Would You Wear Trash? India’s New Fashion Trend Might Surprise You

Ranju Sable is at work well before the residents of swanky high-rises and commercial towers stirs awake. Dressed in a fading cotton saree with feet jammed into scuffed rubber slippers and a wiry back drooping under an oversized sack, all bearing scars of umpteen repairs, she prowls the upmarket Mumbai neighbourhood, rummaging through overflowing bins and roadsides for plastic bottles tossed aside by frenetic Mumbaikars. By noon, her decade-long regimen of lifting and sorting discards would have yielded enough plastic for her next meal — the haul sells at a princely fifteen rupees a kilogram when the haggling isn’t brutal.

Later that morning, at a mall a few kilometres away in Bandra, Rhea Sethi, a twenty-something digital marketer, is stopped in her tracks by an unusual tag on a sleeveless ethnic jacket: “Made from 10 recycled plastic bottles”. Her eyes dart towards the price tag: “Rs. 2,499”. “Steep,” she mumbles, “but will it last?” Yet, minutes later, she lets Rs. 4,798 change hands: she has also bought a pair of sneakers designed to “keep another 8 plastic bottles out of the ocean”. Before long, the purchases appear on her Instagram page with the caption, “Proud to have saved some plastic from ending up in a landfill.” Her green act gathers two dozen hearts by the time she steps out of the cab.

Visit milkshakeslot.com for more information.

Between Ranju’s frayed slippers and Rhea’s statement sneakers lies one of India’s most heart-warming consumer transformations: the slow but steady rise of the circular economy. The country is learning to dress itself from what it throws away — ranging from PET bottles to factory off-cuts and old garments — keeping them from clogging dumpsites or washing into waterways.

From Trash to Trend

A growing tribe of designers and entrepreneurs like Gautam Gupta, Madhurima Singh, Sayesha Sachdev, Tiruppur-based R.S. Balagurunathan of Anandi Enterprises, AltMAt’s Shikha Shah, Raydan’s Kaushik Varadan, Shreyans Kokra of Surat-based Canvaloop and the co-founders of Bombay Hemp Company are giving new life to waste by turning it into modern-day fibres and fabrics. Their ingredients are varied: banana stems, aloe vera rind, areca nut residue, hemp, nettle, eucalyptus, lotus stems, orange peels, pineapple fibres, rose petals and rose-pruning leftovers.

In fact, couture and bridal wear made from banana waste are among Delhi-based Gupta’s specialities, while Ravi Prasad’s Malwa Kela Resa from Uttar Pradesh is known for slippers and sanitary napkins made from banana-stem fibre. Besides natural fabric derived from pineapple-leaf fibres, Mayura Davda-Shah has also developed biodegradable alternatives to leather from fish scales. Vadodara-based Vipul Patel’s Gobarshala makes biodegradable fabric and other materials from cow dung for use in handbags, wallets and home furnishings.

Tamil Nadu-based Shree Renga Polymers, run by the father-son duo K. Sankar and Senthil Sankar, recycles around 15 lakh PET bottles a day into industrial textile inputs. Mumbai-based UNIREC, founded in 2021 by Kapil Bhatia, manufactures sustainable apparel, including T-shirts, trousers, blazers, jackets and corporate uniforms, using ecofriendly fabrics.

Neeman’s, founded by Taranjeet Singh Chhabra and Amar Preet Singh in 2017, makes everyday sneakers from recycled plastic bottles, rubber, merino wool and organic cotton. Ashay Bhave’s Thaely too has built its identity around vegan sneakers made from discarded plastic waste. Each swimsuit from Riya Majumdar’s Goya Swim Co. is made from 29 ocean-bound plastic bottles.

Bengaluru-based Caslay makes wardrobe essentials from recycled industrial cotton waste blended with PET bottle scrap. “Each of our T-shirts saves 3,000 litres of water and cuts carbon emissions by up to nine kilograms compared to its conventionally produced virgin-cotton counterpart,” says Caslay co-founder Dinesh Agrawal.

Some others are focused on the repair, return and customisation of existing textiles. Kriti Tula’s Doodlage makes new garments out of factory scraps, surplus fabric, old sarees and post-consumer textile waste. Designer Ashita Singhal, inspired by the Ghazipur landfill in Delhi, repurposes discarded textiles into fabrics for fashion and home décor items.

‘I Was a Sari’ trains and employs women from low-income communities to make contemporary fashion items out of old sarees. Tooused, founded in 2023 by Mayank Singh and Ayush Saxena, has turned the collection, redistribution and recycling of used clothes and shoes into a multi-crore business. Santosh Sunar’s Meghalaya-based Bharat RewearPay is also promoting the reuse of clothing while training “clothes quality auditors”. Women diligently sorting discarded clothes at a municipal textile waste recovery facility in Navi Mumbai, India’s first, are, in fact, trying to arrest a crisis the fashion industry has spent decades denying.

Stuck in Traffic? These Colour-Coded Corridors Decide Who Gets To Move — And Who Waits

Market in Motion

Despite growing at around 9–10 percent annually, the formal sustainable fashion segment still has only low-single-digit market penetration in India, highlighting the size of the opportunity ahead. “Although happy with circularity, the average Indian is still more focused on the effectiveness of the product after upcycling or recycling, and such decisions are still governed by product choices and pricing,” says Bhatia. “While the thought of sustainability is probably present in a large segment of the population, only a fraction actually chooses to purchase sustainable products. Thankfully, this number is growing exponentially.”

As the market evolves, credibility has become a critical differentiator. That makes greenwashing a major concern. “It has done more harm than good by making consumers wary of sustainability,” says Agrawal. “However, the transition is well underway.” Much of that momentum is being provided by the corporate sector for now. “Consumer awareness around sustainability is certainly growing,” Agrawal adds, “but at scale, it is more of a corporate push since becoming sustainable has a direct bearing on a company’s branding and future goals.” Irrespective of the trigger, what matters is that the waste informing Ranju’s livelihood and Rhea’s choices is now proudly making its way into India’s wardrobes, even if in quantities as unassuming as its origins.

Read full story at source