Fashion Campaign Seeks To Start A Conversation Around Fair Fashion In India. This Was Much Needed.

Fashion Campaign Seeks To Start A Conversation Around Fair Fashion In India. This Was Much Needed.

Call it the impact of the current pandemic or the realisation among the consumers regarding the insane amount of pollution created by the textile industries, fashion lovers have been gravitating towards sustainable options lately. More eco-friendly and sustainable clothing brands are sprouting now than ever and it is because they are now dealing with conscious consumers. Not just brands, NGOs and industry leaders are doing their bit to bring in the fair fashion movement in India with fashion campaigns such as RE: Think, Act, Create. The COVID-19 response campaign that launched an initiative called Re.purposed in association with Indian fashion designers, Rina Dhaka and Leena Singh, has now flagged off a dialogue platform The ReFashion Hub to start a conversation around fairness in fashion and promote sustainability among millennial spenders.

The campaign has roped in industry experts, celebrities, designers and people engaged in fashion business for an open dialogue on both sustainable and mainstream fashion. This aims to make Indian consumer privy of the sustainable options, fair fashion in Indian fashion industry and different initiatives working for the movement to bring in a positive change in the post-Covid era. Some of the thought leaders from the fashion industry that have collaborated with the campaign are Shefalee Vasudev, Nonita Kalra, Pragya Tiwari, Daniel Fernandes, and Amrita Puri who will be exploring themes around fair fashion in India. Not just the skim of the top, these themes would cover a broader aspect like “the impact of mental health on fast fashion, the scalability of sustainable fashion in India, and the trends that have arisen in the past few years in the fashion industry.”

 

Through the dialogue platform, the leaders will encourage the customers to adopt fair fashion practices and educate them about how to contribute to reducing waste and save the planet through reusing and recycling. Talking about the incorporation of fair fashion in daily lives, one of the thought leaders associated with the campaign, Daniel Fernandes shared, “Start creating an inventory of your existing clothes. Once you’ve decided what you’re keeping, do not throw away the rest. Give them to somebody who needs them. And if you do buy new clothes, you must give away the equivalent amount and that you won’t end up hoarding.”

Fair fashion is the need of the hour especially after the pandemic which has hit the fashion and textile industry terribly. The stock of unsold clothes piled up in warehouses due to lockdown amplified the textile waste and this campaign attempts to bring a wave of change. Fashion designer Payal Jain says: “The last decade has been brutal for our environment. The time has come, when ‘Change’ is the only way for us to sustain and survive. Today, when our very existence is in question, it is imperative for us to come together as a fraternity. Let us Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Revive, and Reinvent. I urge you to make this your mission and together we can be the change.”

For all of us that have now been hooked on to fast fashion for a while, this comes as a wake up call. Studies show that fast fashion is one of the biggest polluters of the ocean and produce 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions. Given that the pandemic has refashioned our perspectives, just knowing that fast fashion could be destroying our planet is enough for us to make the switch to more sustainable fashion.

This initiative is important because the designers are not sticking on labels but changing entire processes to be more environment-friendly. The idea is not to latch on to a buzzword, it is to instead fully imbibe the changes of something like this.

Also Read: This Sustainable Fashion Initiative Re.Purposed Aims To Reduce and Refurbish Textile Waste Into Covid Masks. This Needs To Be The Way Forward In Fashion

Fashion designer Rina Dhaka who has been a part of their earlier campaign Re.purposed, which was an online garment donation drive, commented about the vision of the latest initiative. She said, “Sustainability is not just about the finished product but one should also consider the complete process. For fashion, we should be ethical about how we work. Continuing to sustain a craft or a design language that handholds that craft is as important to keeping sustainability alive in today’s environment”.

Another fashion designer who was a part of Re.purposed, Leena Singh of Ashima-Leena label also talked about how she reuses and reduces waste in her design house and contributes to sustainable fashion, “Restoration is a part of sustainable fashion for me. I send them to my weavers and they are rewoven and so, I have been able to create something new from the old. Sustainable fashion is something you can use for a longer time. Classic and timeless!”

Initiative like these that support and promote fair fashion in India are much needed, especially at a time when most businesses and industries have failed in the past year due to nationwide lockdown. Making millennial consumers conscious of their buying and discarding habits and how it affects the climate is the only way forward. A lot of consumers understand the impact of fast fashion and textile waste on the environment but there still is a long road ahead to achieve a sustainable future for India and open conversations like the fair fashion movement could really help.

Also Read: Alia Bhatt Launches A Homegrown Sustainable Kidswear Brand Which Educates Children About The Importance of Nature Conservation

Anjali Agarwal

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