Couture that cares

Did you know that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, next only to oil? In what’s a first in the city, the GreenStitched Film Festival, a free sustainable fashion film festival will screen films all day long to bring you up-to-date on the issue on February 18 at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).  

“I saw that there were film screenings on several topics, like water conservation for instance, that created a lot of awareness in the city. Since fashion isn’t just about glamour and can create an impact too, I thought, why not sustainable fashion?” says Roshni Rajendra, an alumnus of NIFT, Bengaluru and the 23-year-old brain behind this festival. Through the 12 curated films that will touch upon a range of topics including organic cotton, fast fashion, slow fashion, social issues, waste and design, you can also attempt to understand answers to questions like what’s a better fabric – khadi or polyester, how does one identify if a garment is fashionable or sustainable, amongst other things. It will also include critically-acclaimed and award winning movies like Weaves of Maheshwar, Unravel and even Frontline Fashion, which will premiere for the first time in India.
Since being fashionable doesn’t necessarily mean being ‘fad’shionable, Roshni hopes that the thought-provoking documentaries that the festival has on offer will inspire people to wear their clothes for a lot longer than they used to and not throw it out. Supported by NIFT, the festival aims to bring together students, academia and industry professionals and is already creating some curiosity. For some of them, it’s the medium itself – “This film festival promises a very exciting insight into sustainable fashion. What better medium than films for this?” says Madhurima Mantha, a final year student at Christ University, who has in the past been a part of exciting events around sustainability and believes that this one is out of the box. For others, it’s the questions that it introduces its audiences to. 

“We have forgotten to appreciate clothes, to appreciate the process – the processes that are part of complex economic and environment cycle. Fast fashion is destroying natural resources, traditional systems much faster than we think. It is imperative to ask a few basic questions – Who made my clothes? What is it made of? Where is it made? We all have a responsibility towards our planet that we often oversee. And it is just one little step that can bring in a great change. I think this film festival will help raise many questions and also answers to them,” says Geeta Patil, a textiles and crafts designer from the city who has designed for several eco-friendly brands across the country. Whatever it may be, this one is a cut, tad different.