10+ Best Sustainable Fashion Brands in India
Sustainable Fashion - A New Trend for the Future Nay, Today!
Did you know that the level of CO2 emitted by textile industries is almost equal to that released by automobile industries?
With fast fashion trends, sustainable clothing (slow fashion) is yet to gain popularity. However, we do have quite a few homegrown sustainable fashion brands in India. And to your aid, Ecopurple has curated a list of a few of the many brands crafting green fashion. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Please note that the following list is in no particular order of preference; the idea is to promote and acknowledge their work.
Adah, founded by Leesha Agarwal, a conscious earthling cum a talented fashion designer, is an ethical, zero waste, and a handloom fashion brand. It is a fashion house that truly loves their fabrics, the makers, and the colorful dyes that make it beautiful.
On experiencing the aftermath of fast fashion firsthand, Leesha decided to make a difference and so, led to the foundation of Adah. Here’s everything that is good about this sustainable fashion brand:
- The team sources each piece of fabric directly from the hardworking weavers, not allowing any middlemen to participate. This helps in ensuring that the weavers are paid what they deserves.
- The environmental quotient is taken care of by repurposing/ recycling/ and upcycling all kinds of fabric scraps into diaries, wallets, scrunchies, headbands, earrings, etc. The tags, too, are made using recycled tetra packs, adding to their concern for the environment. Adah also refrains from the use of plastic.
- The skilled tailors, who craft the elegant garments for Adah, are given their rightful credits. You will get to know who made your outfit, a wonderful way to honour the efforts of the maker and also empower them.
For both and women, Adah is one of the affordable fashion brands out there. One must check-out their outfits as they’re not only aesthetic but also sustainably made.
This women’s fashion brand from New Delhi, found by Mahima Gujral, is on its way to help pave the way for green clothing.
- They prefer working with durable and anti-bacterial fabrics such as hemp. Use Organic cotton that is GOTS certified, and other sustainable materials.
- Sui uses herbal dyes to pigment their clothing; and recycles the wastewater in the process.
- The team makes use of recycled packaging and upcycles the leftover fabric waste as well.
- Following a sustainable work ethic, SUI also partners with the NGO – Women Weave. The women in this NGO contribute to the weaving of handspun home fabrics. They practice conscious activities that need less to no electricity. Thus, save energy.
The brainchild of Kriti Tula – Doodlage is a recognized eco-fashion house set in New Delhi. The brand creates fashion outfits and accessories by recycling and upcycling fabric trash. The toxic after-effects of the fashion industry led to the foundation of Doodlage.
- Doodlage collects surplus of defective or stained fabric scraps from textile manufacturers. They even collect the leftover apparel scraps from the garment factories.
- From the fabric waste of their own, they create wallets; laptop bags; accessories; and notebooks.
- Ditching the plastic, they recycle the fabric waste into paper for their packagings.
Vegan gang, this one’s for you! Based in Goa, No Nasties has been in the business since 2011, creating outfits for men, women, and kids. They design outfits made out of fair trade, organic, and vegan raw materials.
Renge is a sustainable fashion brand that offers beautiful clothing options for women. Found by Sheena Uppal, they create conscious apparels keeping the fashion quotient intact.
What makes Renge an ethical brand?
- They use a surplus of fabrics from factories that follow strict social and environmental standards.
- The artisans dye fabrics in Creative Dyeing & Printing, which is Oeko-Tex certified.
- The team works in tune with Hemla Embroidery, which is Sedex certified.
- Both factories are within a 3km radius, this reduces carbon emission due to logistics.
- Also, a part of their factory runs on solar energy!
While creating sustainable fashion, Renge also extends support for other critical issues. Learn more by clicking here.
- Located in Noida, Basiclly is a fellow supporter of slow fashion. The brand crafts livable clothing to make them durable and long-lasting.
- The team makes use of 100% organic fabrics with reusing and upcycling the fabric scraps. This way, they avoid the use of synthetic materials.
- Basiclly makes sure to have their fabric manufactures and the production factories close. Thus, minimizing the environmental impact therein.
Sparrow was born with an aim to provide sustainable clothing at affordable prices. The team believes and contributes to a circular model of fashion.
This team led by Uma Prajapati works with the traditional technique of Handlooms. Upasana takes absolute pride in crafting fabrics through this concept that helps save electricity
- As opposed to the artificial dyes, the team works with natural ones. Such as, Natural Indigo, native minerals, and herbs like Sandalwood and Tulsi.
- To make the garments safe to the skin, Upasana infuses the same herbs with organic cotton. The medicinal properties of these herbs help provide a sense of healing to the wearer.
“Our mission is to create conscious sustainable fashion where we are taking care of our environmental cost and not passing it on to the future.”
Upasana’s work is here for you to choose a sustainable fashion alternative.
- It is Carbon negative
- It repels UV rays
- It resists mold and mildew
- Is one of the strongest fabrics
- Hemp is Anti-bacterial
- It can grow with less water, etc
What more reasons do we need? B Label is one to pin our faith for a responsible fashion brand.
Rimagined is an ethical brand from Bengaluru producing sustainable fashion and upcycled products. They manufacture products right from sarees to furniture. Understanding the increasing garbage crisis, Shailaja Rangarajan led to the establishment of Rimagined.
- The team works with both pre and post-consumer waste.
- They craft their sarees from the pre-consumer cotton yarn waste. This is the leftover yarn during and after the weaving. They weave this yarn in the traditional Charkhas and then dye it with beautiful colors.
- Rimagined also works with denim, wood, glass and rubber waste. They’re upcycled into furniture, bedsheets, decors, and other accessories.
Their aim is to divert waste from the landfills into a sustainable and valuable object of use. And they achieve this by working hand in hand with handloom weavers and tribal artisans.
CONCLUSION
- These are a few of the many sustainable fashion brands in India who are working to maintain a circular economy.
- Fashion waste is mainstream pollution. With a growing maturity and awareness, one has to consider ways in which he/she can limit their impact. We need to control our unnecessary contribution to the landfills.
- Yet, if you happen to buy something that belongs to fast fashion, make sure you find a way to repurpose. One sustainable action goes a long way.
YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS
- It can take 2,700 litres of water to produce the cotton needed to make a single T-Shirt. As per World Resources Institute, 5.9 trillion litres of water are used each year for fabric dyeing alone.
- Around 20% of industrial water pollution in the world comes from textiles. Also, about 8,000 synthetic chemicals are used to turn raw materials into textile.
- As per another report, about one garbage truck of textiles is either burnt or landfilled. This happens about every second!