FREEDOM WITH FABRIC
Sanah Sharma, 28, Chennai The designer who successfully brought luxury and sustainability together
While doing research for her final examinations at design college, Sanah Sharma devised a technique to cut clothes that not only eliminated waste, but also brought down the quantity of the fabric required by 40 per cent.
The reason Sanah started doing research in the sphere was because she felt, as a designer, she didn’t see any new silhouettes being created. “I was only seeing a lot more innovation in material; the ways we were making the garments remained pretty much the same. It felt pretty monotonous and I wanted to find newer ways of making things. That’s when I came across renowned pattern cutter Prof. Julian Roberts, who became one of my inspirations. After I created my technique, I got in touch with him to know if it was relevant and ever since then, in 2015, we are in touch,” she shares.
Sanah’s process is unique in that she plans the pattern and designs in a way where she has full control over resource efficiency.
“That’s how I’m able to do 100 per cent zerowaste as opposed to the typical design process. We don’t ready the sketch and then have the designer create a sketch of what the garment should be and then work on the patterns to cut that in fabric. We plan the result,” she explains.
“I was researching sustainable brands and it felt like we were making it seem like we had to compromise on aesthetics simply because of the use of sustainable materials,” Sanah says. “But why should people who are interested in sustainability have to be apologetic about being fashion savvy? The gap I wanted to fill was that we can have sustainable fashion which is true fashion and not an oxymoron.”
This belief was proved when a dress she designed won the Red Carpet Green Dress Global Design Contest 2020 and was then showcased at the 2022 pre-Oscars festivities in Los Angeles.
The foundation stones of Sanah’s sustainable story lie in her amalgamation of concepts of physics and maths with pattern making. Initially, she started by focussing only on waste reduction in the process of cutting. Now she has a pret line featuring luxurious garments with certified materials an d high price points.
“There’s also an upcycled line called Made From Nothing, made from upcycled saris we collected during the pandemic,” says Sanah. “Apart from that, we work with recycled handloom materials made by women weavers.”
A BA (Hons) in Fashion Design from Nottingham Trent University and Pearl Academy, Sanah is currently pursuing Design Thinking at Stanford Graduate Business School and runs her eponymous label.
The winner of the Zero-Waste Design Competition, Fakulteta za dizajn (Slovenia) 2018 and the R|Elan Award for Excellence in Circularity, Sanah was also invited to be part of the UN Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network alongside Swarovski, Tencel, etc. She’s now getting into the digital space by launching her own metaverse.
“THE GAP I WANTED TO FILL WAS THAT WE CAN HAVE SUSTAINABLE FASHION WHICH IS TRUE FASHION AND NOT AN OXYMORON“
—SANAH SHARMA, DESIGNER