Welcome to our live coverage from Mumbai as Lakmé Fashion Week hosts Sustainability Day 2019 — featuring leading Indian designers, brands, artisans, and sustainability stakeholders.
Correspondents Mili Doshi and Maria de la Guardia were live at The Jio Garden, posting regularly from all of the day's events — while editor Justin Lancy fielded questions submitted via our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts from Los Angeles. Scroll down to read our live coverage as it happened in real time -- but first, some of Maria's photos from the event:
Sustainable Development in Northeast India
‘Action Plan on North East India Report’ (APONIR) is a project that was launched at LFW for the fashion industry with an aim to strengthen the livelihoods of artisans by providing them with development support and market linkages. The achievements and interventions of the project made in marginalised handloom clusters in Assam in areas such as Barkhetri (Nalbari) and Rampur (Kamrup) towards sustainable production and development was presented in association with implementation partner GoCoop. There was a fashion showcase of special capsule collections developed by well known fashion brands such as Anita Dongre Grassroot and Raymond (in collaboration with Antar-Agni) of Eri and Muga textiles hand-woven by artisans in these clusters.
#JAPANTOINDIA
Bunon is a contemporary and ready to wear sustainable fashion brand by designer Soumitra Mondal from Kolkata that was launched at Vlas Blomme in Meguro, Tokyo (Japan) in 2018 in consultation with Japanese designer Satoshi Ishii. Bunon launched in India for the first time as a label at Lakmè Fashion Week 2019. The garments were made with Khadi, silk and linen in handlooms made by weavers in clusters such as Vardhaman, Murshidabad and Nodia in West Bengal. Soumitra has been supporting over 350 weavers in these clusters for the past 15 years as part of his fashion business.
The Circular Design Challenge
The Circular Design Challenge (CDC) is India’s largest sustainable fashion award. It is a platform for young fashion/ accessory entrepreneurs to showcase their innovative ideas and collections made by using materials from diverse sources of waste including plastic to promote circularity. CDC has received over 900 registrations from 30 different cities of India and 8 finalists have been shortlisted for the final jury in consultation with Intellecap, a pioneer in consulting sustainable enterprises dedicated to social and environmental change. All 8 finalists presented their pitches as start-ups and showcase garments made with circular design principles to a jury of leading industry experts. I Was a Sari was chosen by the jury as the winner and awarded a cash prize of Rs. 20 lacs along with other benefits.
Woolmark x Péro
The Woolmark Company, the leading authority on merino wool from Australia, and Péro, one of India’s high-end handmade fashion labels along with Kullu based wool weavers cooperative, Bhuttico, have come together to create a unique collaboration from #FarmToFashion. The "Grown in Australia, Made in India" campaign is going to showcase handmade merino wool textiles with pero’s signature styles. A special stall of Bhuttico at the LFW showroom area will also showcase stoles, shawls, accessories and fabrics made by its weavers with merino wool in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh.
Fashion Revolutionaries
Fashion Revolution India country coordinator Suki Dusanj asks "Who Made My Clothes?" at LFW19 continuing the push for transparency in the fashion supply chain. We spoke to Dusanj who said: “The most interesting part about today is the amount of upcycling initiatives that we see around here. What was a massive fabric installation hanging from the beams last year has been, today, remodeled into upscaled attires crafted by three new labels — I think the message is quite loud and clear.” Learn more about Fashion Revolution on THE KINDCRAFT and get ready to participate in Fashion Revolution Week April 22nd – 28th, 2019.
There is now another organization at the helm of a grassroots change in the way clothes are produced and consumed in India. Devina Singh, Campaign and Communications Manager at Fairtrade India, says that the organization inquires into the supply chain by asking “Who Grew My Clothes?” Now an international movement, Fairtrade India has also launched India's first fairtrade school (followed by many others across the country), educating students about transparency in fashion along the way.
