While many would say it is a fad – a short lived trend, “Sustainability” seems to be factoring in rather than out in international fashion weeks. More and more brands are thinking what changes they should incorporate in existing systems to make brands eco-friendly. Starting with collections inspired by “Biological” and “Natural” inspirations (flowers, animals, trees and foliages…) to Recycling old garments or rejects of industry into new Green Avataars…. to choosing natural fabrics instead of polyester or acrylic, we can see all in the latest Spring Summer shows of Paris, Milan, London as the Trend of the Trends.

If this was not enough many chose to make the Event of Fashion Week sustainable – holding ramp walk in their own studio, re-use sets of last shows, using natural day light than usual glaring focus lights, to some brands actually NOT showing at all in fashion weeks. NOT showing in actual makes some sense if we calculate the cost of holding such events from one city to another versus the declining numbers of serious buyers that you get to see in front rows.

Some bloggers were of the view that Shows are not interesting any more. The curiosity to see the new collection is affected by actual samples, look book, show-peeks and other material that is sent by brands to influencer home just before the show so as to make social marketing and Instagram posts look perfect !

To counteract media criticism of lavish sets and luxurious model Fashion Weeks have given separate space or slots to Ecologically Positive and Ethical brands. In India, we are still to see how it is interpreted with Fashion weeks still continuing with their same style of holding shows. However, many Indian brands are using natural handwoven and hand printed textiles in their collections when sustainability was nowhere in the International buzz.

Zero C 

Below is a short summary of what SS 2020 offered us:

Stella McCartney presented 70 percent of her SS 2020 collection in recycled polyester, organic cotton, Raffia, hemp and it was termed as the most vegan collection of her career. Particularly noticed were her Vegan Leather shoes. Similarly, Luxury brands Victoria Beckham and Tommy Hilfiger set the bars even higher in sustainability aspects using cruelty-free materials in everything from bags, to hiking shoes and rain boots. Lewis Hamilton was the face of sportswear brand of Tommy Hilfiger as the British sports star also publicized his vegan diet as life-changing experience. T-shirts and Polos of the collection were made from 100% organic cotton and Reversible jackets RE:DOWN (Regenerated and Rejuvenated down).

Stella McCartney’s SS 2020 story – From Plant to Product

Prada is trying to use 90 % of its fabric from sustainable fabrics basket. Milan 2020 fashion week evidenced this shift, but not with a caution. As its creative head Miuccia Prada said –“Ending Consumerism will not be a part of fashion system as yet.. we must be careful about what we say..”.

Fashion giants Versace and Gucci have not used fur in their collection for past many years. And, many are looking forward to vegan leather as an alternative to leather. Animal cruelty is a big “NO NO” in the fashion world now.

Armani created a capsule collection of 100% recycled polyester for its brand Emporio Armani in FW 2020 Milan week. The watches, accessories, shoes and jewelry are also from regenerated or organic materials. Retailers in Milan are more and more into Positive and Green brands as was seen more in menswear collections of 2020.

London Fashion Week 2020 Spring Summer took lead in socially responsible and ethical business front by announcing Queen Elizabeth II award for sustainable and eco-friendly British designer. It is one of the main Fashion Weeks to go “Fur Free” last year.

Many eco-friendly new fashion start-ups were given a special space to emphasize concern for the environment. If one goes to home page of brand VIN + OMI we see top headings talking about ethical practices. Their models are not epitome of perfection in what we understand by “professional” look, rather the shoot looks like a make shift set where apocalypse survivors are posing in front of camera. Some more names to look out for are – RILEY STUDIO, AV, HANNA FIEDLER, and UNAJI.

Many brands are portraying sustainability in fashion by producing collections in home towns rather than through supply chain. For example, Riona Treacy brand is proudly announcing their in-house design and manufacturing in UK with cutting down on plastic packaging totally.

Green Carpet Award in Milan 2020 Fashion week encouraged sustainable brands giving chance to small and young designers working with ethical practices.

Whether sustainability is a conceptual need or a strategy to woo the green concerns of Generation Z only time can tell. For now, we know that brands are adopting this strategy as a USP in international and national media. We hope to see more and more zero C shows in coming years.  Or, one could see more of what Swedes did – Cancel the Fashion week 2019 in Stockholm due to sustainability concerns.

Given this volatile global environment we should think seriously about introducing sustainability subjects more in our design curriculum in India.

References:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanneshurvell/2019/09/30/sustainable-fashion-brands-dominate-london-fashion-week/#b27647510aeb

Milan Fall/Winter Fashion Week 2020: How sustainable will it be?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanneshurvell/2019/09/30/sustainable-fashion-brands-dominate-london-fashion-week/#68856d210aeb

https://www.hannafiedler.com/

http://www.vinandomi.com/

https://rionatreacy.com/

https://www.lofficiel.at/en/fashion-week/stella-mccartney-ss20-sustainable-eco

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/fashions-long-road-to-inclusivity

OUR SUMMER 2020 COLLECTION’S JOURNEY FROM PLANT TO PRODUCT

 

 

 

 

The agricultural sector’s contribution to the inclusive growth of the Indian economy is unique and encompassing. It is the largest unregulated sector feeding 1.3 billion population. This poses a major challenge to food security to meet the skyrocketing demand. The pioneering work in the latter part of the 1960s had helped to achieve a breakthrough in the agriculture sector, popularly known as the Green Revolution; with its prime focus on the agricultural inputs to improve the yield levels. Of all the inputs, water and energy hit the top of the priority list due to its scarcity and unreliability in supply.

India’s irrigated area has expanded at a steady rate during the last few decades. But incidentally, groundwater in India took the front seat pushing all the other players behind due to the intensive installation of tube wells since the 1970s. Although groundwater development brought considerable economic growth and diversification in rural areas, the consequences of negative groundwater draft due to overuse posed a greater concern for socio-economic equity threatening rural livelihood. Yet another dimension adding to the problem of groundwater development has been the highly skewed access to electricity and inefficient pumps. This has resulted in wastage of up to half of the country’s freshwater and energy.

Most of the inefficiencies have their roots in the mispricing of electricity. This is very much evident from the historical moves in the mid-1970s and 1980s, as many state governments had shifted away from the metering of electricity sales to agricultural consumers and introduced giving power in flats rates in the beginning and eventually ended with free power, primarily to seize a powerful vote-bank. Thus leads to energy and water wastage, over-pumping and inefficient selection of crops. This resulted in a chain reaction and vicious cycle of events that have ended in illegal connections; thefts and more importantly steady deterioration of electricity infrastructure. This neglect gave rise to mounting debts in farming communities leading to suicides.

Mitigating the Crisis

After having acquainted with the problems related to the two important inputs used in agriculture, it is pertinent to cull out solutions from various sources and methods. Management of groundwater resources in the Indian context is an extremely complex proposition as it deals with the nexus between human societies’ livelihood and the physical environment. Today’s competing demands on water and energy urge for rational management in an integrated and holistic fashion. India needs a radical shift from water resources development to water resources management by restructuring and strengthening its institutions for better service delivery and resource sustainability.

Scientists are of the view that Indian agriculture has about 36 percent of energy-saving potential. By a mere technological augmentation and innovation can put many systems in place. These innovations can be termed as Demand Side Measures (DSM) involving the judicious application of few simple strategies namely delayed crop transplantation, sprinkler irrigation, drip irrigation, conjunctive development and use of surface and groundwater, efficient pumps, etc. these simple are very easy to administer and monitor. DSM is a beneficial manipulation in the use of resources for achieving desirable demands by deploying simple techniques for conservation. The purpose of DSM is not only the reallocation of water and energy from irrigation; but, also set a long term objective to gain efficiency and productivity in Indian agriculture.

But for an impulsive success of DSM, it is required to be complemented with an efficient pricing strategy to achieve the financial and efficiency goals in the agricultural sector. It has to be noted that here pricing of energy has to be done simultaneously for better results. If water is made available free of cost, then the utilities do not recover for its services, which subsequently affect the quality of its services and finally, the burden will be on the poor farmers. Herewith some of the changes in the water sector by strict enforcement by regulations as well as the proper governing mechanism locally enforced and managed can create wonders.

While addressing the issue of cost recovery one must not forget the plight of the farmer. There is a sound inter-linkage between the prices that the farmers gain on the goods and pricing on energy and water. The right price for the produce would certainly induce the farmers to pay for the inputs used and an incentive to conserve water and energy. Therefore, it is up to the governments, in co-operation with major stakeholders, to choose the proper mechanism to provide the funds necessary for sustaining the system and meeting the needs of the poor by various methods like targeted subsidy and by providing minimum support price to the produce. This is two-way circular criteria; if this system is efficiently implemented then most of our problems can be effectively solved.

