The concept of sustainable and ethical fashion is on the rise in India, as more and more brands and consumers are becoming conscious of their choices and the impact they have on environment and people. Ethical fashion refers to fair trade practices and the production of ethical fashion garments that promote fair labor rights and pay workers living wages along with low environmental impacts, Labor rights, environmental impacts, and price constraints are the main criteria used to assess the true sustainability of fashion. Sustainable fashion is a step towards addressing some of the world’s most urgent environmental and labor rights challenges.
For the past decade, India’s fashion industry has been on an upward spiral, suffering from the issues of underpaid and toxic working conditions, child labor and poor environmental policies. In-spite of a growing demand for ethical and sustainable fashion, production continues to be an industry, in which technology, profit and speed drive trends over obligation to perform good.
To fight this and move to a more sustainable model, several Indian fashion players have made a conscious move towards sustainability. Organizations such as No Nasties, Runaway Bicycle, Seematti, EcoFab and many others have emerged in India as the pioneers of sustainable fashion.
The production of sustainable clothing and accessories is also on the rise, with more Indian fashion designers including sustainable elements in their garments. The employment of eco-friendly fabrics, traditional and sustainable fabrics such as wool, organic cotton, hemp, jute, bamboo, soy and sea-cell, as well as low-impact dyes, help in producing guilt-free clothes.
In addition, India is becoming more aware of ethical fashion initiatives such as Fair Trade and The Ethical Fashion Forum. India is also gradually becoming conscious of the damaging effects of fast fashion, hence the increasing amount of up-cycling, vintage shopping and swapping it is doing.
This rise of sustainable and ethical fashion has proved to be beneficial for India, as it has enabled more people to connect with environment-friendly outfits, which also happened to be relatively pocket-friendly. To conclude, the trend of sustainable and ethical fashion is growing in India and its only a matter of time before it catches up in deep areas of the country. it certainly points the way to a sustainable future for India.