From Waste to Luxury

An aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly critique of wealth distribution

The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, with textile waste overloading landfill and toxic chemicals threatening the environment. An option to counteract is to upcycle textile waste into new quality products. But it can mean even more.
The collection consists of two elements. The first part are bags, which combine jute and cotton with textile waste materials that have a highly luxurious appeal. The other part of the collection are ponchos and similar outerwear, for which a combination of old sarees and waste pieces from the textile production were woven and stitched in zero waste patterns.
The idea was to convert production waste into seemingly international luxury goods, with the use of traditional local production techniques. They are not dissimilar to branded, “authentic” goods produced in the same Southeast-Asian cheap labour context, that are generating huge profits in other parts of the world. The difference here is that the products do not claim authenticity and value, but follow an opposite no waste logic and build on a sustainable relationship with the person manufacturing them. Formulating an implicit critique of the global distribution of wealth, they are also nice and environmental friendly items to use and wear.

Shuvadra Banik Nitu