Anavila Misra
Founder
Anavila Collection
Why did you choose to incorporate sustainability in your creations? What is the scope of sustainable fashion? What are the limitations that you face while working with sustainable materials? Can you be innovative with sustainable textiles?
My desire to work with the handloom industry was the motivation to work in a craft cluster project as a project consultant and design studio manager. It was a detailed project focused on cluster development in five different states. The project was intended to create sustainable employment while taking into consideration artisans' skills. Working with the handloom community inspired me to work with handwovens.
Working on organic yarn tests your ability as a designer. We only work with natural yarns. Nearly 80 per cent of our production is in linen, cotton, organic cotton and natural coloured cotton. Most of my works are linen-based. Linen is a fibre that looks casual, but is luxurious as it is good for the skin and is also comfortable. Sometimes, we use silk to make saris. However, we use silk after blending it with either linen or cotton. We prefer natural dyes, but due to environmental issues in terms of design and colour textile, we have to resort to artificial ones. We use only those artificial dyes that do not harm the weavers and those processing the dyes. We have to come up with sustainable clothes while maintaining our brand. When you start working with one yarn, linen; and one garment, the sari, the scope of permutation and combination gets limited. It requires thorough research to come up with creative, sustainable saris.
Sustainable textile has become a trend. Fashion shows are encouraging the sustainable theme. Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2017 dedicated a day particularly for textiles. The same was the case with Amazon India Fashion Week with a show promoting craft and clusters. Sustainable fashion has a bright future. Gradually, apparel stores are encouraging events around sustainable textiles.
Published on: 16/02/2017
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
