing it as the only way of fashion.

SUSTAINABILITY AGENDA 

The brand aims to promote ethical living, by sending no waste back to the landfills.

Insom make collections from the fabrics others discard as waste. They take those fabrics as an opportunity to make a contribution towards climate change crisis. Their designs and the process saves water and reduces air and land pollution. 

The brand wants to change the mindset of people having no idea of the the production while buying branded garments. They aim to turn people into conscious consumers. 

InSom's PRODUCTS

Their area of expertise includes recycled denims and tie and dye prints.

It produces creative wearable clothing pieces by recycling the leftovers, defected and surplus fabrics from large scale organic fabric manufacturing industries.

PRICING OF PRODUCTS

The price ranges between Rs 2,000 and Rs 12,000. They aim to make  sustainable fashion affordable so people can easily replace their wardrobe.

MY PERSPECTIVE ON SUSTAINABLE BRANDS

According to me, sustainable brands does great work and are effective. They all work in a way  to make a difference in the society, climate and the environment.

A sustainable practice/ process can never be completely sustainable because it is impossible for a brand to maintain sustainability in all the steps of the production and sale. The sustainable products have at least some negative impact on the environment. But they work on various issue and try to make a change.

I think the brand InSom does a great job by not letting go the waste ( unused fabrics, garment) into the landfills. They work on the fabrics which the people discarded as waste.

Like the brand Maati, focusses on minimum wastage and use of natural materials. This is a great effort by the brand to not harm the environment. And even the use of plastic free plantable packaging tags saves the environment, landfills and wildlife .

Many sustainable brands like Maati work on very simple silhouettes and design in their garments. According to me, they can even be more creative in the aesthetic sense by experimenting with the silhouettes, keeping the sustainability agenda undestroyed. I feel it creates more excitement in the people to buy  which eventually would result in more awareness among people towards the sustainable brands.