Designer Agraj Jain fell in love with sustainable fashion while participating for “The Kering award for Sustainable fashion” during his final year of bachelors of Fashion Design Technology from University of the Arts London. “I proposed an idea of using a cruelty-free silk which is a Ahimsa Silk/‘Peace Silk’ which got invented in India only & is certified by the government. The entire journey of that competition was an eye opener for me because that’s when I realised that sustainability in fashion industry is way more than just recycling & reusing. The sustainability has to be present in each DNA of a fashion brand from production to marketing, consumer awareness to environmental impact, selling of goods to sourcing one”, says the young designer hailing from city of Agra, India.
Post graduation, he worked with Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee as a Design Assistant and later started his fashion label ‘Agrajain’ in 2018. “Rather than making it just another sustainable label, we work more towards the luxury couture side of it. Our idea here was to propose the fact that sustainable fashion can also be glamorous, luxurious and fun rather than just being earthy & organic. We at Agrajain believe that every piece of fashion is also a work of art. Art, is a celebration of Life itself and we believe that it should not cause suffering to any living being, however small. Therefore we don’t use any animal skin, silks or leather materials. Our brand is committed to showcasing the best of couture yet in a sustainable and eco-friendly way”, adds the talented young designer.
Being in sustainable fashion, the biggest challenge we face is the mindset of consumers as they think that sustainable fabrics are rough textured, faded colours and sticky. At Agrajain, our aim here is to give them the best quality fabric, and made in eco-friendly manner without any compromise on design and colour. Our clients are really surprised to witness that sustainable fashion can be cool & contemporary too.
In 2021, the label launched its first Indian wear collection for men & women. The collection has been made with a sustainable approach. They have used shaded dye technique which requires less water & energy loss. Along with that they have used non plastic cann cann skirts being developed by them with smart fabrics and techniques. It is 50% less in weight than usual market plastic cann cann, more comfortable more durable, easy to carry, easy to maintain, etc. Similarly, they have used many other different sustainable processes which makee the wholesome experience more positive & eco friendly. The collection is inspired by paintings of Mughal empire.
SUSTAINABILITY & AGRAJAIN
MATERIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Being a Jainist and a cruelty free brand, we don’t use any kind of skin, leather, fur or any material which requires an animal slaughtering or cause harm to any living being. As part of this approach, we use ‘Ahimsa silk or Peace silk’ which is a fabric that is created in the most humane manner possible. While normal silk is created by boiling millions of silk- worms to their death in order to create the ultimate fabric. In case of Peace silk, we wait while the silkworm has completed its natural life cycle to use the silk yarn which is used to create the ultimate fabric. We use different variants of this fabric which is woven beautifully and use it to create different looks and styles. This fabric portrays the philosophy behind our brand, which is to strengthen sustainable fashion and makes our clothes beautiful while celebrating life in all its forms. Along with ‘Peace Silk’, we also use other sustainable fabrics like ‘Khadi’, Organic Cotton, Natural dyed cambric fabric, Viscose, Cotton sheer fabric etc.
UPCYCLING & RECYCLING
Up-cycling is one of the most important part of our studio where we recycle or use all the unwanted fabric scraps, kept aside during the production. We are in constant touch with different export houses and their vendors, who supplies us the good quality of excessive ordered or unused leftover embroidery yarns and threads. These threads have been intricately used in creating our iconic french knots embroidered menswear and womenswear ensemble.
TEXTILE SUSTAINABILITY
Hand Painting is the technique which is widely used in our textiles. It is one of the most hand made artistic technique. Also the water consumption in this technique is equivalent to nil as compared to other printing techniques. We have also started developing a new technique where we create high couture embroidered flowers & other elements using the waste scrap fabric.
ZERO WASTE PATTERN CUTTING
We also use the technique of Zero waste Pattern cutting in our designs where there isn’t any kind of fabric waste during the production.
PACKAGING
We as a team follows an eco-friendly packaging guidelines in which we don’t use any kind of plastics. All our packaging tapes and stickers are made up of paper. The boxes we use are sustainable and are made from high quality up-cycled cardboard sheets.The threads we use in our tags are recycled thread yarn from rugs industry. And the thick muslin cloth we use for the outer packaging is also stiff and can be used again.
LESS CARBON FOOTPRINTS
All our goods are produced locally to help reducing carbon footprints.
Check more designs at www.agrajjain.com
