As a sustainable approach to high-end clothing, an Indian designer is piecing together fashion wear for males and females using leftover scraps of fabric. Kriti Tula‘s design line Doodlage, located in New Delhi, takes fabric trash from manufacturers rejected for small flaws and stitches it all together to make flowing gowns and sarees that retail for around $100 apiece. Doodlage is a fashion brand, which was started in April 2012 with a basic idea of upcycling and recycling waste material to form fresh pieces of wearable fabric.
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Tula explained that the label, which features a men’s collection with patched shirts with denim strips, arose from her awareness of climate change and the clothing industry’s environmental effect. Working at large textile exporting businesses, the designer said she saw firsthand the ecological cost of increasing fashion: wastage of fabric and water, as well as chemicals generated during the manufacturing process. It’s her inclination towards design that led her to pursue fashion.
“Everything we wear ultimately affects everything we consume, drink, and inhale,” Tula said to Reuters at her studio in the capital. According to the United Nations Environmental Program, the $2.4 trillion global fashion company contributes 8-10% of global carbon dioxide emissions — more than all international flights and marine transportation combined.
The sector is also the second-largest user of water, producing around 20% of the world’s wastewater, according to the report. Tula stated that getting the scraps originally proved difficult and that the product costs had to be more than what many purchasers believed was worth paying for recycled clothing. Her company, on the other hand, has gradually acquired like-minded vendors and partners, she claims. Her label, in addition to clothing, creates soft toys, bags, wallets, and paper from leftover fabric.
