We think of sustainability in every aspect from inception to production
Established to champion the cause of environmental consciousness in fashion, Flaunt Green melds artistic excellence with sustainable practices to offer chic, versatile, and in-vogue silhouettes for globally minded customers. In this conversation with Fibre2Fashion, Manasee Paranjape Ambhaikar, the co-promoter of Flaunt Green, the sustainable fashion arm of GISS, shares the inspirations, philosophies, and strategies driving Flaunt Green towards becoming a leading name in global sustainable fashion.
What inspired you to start Flaunt Green, and how did the journey begin?
Our years of experience in making Eco Ventures Private Limited (EVPL) the leading environmental consultancy and service provider in India, furthered our commitment to walk the talk on sustainability. Green Initiatives & Sustainable Solutions (GISS) was founded to provide sustainable lifestyle options outside our core business area. Flaunt Green was launched as the sustainable fashion arm of GISS. Flaunt Green also aims to provide globally appealing silhouettes in the sustainable fashion space.
How does Flaunt Green differentiate itself from other sustainable fashion brands in India and globally?
Flaunt Green is a recently launched sustainable slow fashion startup and can be described as the passion of a multidisciplinary team with a wide talent pool that is inspired by a common vision—to bridge the gap between fashion and sustainability. While a lot of fast fashion brands cater to trending silhouettes, we wanted to offer stylish versatile and timeless silhouettes that have a global appeal. We want to encourage a cultural shift that inculcates the practice of buying longer lasting eco-friendly garments produced by sustainable practices and crafted in timeless silhouettes.
The other USP of Flaunt Green is that each of its collections is cohesively curated around a central design inspiration—which, staying true to our origins, is an environmental concern that merits more mainstream discourse.
A long-term goal of Flaunt Green is to collaborate with research institutes to further innovate sustainable processes for eco-friendly fabrics. We also aim to partner with clusters of regional weavers and artisans to showcase the rich heritage of Indian textiles into global silhouettes that cater to a universal audience.
Could you elaborate on the philosophy behind ‘Green By Design’?
Green By Design is our guiding philosophy that ensures we think of sustainability in every aspect from inception to production, while also helping us make conscious and sustainable choices in our everyday lives as well—using public transportation or walking to vendors and meetings, using non-disposable kitchen plates and utensils, minimising single plastic usage, use of sustainable packaging, and ensuring fair wages for our vendors.
How does Flaunt Green ensure transparency and avoid greenwashing in its operations?
We communicate very clearly about specific aspects of sustainability achieved in each collection to avoid greenwashing and to offer transparency. This includes sourcing and using eco-friendly fabrics and sustainable trims and collaborating with vendors that support eco-friendly practices or encouraging them to adapt sustainable techniques.
We do this to set us firmly apart from some widely documented fast fashion brands that make tall claims about sustainability but ultimately contribute more towards landfill and unfair practices.
How do you think the fashion industry can establish universally accepted standards for sustainability, and what role do smaller brands play in driving this change?
This requires a massive collaborative effort like industry-wide certifications and reporting frameworks with a buy in from all stakeholders. Startup brands like Flaunt Green can drive change in promoting sustainable practices by raising awareness, highlighting their own methodology, and offering a compelling alternative to fast fashion products. Having said that there needs to be a positive policy push from the Government to incentivise these efforts.
Can you share more about your collaborations with research institutes and their impact on fabric development?
Flaunt Green has reached out to several premier research institutes for sustainable treatments on eco-friendly fabrics, and to improve existing processes in manufacturing of man-made cellulosic fabrics. As one might imagine, this is a capital-intensive process, and Flaunt Green is currently in talks for funding such research. Designing closed loop processes, using non-toxic starting materials, and reviving ancient Ayurvedic solutions is the goal behind this research.
What was the inspiration behind the Pristine collection, and how does it connect to the challenges of the HKH region?
The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) ranges, spanning a length of 3,500 kilometres, offer the largest sources of freshwater and volume of ice on earth outside the polar regions earning it the sobriquet of ‘The Third Pole’. This region has an incredibly diverse ecosystem and is home to parts of four global biodiversity hotspots. A direct consequence of global warming is the rapidly receding glaciers, which together with increased population, exploitation of natural resources, and indiscriminate developmental activities have led to largely irreversible changes to the HKH cryosphere. The consequent devastating impacts are environmental, geological, and social.
A redressal policy to mitigate these effects and restore the pace of the receding glaciers requires international cooperation, political will, and strict enforcement of laws governing responsible and sustainable development.
Flaunt Green aspires to make this discussion more mainstream by using this as a design inspiration for Pristine since it has the potential to affect up to a seventh of the world’s population.
How do you strike a balance between contemporary aesthetics and showcasing traditional Indian handlooms?
The fundamental reason for showcasing the rich heritage of Indian handlooms is to reclaim the textile superiority of our land which traces its roots to the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300-1300 BCE). Over time various regions developed their own unique textile traditions which led to a thriving decentralised cottage industry. This superior quality fabric used locally available natural fibres and traditional eco-friendly dyeing and printing techniques, which led India to be the largest textile producer and exporter in the world.
