Young Indian entrepreneurs are hopping on to the ethical and sustainable fashion bandwagon.
The latest entrant is Chennai-based Surbhi Hasija, who recently started Aloe House, a line of breathable resort wear. “It started off as a college project when I was pursuing fashion marketing in Raffles College, Singapore. It required us to make a sustainable product or service,” says Hasija. The feedback for the product was largely encouraging, so she decided to go a step further and launch it as a fashion brand. “Sustainability is big today, more so abroad. But people in India are still not ready to spend as much on slow fashion.”
Hasija’s creations feature organic cotton cloth infused with aloe vera extracts. This, she claims, makes the fabric softer and keeps the body cooler. It also makes the garment anti-bacterial and breathable. “While researching I found a lot of different fabrics made using bamboo, hem and even soya. But not so much with aloe vera. I spoke to a lot of people who work closely with fashion brands back in Singapore and they were quite surprised when I mentioned this plant as the concept was unheard of.”
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The 21-year-old’s line includes kaftans, scarves and sarongs. She also uses her brand to reach out to local embroiderers in Chandigarh. “We add a lot of embroidery in our clothes. In the north there are a lot of local embroiderers who could do so much better with a little more work,” says the fashion marketer.
(The collection is available on www.aloehouse.in)