| NEWS REPORT / INDIAN EXPRESS |
Indian Origin Designers Turn to Eco Fashion
Following the footsteps of international fashion designers, Indian origin designers from the US, Canada and UK designers too are standing up for the cause of eco fashion, says a news report in Indian Express. A few of them are playing significant roles.
Swati Argade, USA
This Indian American designer uses hand woven fabrics and has a signature style of mixing ethnic and bohemian aesthetics that is transformed into an urbane looking collection. She chooses fabrics and dyes consciously keeping sustainability as a priority.
Swati also goes for recycling, re-purposing and upcycling, but firmly believes that the design is paramount and there should be no excuse to compromise on it. Last year, she launched a collection of coats made from recycled bottles and organic cotton under her ‘Bhoomki’ collection. She says, "These coats will have the lowest carbon footprint vis-a-vis competition in America."
Karishma Shahani, UK
She is a London College of Fashion graduate and is working to evolve her sustainable fashion label rooted in traditional arts and crafts. She is also promoting traditional Indian crafts by converting waste material into a contemporary textile line for a high end home furnishing house.
For her final year collection at London College of Fashion, she came up with a collection called ‘Yatra’. It was a colourful collection for which Karishma got an artisan from India to dip-dye natural fabrics like cotton, silk, linen, and muslin using plants from his local market. She is also collaborating with Amy Sol, an American artist, in a women's empowerment project rooted in a weavers' village in Madhya Pradesh.
Sheena Matheiken, USA
Sheena, who was born in Ireland and raised in India and is famous for her ‘Uniform Project’, tries to promote re-use and ethical fashion. She hopes her efforts would encourage smart designers to launch ethical collections, with support from informed consumers. Sheena adds, "It would make sustainability the norm rather than the exception."
She says to Indian Express,”The Uniform Project was born out of a desire to do something creative that was also consequential. We are now a social enterprise that converges ethical fashion and philanthropy, challenging women to simplify their wardrobes without compromising on expression and style."
She took the challenge of wearing one dress for 365 days. She used to wear the same dress differently (sometimes even wearing it inside out!), with different accessories and it looked different everyday. It turned out to be a huge success with people getting inspired and Sheena raising funds for educating kids of Akanksha Foundation.
To read the full story: Indian origin designers go green
Photo Courtesy: http://www.swatiargade.com/
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