There are a group of designers who belong to a completely different league, for they waste no material. In fact, they use every shred to come up with something exquisite. While some
of them use excess material to create a whole new garment, others recycle the materials to create a new look or accessories. They believe that no piece of excess cloth must be wasted.
These designers started reusing and recycling materials during their college days. Now, since they are hard pressed for time, they indulge in this passion of theirs only during their free time.
Designer Deepika Govind constructively uses small pieces of cloth that is usually counted as waste. She doesn’t weave a complete garment but uses these pieces effectively as patchwork across the garment.
“The small ‘patolas’ and ‘ikats’ are used as part of the garment. Every piece of cloth is precious to me and it gets recycled and recreated in a new form,” says Deepika.
Thinking on the same lines is designer Jason Cherian who doesn’t want to call excess fabric a ‘waste’. He prefers to dub it as ‘precious material’. “I don’t like to call it scrap and this is a message that I send out to my teammates as well, so they too treat it like a precious something not to be discarded as a dusty heap,” explains Jason.
Jason has created tops, dresses, jackets, laptop bags and a few pouches from recycled material. “We take a holistic approach to use the excess material effectively to refashion the existing line,” he adds.
Bibi Russell has been working on fabrics using recycled material for as long as she can remember. “I love experimenting with small pieces of cloth and what we normally call as waste is used to create something exquisite. I’ve worked on tops, dresses, saris, jackets, stoles... you name it. The clothes that are created from these fabrics have a special look and feel about them,” says Bibi.
Kamal Raj Manikath recalls working with plastic and metal scrap in his line. “I’ve been inspired to create a collection using the small metal pieces that come when metal is drilled. It is a tedious process but the result is stunning.
I’ve worked around plastic as well. Working on these is fun and the best comes out in terms of creativity but it isn’t really practical,” he states. And that’s not all. Some designers, like Susan Fernandes, create bags from old and worn-out denims.
“All the old garments are cut and made into something new. I usually throw in a few colours and add a few extra stitches to make a new product,” reasons Susan.