The unique task for our designers is to use sustainable practices right from choosing eco-friendly fabrics, sustainability aspects in garment construction, and weaving our stories into hand loomed fabrics. Our main appeal is crafting Indian hand loomed fabric into global and transcultural silhouettes. This is our ode to the niche handloom industry of India that needs mainstream revival.
As awareness grows, how do you see consumer preferences shifting towards sustainable fashion in the next five years?
With the real time access to information on social media, I predict a significant shift in consumer preferences towards brands that prioritise sustainability, use eco-friendly fabrics and trims, provide transparency, and encourage fair labour practices. Flaunt Green wants this shift to include awareness about the ancient Indian sustainable textile practices that find universal appeal through our global silhouettes.
Can you walk us through the process of selecting eco-friendly fabrics and sustainable trims for your designs?
We source eco-friendly and handloom fabrics from credible vendors who provide certificates and/or are promoted by the Government of India. We are also in talks with farmers to procure indigenous cotton varieties that can be hand spun and handwoven at credible facilities which will ensure transparency and in essence provide a fabric passport.
Each trim and embellishment used on our garments is carefully selected for their sustainable properties. Each of our garments use mechanically recycled YKK zippers, recycled eco-friendly threads (from companies like Coats, Gutermann etc), Corozo and wooden buttons, and eco-friendly surface ornamentation techniques (like eco-friendly threads for embroidery) and embellishments. Furthermore, staying true to our commitment to sustainability, we categorically eschew all synthetic facing, fusing, or lining materials, which challenges our designers to use innovative approaches to provide the perfect fit, function, and comfort without compromising on style.
How does Flaunt Green work with organic farmers and handloom weavers to support local communities?
Flaunt Green has visited various farmers and weavers in different states of India as well as engaging with other stakeholders. There is a need for Indians to subscribe to the sustainable superiority and eco-friendly excellence of our traditional textiles, so that a global acceptance is a natural consequence.
Working with handloom weavers is a trust building exercise with extensive on-ground engagement to convince these artisans that collaborating with us not only creates a win-win situation but also reaffirms our commitment to preserving their crafts as an integral part of their cultural identity. This is our first step towards creating a thriving ecosystem and thus a compelling alternative to the pull of urbanisation and to perpetuate these crafts.
What role do you think technology, such as blockchain or AI, can play in making the supply chain more transparent and sustainable?
Technology can play a vital role in increasing supply chain transparency and sustainability. Blockchain can help track material sourcing, while AI can analyse data to identify areas for improvement. These technologies can together promote more transparent and robust supply chains and enable brands to make more informed decisions in promoting sustainable practices.
What are your long-term goals for Flaunt Green, both in terms of business and sustainability?
Our long-term goal is to establish Flaunt Green as a sustainable fashion brand with global credibility. We also aim to build a more robust network of vendors that prioritise sustainability practices, strengthening research partnerships, and increasing support for local artisans.
How can the fashion industry accelerate the adoption of a circular economy model, and what infrastructure is still lacking?
The adoption of a circular economy model can create a more restorative and regenerative industry, by encouraging the following steps:
Education and Knowledge Partnership - Introducing tangible ways to design for recyclability, using circular design principles that consider the entire lifecycle of a product, provide training and capacity-building programmes for designers and manufacturers to cultivate skill building in circular design and practices.
Technology and Innovation - Leverage digital platforms and invest in technologies that promote circular business models including 3D design, digital printing and biodegradable materials, and utilising block chain technology to ensure transparency and traceability throughout the supply chain.
Policy & Regulation - Offering tax incentives, establishing regulations to encourage adoption of circular economy practices, funding research and development initiatives that focus on circular technology, establishing circular economy incubators and accelerators that support startups and entrepreneurs.
Industry Initiatives - Developing closed-loop manufacturing, offering product as a service model like rental to reduce waste, encouraging collaboration between brands, suppliers, and other stakeholders to share knowledge, best practices, and resources.
Customer Engagement - Implementing take back programmes, educating consumers on benefits of circular fashion, sustainable materials, and responsible consumption practices.
How effective are government regulations and incentives in promoting sustainable practices in the fashion industry? What changes would you like to see?
While the Indian government has floated several initiatives like the Handloom and Handicrafts Development Programme, and Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of Textile technologies to Help small Industries (SAATHI) etc, there are certain regulations that can be implemented:
Extended Producer Responsibility, where fast fashion brands are made responsible for the waste generated by their products; mandatory sustainability reporting; a ban on single-use plastics; the establishment of minimum environmental standards for sustainable materials, production processes, and waste management; and the introduction of standardised certification schemes to enable consumers to identify sustainable fashion products.
To offer a competitive alternative to fast fashion production, the government can provide tax incentives for small, slow fashion brands that adopt sustainable practices. Additionally, it can offer subsidies for using sustainable and eco-friendly fabrics and accessories, grants for innovation in sustainable technologies, and integrate sustainable fashion education into fashion and textile design courses. Furthermore, the government could build sustainable textile parks with green infrastructure, renewable energy, and waste management facilities.
There is also an urgent need for the government to incentivise decentralised hubs that encourage artisans from specific regions to practice and perpetuate their textile art. These hubs should provide state-of-the-art infrastructure for seamless fibre-to-fabric production using both traditional and innovative sustainable practices.
