Wasabi - A Sustainable Fashion Brand
The year 2020 has indeed been an eye-opener, as Natasha Sinha wrote in her blog. I resonate with her view that it’s time to pay our dues to our precious planet and allow it time to heal. It's time we became more conscious of not just our health and social well-being, but also that of our planet. Our planet is vulnerable, our actions today will have consequences that will be borne by our future generations.
Today, various studies and reports warn us of the rapidly depleting natural resources and rising pollution levels, a result of our irresponsible and rampant production and consumption patterns. It's about time that we come up with a lot more creative and sustainable ways of doing business, ways to not only help mankind thrive but also give nature a chance to revive.
Case in point being the apparel industry where the production process results in huge amounts of toxic waste at every stage and having harmful environmental consequences for decades, if not centuries, to come.
In my twenty years of experience in the fashion industry, I have worked with brands like Pottery Barn, Eager Beaver, Country Road, and more. My work has given me immense satisfaction, allowing me to play with new fabrics, textures, embroideries, and colors while creating exciting new silhouettes. In 2017 I realised the need of bringing change to our shopping habits, the need for sustainable and eco friendly clothing, leading me to start Wasabi, a clothing brand that is sustainable, eco-friendly and body inclusive. Wasabi is a brand for the 21st Century.
A lot of hard work and perseverance has gone into building Wasabi and bringing it to where it stands today. While navigating through the highs and lows of this wonderful journey, a conscious effort has been made to make Wasabi a sustainable brand. Emphasis has been given to ecological integrity and social justice to address the inherent environmental, social, and economic concerns associated with the fashion industry.
Wasabi follows measures like ethical manufacturing - Slow fashion business model, using of sustainable fabric, following a minimum wastage policy by using up-cycled fabric for masks and bags. Also, providing good working conditions to the employees while ensuring fair trade and dignity of labour forming the core ethos at Wasabi.
For months, I have been thinking about how Wasabi can further contribute to sustainable fashion.
With masks becoming the new normal, it is critical we use them to safeguard ourselves, and those around us. However, an alarmingly large number of people use single-use masks! Sadly, these discarded masks are adding to the already overstrained polluted ecosystem of our planet. They have cluttered beaches and nature trails all around the world, and according to environmental groups, are a threat to marine and wildlife habitats.
To add to the misery, these single-use masks are made from polypropylene, which is a type of plastic that doesn’t break down quickly. According to Plastic Free Seas founder, Tracey Read, “People think they are protecting themselves, but it’s not just about protecting yourselves, you need to protect everybody.”
In an attempt to break this vicious cycle, Wasabi started making masks for its employees and their families from the up-cycled fabric, and we soon realized how these washable and reusable masks could help protect the environment.
Encouraged by the initial response, we went full steam ahead with our little contribution towards environmental protection. We now retail sustainable masks with a distinct stamp of Wasabi styling and aesthetics, and there has been a heartening response from our beloved customers.
A sustainable mask is not a very profitable product for retail. However, it gives us an opportunity to pay our dues to our precious planet and provide employment to our hard working employees in this economically challenging time.
What are your thoughts on sustainable fashion? We would love to know your view on creating a sustainable fashion business model and also saying no to fast fashion.
You could get back to us by contacting us on our website!