Mumbai-based sustainable clothing label Saltpetre, has been shortlisted for The Circular Design Challenge (CDC) at Lakme Fashion week. A first-of-its-kind sustainability award in fashion, the challenge is a collaborative initiative by United Nations in India, the Lakme Fashion Week and Reliance Industries Ltd’s R | Elan ‘Fashion For Earth’. The Circular Design Challenge saw over 900 registrations from over 30 cities in India.
Eight fashion enterprises, including Saltpetre founded by MICA graduate Pooja Monga have been shortlisted for the finale. The brands will get a chance to showcase their new line in Lakme Fashion Week and the winner will get Rs 20 lakh to build their sustainable fashion brand.
Saltpetre (meaning — salt of the earth) was launched in 2017 as an initiative to bring sustainable and minimal clothing in mainstream fashion. The brand designs work appropriate clothing in minimal, non-restrictive silhouettes and builds them using earth sustainable practices. The products are made to be fashion-trend-agnostic and are devoid of any adornment that doesn’t serve a functional purpose.
Pooja, 37, is an ardent advocate of a minimalist lifestyle and believes that the shift from fast fashion to sustainable, earth-friendly brands is necessary and luckily, a growing trend in the fashion space.
Saltpetre is collaborating with faculty members at IIT-Kharagpur for a life-cycle analysis which makes an assessment of the carbon footprint and environmental impact of its designs. “I believe that the maker can’t be the checker. And what you can’t measure, you can’t improve,” Pooja said. “The products are made from eco-friendly materials which can cut harmful carbon emissions by 40 per cent. We aim to minimise the carbon-footprint from inception to end-of-life of the product- we produce locally and have a loop-back mechanism to up-cycle or re-cycle the product,” she added.
Saltpetre also delivers its products in seed-starter-packaging wherein every shipment comes with some herb seeds. Customers can use specially designed 100 per cent biodegradable packaging to incubate the seeds for four-six weeks and nourish them into saplings. “In our small way, we want to offset some of the environment impact and encourage customers towards nourishing the environment,” Pooja said.
