India’s growing fashion market is greener and moreinnovative than ever before.

2019 was a year of big changes in the Indian fashion industry. The new, improved market is more locally-based, eco-friendly, and unique than it has ever been before. On of the largest textile industries in the world, India’s fashion market clothes more than 1.2 billion people, and brings in 33 billion dollars a year. Here are the brands that are transforming this immense market, and changing the way that Indians view fashion.

11:11

11:11, created by Mia Morikawa and Shani Himanshu, has a stand-alone store in New Delhi, and deep roots in the Indian luxury fashion scene. Now featuring natural indigo dyes, reclaimed accessories, and handspun cotton denim, 11:11 is making strides in craftmanship within a fashion industry that hasn’t always capitalized on hand-crafted items.

11:11’s women’s wear line “dissolves the distinction between daywear and evening wear,” creating looks for Indian women that can be worn anywhere, for any occasion. The look and feel of the collection as a whole is flowy and easy-going, with naturally-dyed deep purples and glowing golds. Many garments are hand tie-dyed, using madder red, ochre yellow, and indigo.

Adding to the natural and sustainable practices of the company, 11:11 reclaims discarded materials for use in their accessory line. The purpose of this practice, while undoubtedly eco-friendly, is to “create a dialogue which challenges the idea of consumption.”

Chola

Born within a Vintage Garden Trunk Show in Mumbai, Chola is a simple, soulful label created by Sohaya Misra. The label shows its ‘less is more’ philosophy through clean lines with detailed edges. Many Chola garments are made of recycled fabrics created out of post-consumer waste. Using recycled cotton, as well as the use of free-cutting methods, means that Chola produces minimal waste during their production process.

Part of Chola’s online shop is organized in capsules, the idea that a few simple pieces can be mixed and matched to create a comprehensive wardrobe. Fewer wardrobe items mean re-thinking the way buyers consume textile pieces and being more thoughtful and intentional about the wardrobe as a whole.

Each item in Chola’s collections is beautifully and thoughtfully crafted, not just in itself, but within the capsule as a whole.

Maku

Santanu Das started designing clothing as a way to dig deeper into Indian culture. Maku Textiles was initially inspired by his mother’s wardrobe. To stay true to the look and feel of these clothes, Santanu started working with tangail and jamdani weavers, channeling their creativity and tradition into a new, modern line for Indian women.

One way that Maku challenges today’s typical fashionpractices is by limiting choice. The brand offers a very narrow array ofproducts, materials, and aesthetics, forcing buyers to intentionally choose andinherently value each piece. The pieces are carefully designed with a subtlecharm through hand-crafted processes that yield the occasional imperfection.

Santanu makes sure that MAku continues to use naturalwhites, and hand-woven Bengal malda silk to maintain the authentic Indian lookhe started with. He hopes to continue recovering traditional Indian weavingpractices and employing Indian women to work alongside him, creating a safe andfair local workplace, and strengthening brand sustainability.

Injiri

Injiri clothing, by Chinar Farooqui, is inspired bytraditional Indian garment designs. Farooqui, in her quest to recreate thesetimeless garments in a new modern line, created her own network of hand-loomcollectives across India. The brand works exclusively with organic cotton andnatural dyes to tell the story of traditional, yet modernized and elevated,Indian clothing.

Since 2009, Chinar Farooqui has continued to celebrate thehand-woven process and the story of Indian fashion through the Injiri label.The attention to detail in the Injiri line is unprecedented, instilling a senseof timeless value in each piece. In this way, Injiri provides a stark contrastto the world of fast fashion. Each piece is timeless, beautiful, and hand-craftedin a way that makes buyers want to keep each piece forever and treat it withcare. (The fabric and creation methods also encourage buyers to wash clothingless, which helps the environment in a number of ways.)

Ode to Odd

Ode to Odd is a brand born, bred, and manufactured rightin India. Shreye and Priyal Mewera, one a fashion graduate from the PearlAcademy of Fashion in India, and the other without any fashion training worktogether to forge their own path within the Indian Fashion scene.

Ode to Odd is another brand that pays meticulous attentionto detail, hand-crafting high-quality items with love and attention. The brandalso uses eco-friendly materials, like organic cotton, silk, mulmul, and wool.They use these materials to create accessible designs that show, yet again,great craftsmanship.

“Our brand is a story of craftsmanship, perfectimperfections, and the labor of love. It’s magical how the narrative began inthe far-flung places of India, and it has culminated into a beautiful story. Welove that we can tell the story through our garments,” Ode to Odd said in aninterview.

Ode to Odd manufacturestheir pieces using hand-cutting and hand-stitching methods, and they useleftover waste fabric to create their hand-embroidered labels. 

Indians fashion scene will never be the same, thanks tothe amazing work of these brands. The eco-friendly practices of the rest of thesustainable fashion revolution have not been lost on Indian designers. Greenfashion and eco-friendly practices are truly spreading across the fashionworld.

This article has not beenedited by SBS Zipper staff and is re-published with permission from synzenbe.com

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