Environment Friendly ways to Celebrate festivals – Embracing Ethical Ethnic Fashion!
“To make the World a better place, each one of us has to do their Bit” Saving the planet is no more a responsibility of the NGO’s and Celebrities, it has become an intrinsic part of all of our lives. There is an increasing awareness about sustainability and Environmental friendly processes not only in everyday lives but also in the fashion industry. People have become more and more aware of brands that are using less water, organic materials and are going “Green” with ecofriendly process and designs. Fashion World today is embracing the Ethnic Indian fashion with both hands, days have come where celebrated designers are bent upon doing their bit to save the planet adapting a holistic approach towards producing ecofriendly outfits taking into account the entire life-cycle of a garment along with fair trade practices.
Being from environmental Science background, I have always been interested in brands that do a little less damage to the environment. Till now my best bet over environmental friendly clothing has been Recycling and reuse of old clothes, that I have been doing time and again. Recently I came across this brand called Lila that has a complete holistic approach towards ethical clothing and that itself was enough for me to go ahead and collaborate with them. “Saying No to crackers” is not the only way to save environment this Diwali it seems, there is a lot more that we can do to save the environment right from the clothes we wear to the jewelry we use to the way we shop groceries and vegetables. Each and every choice that we make, each and every brand that we pick has so much more magnitudal impact on the overall environement that we live in and the air that we breathe. So here is my bit towards our planet this Diwali, an ecofriendly fashion Diwali OOTD for you to celebrate your festivities with a good cause.
Here is something about the brand, Lila is a label by Shruti Narayan based in Delhi, who uses pure cotton and raw silk materials dyed in natural dyes using simple colours to create garments that are adaptive to the climate. All of their outfits are hand-crafted at their little shed house. Lila garments are made with pure fabrics that contain absolutely no synthetic fibres. All their fabrics are sourced locally and clothes are manufactured locally. They also calculate the carbon footprint of each of their garments and continously working to minimize and compensate by planting a pot of plant for each garment purchased (great idea!) The structured silhouettes and naturally dyed fabric of earthen materials make up for a great style statement as well.
The outfits are not only hand-spun and ethically made but are also utmost comfortable, breathe easy and with internal pockets (which brands offers pockets in women outfits these days?? that too a salwar kameez!) The palazzo and kameez both look great and give such a feel good vibe. I celebrated my diwali with this eco-sustainable outfit from Lila and it was a pleasure to flaunt them.
They pack their outfits in a jute bag that has lila written over it with natural vegetable dye. Nowhere do they use any kind of taping or plastics even in packaging of the garments. Even the tags are made of a cotton cheesecloth.
The tags says ” Handcrafted with 100% Natural Materials. This Lila Product is a Commitment to Environment & Community Which you support when you Buy Lila.” Obviously one brand, or one single person cannot change the World, but this brand aims at making the World a better place, one outfit at a time. Enough Said!
So here is how I styled the outfit. The outfit has a structured well-tailored handmade ink blue kameez that overlaps in the front giving a fashionable slit in the centre, which is paired with straight fit white palazzo pants that too are organic cotton and very comfy to wear. They also sent me a beautiful blush pink duppatta to match the outfit, again in pure cotton.
Going all ethnic, I chose to wear hand-made juttis sourced from a local mart in jaipur with the outfit. The neck-piece is a silver oxidized ornament bought from an Exhibition and the elephant print menakari earrings are a priced possession of my mom’s heirloom. I simply tied up my hair in a pony-tail and went minimalist on the makeup with just a coral lip balm. The dress has two side slit pockets and gives a complete indo-western vibe. The structured top can be paired with both Indian and western wear. Also giving the duppatta a scarf like styling can completely change the look!
I love the colors and especially love the fact that I am doing my bit towards the environment wearing a sustainable naturally dyed garment that employees traditional handCrafters. This in itself has made my Diwali a little more better. How about celebrating festivals with such ecofriendly outfits? Tell me your opinion in the comments below.
