When Deepak Panicker, a visiting faculty with National Institute of Fashion Technology in Chennai, learnt about the challenge Thuli faced in maintaining a steady stock of boys’ clothes, he offered help.
Children’s clothes make the staple of what Thuli sells, and so he offered to re-fashion these clothes, says Deepak, a fashion designer and educator with a studio of his own.
He found a tailoring unit at Kundrathur that was happy to take up the work, with some guidance.
Deepak trained them to make optimum use of the second-hand clothes brought to them.
“We opened some plus-sized shirts, separating the sleeve, yoke and collar and placed the pattern to transform them into fashionable clothes for young boys,” says Deepak.
This way, many extra-large shirts got converted into clothes for boys and t-shirts got redone as shorts.
Deepak says as long as the fabric is good, it can be upcycled to make it more fashionable.
More than 300 clothes got altered at the tailoring unit to be showcased at the store.
“We did this till COVID called a halt to this work,” says Deepak.
He knows that not many are keen on taking up the work of cutting old clothes and resizing them, but emphasises that as this initiative promotes sustainability, fashion designers should take it up.
“The textile industry is the second largest pollutant and some fabrics pose a greater threat to the environment, so the least we can do is upcycle them,” says Deepak, adding that he is keen on engaging with enterprises and groups for similar projects.
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