Caring for health and artisans

The MORAL and FIBRE route to clothe the world : Shailini's endeavour was to use more of natural materials

A few years ago, on a hot, humid monsoon day Shailini Amin, who had been living in the UK for over two decades, was visiting her hometown Ahmedabad. Out all day, when she returned home to change in to fresh clothes, she was aghast to see her body turn blue!

No. She did not suffer any heat stroke. Nor did she have any allergies to hot or humid climes back home. As a matter of fact, it was the colour of her peacock blue “bandhani” top that had run all over her and despite taking what she calls a “hot soapy shower”, she could not get rid of her blues completely.

Next, she had a nasty, red rash. She first thought that it must have been due to prickly heat but it was not. A doctor friend told her that the dye of her top had “something” in it and had affected her skin. He told her that these dyes could be poisonous. So much so that these dyes also affect the dyers in the villages where it is made, with many artisans having their hands and fingers damaged. This shocked Shailini, who claims that now she was turning red and blue. Not because of dye but with anger!

The incident made Shailini, the niece of Indumati Chamanlal, a freedom fighter and Gujarat’s first textile minister, think. Ironically, it was Chamanlal who had set up Khadi Mandir, India’s first khadi store, in Ahmedabad in the 1950s, where Shailini had spent most of her formative years working in the outlet. She thought about the clothes we buy and wear, their manufacturing process, the people involved and what their characteristics are.

A trained career architect, travelling between India and England, Shailini was closely involved with various aspects of green, energy efficient and sustainable built environment projects. Her passion was about conservation and heritage support of buildings, people and places. Having committed equal time for paid and community-based voluntary work all through her career, she had been involved with research and work on initiating action programs for village level groups, artisans and international communities.
“My experience of turning blue and red had remained with me. When I returned from England to Ahmedabad a decade ago, my first project was to build a house for my family and myself. That experience of finding our roots again and experimenting at ‘grounding’ took me closer to my personal heritage. It took me beyond architecture and I became very passionate about handcrafted fabrics,” Shailini says.

The other strength Shailini had was that having lived in England and in India, she had been exposed to both sides of international textiles change - from the producer side and from the buyer/consumer side.  Influenced profoundly by her aunt Indumatiben Chamanlal and close family association with Mahatma Gandhi and India’s Freedom Struggle, Shailini was influenced by the ethical, moral and social values the freedom movement had generated.

Polluting industry

When she began her tryst with the textile industry, she knew that this industry is the second biggest employer in the world but had become one of the most polluting and exploitative industries. “Many times the buying houses, distributors and mills show very high profit margins for their shareholders but the people lower down the supply chain are overlooked. The workers are exploited by very low wages and they work in questionable health and safety conditions. The farmers become victims of buying agents and get paid very little.  Many times greed and apathy play a larger role,” she says.

So in 2007, she began her journey by setting up MORALFIBRE - the fabric made using almost no electricity and no harmful chemicals. One that is “almost Carbon Neutral” and allergy-free.

Generally the manufacturerer of the cloth use about 600 to 800 chemicals; many of them harmful to the body.

Her endeavour was to be able to source and sell a fabric that uses more of natural materials that are not harmful to the body and the environment, reducing the chances of allergies and illnesses caused by skin contact and fumes of the harmful substances from the fabric. This also protects the health of the artisans too.

Today, the MORALFIBRE cloth is made of biodegradable materials, using finite energy and resources so that it makes less negative impact on the environment. Unlike other industrially manufactured woven and knitted ones, these hand crafted fabrics making involve hand spinning and hand weaving using “people energy” instead and has far-reaching economic and social benefits to the artisans living in remote villages.

The primary source of raw material too remains certified organic cotton and non-certified cotton sourced from local farmers from the Saurashtra region and within 450 km radius of Ahmedabad. Natural alternatives such as natural spinning oils that biodegrade easily are used to facilitate spinning; potato starch is used for sizing. A good boiling wash removes the cotton wax. Fabrics are natural, greige (unfinished woven or knitted fabric that hasn't been bleached or dyed. It can be used for upholstery, window treatments, clothes and more)  and white, yarn dyed and fabric dyed with azo free dyes.

The weaving is single yarn, double yarns, plain or twisted. The prints are mainly hand block printed by local artisans in Indo- Western and contemporary styles. All this is done by over 3,000 artisans from various cooperatives in the region.

For marketing, MORALFIBRE acts more as a web-based social enterprise, using the world-wide optic fibre network to connect producers to the buyers. On one hand it works locally with co-operatives by creating work opportunities in fabric production, processing, dying, printing and tailoring. On the other, they approach buyers and potential buyers through networks, mainly in a B2B wholesale marketplace spread internationally across the UK, the US, Australia and many EU countries, over the internet.

Though the venture has been making a few ripples in the world fashion industry, the big bang break came last year when the fabrics were used by Warner Brothers in their Hollywood production and Hugh Jackman-starrer “Pan”. Currently into clothing, Shailini now plans to soon launch a range of garments that too will be sold only online.