Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt believes switching up your fashion choices can contribute a lot towards sustainable fashion. She advocates passing on of clothes rather than throwing them out as the first step towards the right direction…writes Puja Gupta.
“You just have to switch up your choices, it’s as simple as that. You need to pass on your clothes to people instead of throwing them out. That is the most basic way to contribute. I never throw away my clothes at all. I pass them on,” Alia tells IANSlife.
“This is the best way you can indulge in sustainable fashion,” she adds. “Buying sustainable clothing is also an option, but sustaining that clothing and actually passing it on to people instead of throwing it away is probably the first step we have to do. These small choices contribute to a lifestyle change.”
Alia says she has passing on her clothes to her friends since she was young. She recalls: “When I used to grow out of certain clothes, I used to pass them on to my friends. I remember one day I was hanging out with my best friend, her cooks walks into the room wearing a t-shirt which I gave to her some three years ago. So, she passed my t-shirt on to her cook. I was so amazed with it. The memory still stays with me. Something you don’t use can be of extremely useful to somebody else.”
The ‘Highway’ actress recently launched her sustainable clothing line for called kids Ed-a-Mamma’. Commenting on her new venture, she tells IANSlife: “Ed-a-mama is a brand that cares about two things in particular — children and our planet.”
How did all start? Alia replies: “I was wanting to do something in this space. One day when we were all sitting together and I was enquiring about how I can start my own fashion label; I really don’t know anything about business but I realised that there’s no dearth of fashion labels for people of my age or above. I asked if there was a gap in the market and we noted that there’s a real need for a world class children’s clothing brand; a brand which is made in India. It immediately caught my attention.”
The label offers a range of apparel for both boys and girls and is made of plant-based, biodegradable natural fibres like cotton and linen. The brand uses scrap fabrics to make hair ties and potlis.
“I was working on a series of stories about a little girl and her dog, having different adventures, saving the planet from any ecological harm. The reason I was making those stories was to nurture in children a love for nature. If you start extremely young, then it becomes a part of their DNA, their personality and they go a long way in making the right choices in the future to not harm our environment. And then we decided to extend that into the universe,” Alia explains.
Adding: “Ed-a-mama is a universe. Our first offering is conscious clothing brands and we are going to extend this to stories, video series. So, it is constantly nurturing in children a love for nature; that is the brand’s story.”
“Also, every garment comes with little seed balls, waiting to be planted. It’s an activity for the child and parent to do together. The brand cares about children and the planet. It’s a playwear brand,” Alia informs.
Bhatt shares she is also part of the creative and designing team of the brand. “We are a start-up and everybody’s sort of doubling up and playing multiple roles.”