Reliving
Fashion and Sustainability
Existing problems
Fashion is widely considered the second most destructive industry to the environment, with a global supply chain employing 58 million people worldwide.During the period of 2000–14, clothing production increased by 50 per cent, as fast-fashion evolved and the luxury sector ascended. sustainable fashion has often been considered a consumer-led movement, which brands have been pressured to act upon, it is important that businesses demonstrate social responsibility through a collaborative approach incorporating design, innovation, technology and communication to successfully create desirable sustainable products Described as the second most polluting industry to the environment, next to oil, pressure has increased from NGOs, designers, brands and consumers to develop more sustainable practices within the fashion design industry. The Brundtland definition of sustainability is that which ‘ meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (1987). This has more recently been defined as having three key elements: environmental sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. For future sustainability problems to be solved, all three areas need to be sustainable.
Sustainable designers and brands Honestby is a womenswear brand launched in 2012 by Bruno Pieters, formerly a Creative Director of Hugo Boss. Disillusioned with the excesses of the fashion industry, Pieters adopted the ethos of a brand with a‘radical new concept’ of 100 per cent transparency in all information about the production process, materials used, even going as far as a complete ‘cost break down of its products’ (honestly.com). Edun is a fashion brand ,Founded by Ali Hewson and husband, Bono, committed to a fair trade approach . Instead of donating money to provide African aid, Edun is a brand that focuses on creating manufacturing jobs in Africa, paying a living wage and creating sustainable growth. By 2014, 85 per cent of Edun collections was produced in Africa (Ulasewicz 2015). The ethos of the brand provides the consumer with a feel good feeling, with every purchase, helping those less fortunate to create a better life for themselves. People tree -Safia Minney for People Tree, who used traditional artisan skills and local communities throughout Africa and Asia to produce their garments. Going even further People Tree have created a foundation that supports farmers and artisans through scaling up training, technical support and environmental initiatives and through raising awareness and campaigning for fair and sustainable fashion. Reformation, a sustainable women’s wear brand, appealing to the middle market, provides a fun, sexy aesthetic to their clothing ranges, eschewing the ethical cliché.
Vivienne Westwood-Constantly placing its roots in the‘Britishness’ of Harris tweeds, wools and linens, the brand is also notoriously known for its campaigns and activist message. Stella McCartney-With a bold mission statement of‘We challenge and push boundaries to make luxurious products in a way that is fit for the world we live in today and the future: beautiful and sustainable. Luxury brand, antifur and cruelty free, an ethos ingrained in the brand by family association. Veganism and vegetarianism are seen as more eco-friendly agriculture, and cattle farming is the number one reason for rainforest deforestation, which connects to the original brand values. Leather and fur, whilst these are not used in any collection due to the Vegan ethos of the company, they are also unsustainable.
Fashion Industry & Waste The fashion industry has a disastrous impact on the environment. The environmental damage is increasing as the industry grows. These are some info about the issues-
India’s Sustainable Fashion Brands Upasana Upasana is a brand which firmly believes that fashion has the power to change lives. They’ve designed special projects and worked closely with various communities across the country. Varanasi Weavers is one such programme launched to support the weaving community in Varanasi. Kapas is another project aimed at helping organic cotton farmers in Madurai. The brand also has a platform called Upasana – The Conscious Fashion Hub where designers, environmentalists, social workers, farmers and students all come together to discuss and find solutions to present day social issues. No Nasties India is an agrarian economy with about 70% of its people relying on agriculture as a means of sustenance, directly or indirectly. Despite this, the country witnesses 12,000 farmer suicides every year due to lack of stable income and social security. No Nasties is a brand which aims to change this dismal scenario by being ‘100% organic, 100% fair trade clothing’. They pay fair wages to farmers and also offer them premiums for community development. Unlike many companies, profit comes after people for No Nasties and the team firmly says no to price exploitation and also child labour. They steer clear of genetically modified seeds and synthetic pesticides as well.
India’s Sustainable Fashion Brands House of Wandering Silk House of Wandering Silk has its studio in New Delhi but works with marginalized women producers and artisans from different countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Laos, Uzbekistan and Cambodia. They use handmade and upcycled materials to create beautiful apparel, accessories and jewellery. The brand does painstaking research to identify craftsmen from diverse and remote places, understands their skills and then designs products based on their needs and aptitude. So their products are never trend-based but they uphold much bigger values like supporting local communities, promoting indigenous crafts and preserving the environment. ‘Ba No Batwo Reduce, reuse, recycle’ are the three simple words ingrained in the philosophy of Ba No Batwo. Calling itself a modern day rag picker, the brand collects waste such as plastic bottles, discarded clothes, cosmetic containers and everything in between to design and create jewellery, bags, wallets and stationery. Inspired by the sustainable practices observed in the ancient days and with a passion for traditional crafts, Ba No Batwo is constantly looking for ways to redefine fashion by creating beautiful products from waste.
India’s Sustainable Fashion Brands 11:11 11.11/eleven eleven is one of the few brands making dedicated attempts at promoting khadi (handwoven natural fabric from the subcontinent). This humble fabric is often ignored for being unfashionable but, thanks to brands like 11.11/eleven eleven, the concept of ‘luxurious khadi’ is now gaining ground. The brand makes high fashion products that are completely handmade and dyed naturally using colours extracted from barks, petals and leaves. They use indigenous fabrics like khadi and kala cotton from Kutch in Gujarat and employ local artisans skilled in crafts like block printing and mirror work. Doodlage Armed with the mission to create zero waste, Doodlage makes use of leftover and discarded fabrics from large manufacturers instead of letting them end up in a landfill somewhere. They also use eco-friendly materials like organic cotton, corn and banana fabric for their products. The brand constantly collaborates with other like-minded organisations for special projects, including one with an NGO called Goonj. They share excess fabrics from previous collections and the NGO creates reusable sanitary napkins out of them for women in rural areas. Doodlage has proved that with a bit of creativity and conscience, fashion can support both the environment and the local communities.
