Fashion’s Vanguards
Four young, sustainable fashion designers crack the code of circularity without compromising aesthetics
“The three trilliondollar fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world, after oil. It accounts for significant amounts of chemical runoffs, affluents from dyes, heavy pesticide usage and the creation of methane gas, which leads to the warming of the planet,” states Madhu Jain, senior fashion designer, who has been in the business for over 30 years.
According to the Geneva Environment Network, fashion production makes up 10 per cent of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. Fast fashion is even worse, says Sujata Assomull, Dubai-based fashion journalist, advocate of mindful fashion and launch editor of Harper’s Bazaar India.
“The pieces are mass-made and to keep prices low they often use fabrics which are really harmful for the environment and leave toxins behind. Fast fashion also requires more water. The whole thing puts pressure on the environment, consumer and supply chain,” says Sujata.
This week, HT Brunch turns the spotlight on four bright minds from across the country who are lending new meaning to mindful fashion without compromising on look and feel.
Building blocks
Radhika Malhotra, 30, Nagpur
The designer who uses reclaimed teak wood to create jewellery
Since 2017, Radhika Malhotra’s SATAT has made feather-light jewellery from reclaimed teak wood blocks that are usually discarded after a house is constructed.
Priced between ₹1,099 and ₹5,000, her sustainable jewellery sells through multiple retail channels, online and in stores. She has even showcased it at Milan Design Week. Radhika intends to take her brand to every part of the world to display the intricacy and beauty of the work of Indian artisans— work with the added benefit of sustainability. “I wanted to make jewellery with reclaimed or reusable materials. So, I started searching for people doing such kind of work and came across a cluster of artisans. We incorporated the idea, clubbed it, innovated the process and that’s how it began,” Radhika shares.
They discovered a two-century-old craft that made printing blocks. “We extracted the wood-carving part and use only natural materials to colour the pieces that are made from scratch by karigars. This really highlights the sustainability aspect,” Radhika explains.
She did wonder if recycled or upcycled jewellery would appeal to people, but went ahead anyway. “The jewellery came out very attractive and easy for me to launch. Customers were really intrigued by it being handcrafted and sustainable,” says Radhika, who has a Bachelor of Design in fashion and lifestyle accessories from the National Institute of Fashion Technology.
Freedom with fabric
Sanah Sharma, 28, Chennai The designer who successfully brought luxury and sustainability together 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.
She started this because she felt that no new silhouettes were being created. “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,” she shares.
Her 100 per cent zero-waste designs have all the markers that signify high fashion. “When I researched sustainable brands, I felt designers were compromising on aesthetics simply because of the use of sustainable materials. But why should people who are interested in sustainability have to be apologetic about being fashion savvy?”
Her 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.
A BA (Hons) in Fashion Design from Nottingham Trent University and Pearl Academy, Sanah is currently pursuing Design Thinking at Stanford Graduate Business School.
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. She’s now launching her own metaverse.
Material boy Pratyush Kumar, 33, Gurugram The designer who uses carpet waste and econyl to create modular fashion
Gorakhpur-born and multiple award-winning sustainable fashion designer Pratyush Kumar uses carpet waste textile—or cartex—to make apparel, footwear and bags. He also creates outerwear and accessories from econyl, recycled polyester, and deploys 3D printing for his modular eyewear range.
The only Indian designer at the Fashionology Summit in Dhaka, Pratyush started his namesake label three years ago. “Millions of tonnes of carpet waste are generated every year. We started procuring the waste yarns and made cartex textiles,” he explains.
If he doesn’t reveal they are made from carpet waste or damaged shirts, you can’t tell that his pieces are sustainable. “People buy what appeals to them without knowing it is sustainable and we are purposely not talking about this,” he shares.
Pratyush has been working on mindful fashion for 13 years now, ever since he saw the biodegradable craft of Pattachitra artists. “After that, I created a piece made from organic viscose and dyes. It could be worn three different ways, so the buyer could buy one instead of three products,” says the designer.
For this piece, the designer was selected to participate in the DEFRA x The Centre for Sustainable Fashion project, an initiative by the Ministry of Textiles, the London College of Fashion and Pearl Academy. This year, Pratyush won the Clean Tech Challenge and the Circular Design Challenge.
Rubber recognition
“Fast fashion is putting pressure on the environment, consumer and the supply chain. It’s a system that needs to be fixed.”
SUJATA ASSOMULL, Fashion journalist
Sudheer Rajbhar, 36, Mumbai The designer who set out to change the narrative Sudheer Rajbhar, who began his career as an artist’s assistant, forayed into the field of design with the intent of bringing leathersmiths into the mainstream.
“The word ‘chamar’ is a slur in India. After the 2015 beef ban, there was a shortage of leather in the industry and when I visited villages, people called me a chamar. So, I thought why not make it a brand and one day it could be like Chanel, Dior or Stella McCartney,” he says.
The craftspeople working with Sudheer produce the same products they always did, but with new and sustainable media, such as rubber recycled from waste tubes and tyres.
A diploma holder in the fine arts of drawing and painting, Sudheer realised that there was no recognition for artists’ assistants. To address this problem, he curated a show in 2017 called We Are Here Because You Are There, which exhibited not only the work of established artists, but their assistants.
“This is how the idea of sustainability and the need for artisans to be part of the movement came to my mind. Nobody understood the idea behind my show. It was only after I launched the Chamar project that they noticed its purpose,” he shares.
Now, Sudheer is establishing an atelier set-up where a roadside cobbler can work with industrial waste and people can hang out with him for a feel of the process.