Twenty-one-year-old Sayesha Sachdev’s latest collection ‘Conscious’ incorporates organic cotton and industrial waste. It is also devoid of chemical dyes or treatments and her mission is to be 100% sustainable.
“We have incorporated fabrics made of banana fibre, which we developed over a period of six to eight months. We also included industrial waste because fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world. The concept of zero waste is significant to our brand ethos,” says the Bengaluru-based art director and designer Sayesha, who studied Fashion Communication and Promotion with a specialisation in Art Direction from CSM London and is the daughter of designer Jyoti Sachdev Iyer.
Through her label, she seeks to pay tribute to the artisans (mostly from North and East India) whom she closely works with. “We offer the buyer a personalised experience with a little note featuring the name of the artisan, the village he hails from and the time he took to make the garment. We want the artisans to get credit for all work they put in. The creative vision of a designer would not come to life without their efforts.”
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Her collection features everything from dresses to shirts and trousers that can be worn across occasions; they are a blend Indian and Western sensibilities. Her next collection, describes Sayesha, will feature natural dyes. The collection is an expression of her experimentation with dyes made of spices and flowers.
“Natural dyes, like indigo have been done to death, so we started looking into spices such as turmeric and flowers such as hibiscus. I want my collection to have a positive message. Clothes shouldn’t just be something you wear, they should also reinforce the confidence, the voice of the woman who wears them.”
What sets her apart from her counterparts, feels Sayesha, is her attention to fit and silhouette.
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“Sustainably designed clothes somehow tend to be more anti-fit and don’t accentuate the best of the body. We try to take experimental design and incorporate it into sustainable fabrics. This is challenging because these fabrics are rough and earthy. Yet sustainable fashion is what I am passionate about and truly believe in. I want to do it in the best way possible.”
Though her clothing is currently available in pop-ups as well as in stores across London and New York, her collections will be soon be available at Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop as well as her upcoming e-commerce portal.
She has a studio in Indiranagar, where she custom designs clothing; buyers will be able to choose from a range of sustainable fabrics as well as dyes. She also designs collections for other labels and designers, such as Bombay Attic.
“The idea is to make people realise they can buy couture or pret without having to comprise on their lifestyles, just by being a little more conscious. At the same time, I don’t want to expand into mass production because it takes away from the sustainability factor. I want to keep my work small, exclusive, curated and educational, though I will continue to spread awareness on sustainability.”
The hardest part about her work as a designer, she says, is having to convince artisans about reusing waste fabric and then convincing customers about why they should opt for sustainable clothing.
“I had to do this a few years ago when the concept was still new. But over time, I see more people have made the transition. I am also a strong believer in minimalism. Instead of buying use and throw garments, that lose their value quickly, it is better to save up and invest in a piece that is meaningful, that will last a lifetime. But for that, it is important to be happy with oneself. That is the kind of living I am trying to promote.”