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From rags to riches: Indian designer finds sustainable way to high fashion

From rags to riches: Indian designer finds sustainable way to high fashion

New Delhi-based designer Kriti Tula collects discarded fabric waste from factories and pieces them together to create outfits.
05 Nov, 2021

An Indian designer is using discarded pieces of cloth to piece together fashion-wear for men and women as a sustainable alternative to high-end garments.

New Delhi-based Kriti Tula's fashion label Doodlage collects fabric waste from factories discarded for minor defects and pieces them together to create flowing dresses and sarees, selling them for about $100 a piece.

Tula said the label, which includes a men's line featuring patchwork shirts with denim strips, emerged out of her concern for global warming and the fashion industry's impact on the environment.

Having worked at major textile export houses, the designer said she had seen the environmental cost of high fashion first-hand: waste of cloth and water, and toxins emitted in the production process.

"Everything that we wear eventually impacts everything that we eat and consume and we breathe," Tula told Reuters at her workshop in the capital.

The roughly $2.4 trillion global fashion industry accounts for 8-10% of the world's carbon emissions — more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, the United Nations Environment Programme said in 2019.

The industry is also the second-biggest consumer of water, generating about 20% of the world's wastewater, it added.

Tula said sourcing the scraps initially proved complex and the product prices had to be higher than what many buyers may have felt was worth paying for recycled wear.

Gradually though, her business has found like-minded vendors and partners, she said.

Besides clothes, her label also makes soft toys, bags, purses and paper out of leftover fabric.

Comments

A shah Nov 05, 2021 12:16pm
Indians are very clever and resourceful. They always prosper in any situation
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Junaid Nov 05, 2021 02:06pm
Jeans and shirt mash contemporary look fabulous
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Vivek Nov 05, 2021 02:18pm
Pakistanis will find some issues here also for this Indian lady great initiative.
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Rana Talukdar Nov 05, 2021 02:46pm
Win win for all.
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Imtiaz Ali Khan Nov 05, 2021 03:40pm
Well done friends love from Pakistan!
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Dr.Roohi Rauf Nov 08, 2021 01:55pm
Very innovative,nothing harm to be stylish out of rags, this idea is good for people and environment healthy on the other hand.
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