Designs on a green future

Manpriya Singh 

No noise is enough if it happens to be on eco-fashion, green fashion or sustainable fashion. There is no dearth of established designers chasing grandeur, opulence and extravagance, usually reserved for 70 mm or larger-than-life weddings. Thankfully, the future of fashion seems in the hands of the conscientious bit. We get talking to the 28th batch of gen-next designers, all set to showcase at the upcoming winter festive edition of Lakme Fashion Week, about one big sustainability trend that can significantly help reduce the carbon footprint of fashion industry.

Says 29-year-old Delhi-based designer Akanksha Aggarwal, who runs the label Noie Noei, “Today, textile production is the world’s second-most polluting industry after the oil industry. The total greenhouse gas emissions from the textile production currently stands at 1.2 billion tonnes annually.” 

So apart from telling the consumers about the usual restyle, repeat, upcycle, recycle, what do we do? Maybe revive the handspun era! She adds, “In my opinion, locally sourced and handspun textiles should be used as it will assist in reducing the carbon footprints massively as well as generate more jobs and revive ancient weaves. “ 

That’s still not nearly enough though. “I also believe that fashion cycle should change, brands and designers should only introduce two seasons of the year as this will have a huge impact on the environment and significantly contribute in reducing the carbon footprints.  As consumers that straightaway takes us to the advice encapsulated within Dame Vivienne Westwood’s mantra, “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last.” 

Go natural

Until the sustainable fashion becomes a four-wheel drive propelled further both by consumers and designers, we rely on those largely dictating the fashion world. The 20-something Sahib Bhatia from the label Amaare feels significant changes need to start with simple steps first.  “I feel that if we try and incorporate more natural and organic fabrics in our garments, it could be a major step as these fabrics use much less water in production. Also, they are made without any pesticides and harmful chemicals, which have led to a great deal of environmental pollution.” 

Minimal approach

Until we have more heroes like Mark Zuckerberg, who make the capsule wardrobe (he is practically in his basic grey crew neck t-shirt) cool, the rate at which Facebook made accounts in the 2000s, it’ll take a while for slow fashion to catch up. As for the real connoisseurs of fashion, they are already past fast fashion. 

Opines Gaurav, behind the label Anatomy by Gaurav,  “One of the biggest sustainable trend will be to follow slow fashion where there will be more focus on producing collections twice or maximum three times per year. ‘Buy less and wear it many times’ should be a motto for everyone to really reduce the carbon footprint of the fashion industry.”  Simple as that! Newer technologies

“Talk of sustainability trends and we need fabrics with a clean history. For instance, this Italian brand Duedilatte, which makes clothes from sour milk,” opines city-based designer Shabri from the label Shabri. While we don’t know about the process of converting milk protein into fibre, but it sounds pretty practical ecologically. “Fabrics made with newer technologies need to be adopted rather than otherwise water-intensive cotton. Also if you have invested in a piece of cotton that was probably made using 2000 plus litres of water than let it be an heirloom piece.” While we don’t how will that make Phukaris and Kanjeevarams feel, but she is not joking!