India’s Sustainable Fashion Brands Paromita Banerjee Paromita Banerjee, a Kolkata based fashion designer, is a passionate advocate of handloom products. She believes that the small flaws created by human hands during the weaving process are what give these handloom fabrics character and what set them apart from machine made clothes which all look alike. Banerjee has been working with several weaving clusters from different parts of India for years, helping them generate steady livelihood. She received the ‘Green Thimble’ for cco-chic clothing at the 2011 Grazia Young Fashion Awards. Ethicus Ethicus is a sustainable fashion brand launched to tackle the problems faced by cotton farmers and traditional artisans and to help them get their due, which is something that most fast fashion companies fail to do today. The company believes in inclusive growth and measures their success not just by the profits but also by the improvement in the standard of living of its employees, right from the farmers to the weavers and designers. Each Ethicus product carries a tag with the name and picture of the weaver along with the number of days he or she took to finish the final product.
Reliving
A beautiful space isn’t complete without An Artistic touch
About the brand The rawness of Natural texture and Designs never fails, this is the core reason for our design collection, which also helps to reduce the small pieces of fabric waste due to the intricacy in the natural texture. The design mission is to make versatile artwork that can fit into any wall or space. Sustainability is at the core of everything the brand do all our products are made from super sustainable materials, rescued deadstock fabrics and fabric industry fabric waste. Innovation, versatile & Artistic design of the décor items can be fitted into any kind of walls and space, this is the reasons which make the brand different from other brands. The uses of texture, materials, & color in unique ways to create a unique piece of art inspired by Nature
USP of the brand
We take colours of nature for your home whatever we get, we get from nature either food or good living, The brand presenting the same in an artistic way and in a sustainable way.The artwork or décor items of the brand will bring your creativity alive with the patterns and design directly inspired by nature with the rawness of Nature and uniqueness of handicrafts.The designs are based on art movement, abstract form of painting, modern designs. With a wide range of sourced fabrics which are either recycled or waste fabrics, the brand offers a wide range of handcrafted artistic artwork, wall art or décor items in a unique palette of colors and also with unique designs which cant be crafted again.
KEYWORDS Reliving Raw Regenaration Unprocessed Intricacy
Design strategy Nature, Arts & millions of colors come together to create the brand who believes in Regenerating the soul and beauty inside you which will enhance your living experience with space.
Brand strategy • As the brand collections of décor involves Innovation, versatility & Artistic approach which can be fitted into any kind of walls and space, so our brand also make limited collection annually. • The collection are made from 100% waste fabrics. In a jute frame, a renewable natural fiber with the minimum use of colors die .Jute actually has a positive carbon footprint because it takes up more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. Also no use of pvc or other plastic materials to maintain maximum sustainability in the brand • As Design Management is most important factor to be consider -It is estimated that 80% of a product’s environmental impacts are decided during the design stage, which influences all aspects of the final fashion product including aesthetics, materials, physical performance, cost, quality and sustainability. • The brand follow the cradle to cradle principle. This also minimize the pressure on the nature due to fabrics waste and the chemicals waste • The thread for the collection even extracted from fabrics waste. • The brands offers handcrafted products which increase the employment opportunities for the artisans also decrease the pressure of industrial waste on nature also reduce water and energy use • The brands also believes in opening of local production, which will also decrease the fuel waste and increase employment in locals area. • We Design for physical and emotional durability.
What will happen to the fabric waste collected ? • The collected waste is mechanically and manually separated according to fabrics type, based on making techniques ( weaved, knitted, compressed, etc), similar colors. • After assorting, 2nd level sorting of small pieces of fabrics waste are compressed and mix with water-based glue made from organic material then processed in heat at high pressure to make hard-boards for artwork and others products base, also for making packaging cartoon. • After assorting, it will also get sorted according to a colour palette of the theme and the products
Product line All the designs and products having the handcrafted rawness in it, the designs based on art movement, abstract form of painting and modern designs. So the user can feel the nature true rawness on the walls. The product includes a wide range of Wall art like framed arts, Paintings, wallpaper and table top.
Artwork
Prototype of texture
Slow fashion & The Brand Unfortunately, the potential positive impacts of selecting sustainable materials are limited by fast fashion business models, the current norm among massmarket brands and retailers, which lead to rapid product turnover and high waste outputs. Just a few decades ago, fashion designers presented only two collections a year: spring/summer and autumn/winter. Today’s mass-market brands rotate their in-store collections as often as every two or three weeks, a turnover that equates to roughly 20 collections per year! Japanese designer Akira Minagawa, with his brand mina perhonen, is a particularly interesting example of slow fashion design. Rather than fluctuate from season to season according to the latest trends, his collections gradually evolve, reusing or reworking materials and silhouettes from previous seasons. • Limited collections annually & promotion of customized products makes the brands almost 0% dead stock • As the brand we follow Cradle to cradle principle, which increase the Sustainibility of the product.
Sources https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326946435_Designing_a_ sustainable_brand_strategy_for_the_fashion_industry http://www.solidworks.com/sustainability/images/content/sustainability/ guide_to_sustainable_design.pdf