Dialogues on sustainability in Indian fashion continues to garner heat and has now become an innate part of ‘how we look at the industry’.
After the bridal market, it will have to be the sustainability-oriented designers who get the most attention on the country’s local fashion scene. At the ongoing Lakmé Fashion Week, this focus has found a central place with the 2nd day solely dedicated to the celebration of handlooms, indigenous craft practices and the artisans involved within.
Under the umbrella of hashtag ‘#MakeFashionGood’, the Summer/Resort ‘18 initiatives aimed to remind everyone of everything that is there to love about clothes. The idea was to bring light to the story of fashion and its creators so that we are able to value each garment more.
Day 2 began with a United Nations and IMG Reliance collaboration to highlight India’s often ignored North-Eastern region, home to some of the most niche craft practices in India. Titled ‘#NORTHEASTMOJO’, the show consisted of six designers who presented exclusive lines highlighting different features of the region’s heritage.
Arunachal Pradesh’s Jenjum Gadi worked with non-profit Exotic Echo Society to create a collection from Loinloom Weaves, taking the help of artisans in Dimapur, Nagaland. Others like Daniel Syiem collaborated with Ryndia silk artisans from Meghalaya and TILLA by Aratrik dev Varman presented riahs textiles, a speciality of the Reang tribe in Tripura.
Going one more step further in storytelling, two documentary films were also screened at the event.
The first film was an animated project of TISS professors, called ‘A Delicate Weave’, it was a look at the warps and wefts of the life and struggles of female weavers all over the subcontinent. The second was an IIT Bombay project, titled ‘The Stitches Speak’ (Tanko Bole Che), which explained the spirituality attached to the art of embroidery and value-addition practices in the Kutch region of India. It was based on the relationship between Sufi music and the history that often inspires and accompanies the weaving process itself.
Shown to a jam-packed theatre of viewers, the films were an attempt at sensitising the audience that slow fashion is more than just a movement. They told the journey of embroidery motifs and techniques that are passed on from generation to generation.
Further, the day was gallantly filled with runway presentations of different reinterpretations of ethical fashion partnerships. India’s first online global marketplace for connecting artisans with manufacturers, GoCoop unveiled its fashion brand at Lakmé Fashion Week 2018. Dubbed as The Good Loom, the handloom label presented a collection of chanderi sarees and soft separates like stoles and pyjama trousers for men.
Later in the day, Pankaja Sethi showcased an assortment created by Odisha and Adivasi folklore to much applause. This was followed by a presentation from Maku and Hemang Agarwal, the former opened the show with a narration by Tillotama Shome on life. The line-up was a mix of twisted khadi, Indigo and fine gingham. Agarwal’s collection, called “un-revive”, was made by Banarasi weavers where experiments in tartan checks, houndstooth, giant polka and graphic stripes were woven on a single length of fabric. He gave us a replay of India’s designer-favourite metal yarns meet pastel fibres in several silhouettes like light the trenchcoat, culottes, pleated skirts and sarees.
Adding more to the show, Sewing machine manufacturer USHA also took the stage with its new initiative Label Usha Silai. The show was divided into four segments for four fashion designers who worked with a specific cluster of Usha Silai school to produce well-constructed trendy assortments.
While the shapes were more or less the same, the partnership is an interesting way of empowering small local businesses which are often run by women and give them a global platform.
The day’s grand finale was reserved for Rajesh Pratap Singh’s collection entirely created from Lenzing’s new lyocell fibre ‘Tencel’. Extracted naturally from raw wood, eco-conscious Tencel is marketed for its closed-loop production system. Singh’s assortment was a fresh break from monochromes and pure greys. Tangerine sarees, red power jackets paired with skirts, boxy shoulder dresses and double-breasted suits, the complete line-up had an immense global appeal.
The garment sector is only second to agriculture in India and it is imperative for fashion to make the artisans, who are behind this art, more mainstream. Day 2 at Lakmé Fashion Week was a celebration of both the technologies empowering new initiatives as well as everything we already have to cherish.