The management of water is not just building a physical edifice; but, it is about building the relationship of society with its resources. This resource has to be used most considerably. As Gandhiji puts it, God has provided for everyone’s basic needs and not for his/her greed. One can understand that the present impending crisis is man-made and born out of the seed, called greed. The triangular issue of economic imbalance- unlimited wants, limited means and maximizing the satisfaction- can be solved only if the ceiling on desires is adhered to. Gandhiji’s principle of Trusteeship works here as a handy tool. To be precise, one has to look beyond the materialistic gains in solving problems of this kind. In other words, each human being is expected to behave responsibly with a self-commitment to be a trustee of other fellow beings and the natural resources bestowed with. This approach will certainly put an end to the present-day crisis of water, energy and food production and lead the people and economy to sustainable development.

Technology has evolved as one powerful tool and enabler that has changed human perception, behavior and significantly their lives. World has witnessed series of inventions and innovations since 18^th century which has transformed human lives and business. These transformations have been ornamentally termed as Industrial Revolutions. At present the world is reaping the benefits of Industry 4.0 (or fourth industrial revolution).

The Previous Industrial Revolutions (first to third)

 The first Industrial revolution started at the end of 18^th century which primarily reduced our dependence on animal power and bio mass. Mechanization and steam power has replaced agriculture from center piece of economy and given the baton in the hands of manufacturing.  A century later second revolution occurred leading to significant breakthroughs in the form of electricity, oil& gas explorations, chemical synthesis primarily ammonia and the boss of all- communication. The third industrial revolution begins in the second half of 20^th century and major inventions were electronics, telecommunications, and computational prowess. The interesting observation in these revolutions was that there was a gap of century or more among the first three revolutions. However, the fourth revolution termed as Industry 4.0 started in less than 50 years of time gap and interestingly world has begun working on Industry 5.0; shrinking time line to less than a decade.

Industry 4.0

The fourth industrial revolution is the initiation of ‘cyber –physical systems’ unfolding new capabilities for people and machines. The technology is embedding itself into societies, human bodies and connecting devices and machines together. Some example of technological advancements of industry 4.0 includes machine learning; 3D Printing, connected devices (internet of things), smart factories, and genome editing, cryptographic methods like block chain are drafting new approaches to governance.

Industry 4.0 have offered tremendous opportunities to the business world by offering them huge volume of data collected through connected machines as well provide them with useful insights and patterns by analyzing the same. This helps business to optimize their operations and prioritizing the areas of attention. It is expected that by 2025 a quarter of world GDP will come from digital technologies like AI or cloud computing. The innovations brought by Industry 4.0 will bring more access to digital environment with long term benefits to scale, efficiency and productivity.

So much to achieve and leverage from yet evolving technologies of Industry 4.0 but humans are hungry for more and better and in less than a decades time world is introduced to the concept of INDUSTRY 5.0.

Explaining Industry 5.0

Industry 4.0 is already using advance technology, high end digitization, interconnected device with an aim to generate increased productivity with greater safety, quality and reduced waste. Then, the question arises what is the difference between Industry 4.0 and 5.0. Here is the answer:

Industry 5.0 will take the personalization of products to next level. Industry 4.0 allows you to work with and train your manufacturers but with Industry 5.0 businesses can allow the customers to customize their products. For example you can create your car with thousands of different variables by choosing from various mini websites like its color, interior, shape and lots of inbuilt features and app. Voila, you got delivered a car having best of features and more specifically what you desired. Take another example in medical field Type I diabetes measuring devices uses technology one size fits all and medical professional try to adjust and  tweak the system of an individual by prescribing insulin doses. If we move to Industry 5.0 it provides individuals an app that follows their metabolism and produces a smaller, more discrete and robust device that’s custom made for the individual. So, for such patients it’s a life changing experience.

So Industry 5.0 focuses on the cooperation between human and machine. It is like Human cognition working in harmony with machine computing. Industry 5.0 brings human back to the center stage of production to work with collaborative robots leading to mass customization and delivering personalized products to every customer. The workplaces become bigger safer and allow freedom of design to work. The advanced stages of Industry 5.0 will allow the flow of real time seamless data between the field, the manufacturing process and the design. And the best part Human touch is back to the manufacturing.

It could be added further that the heroes of Industry 5.0 will be cobots and intelligent software applications. Collaborative robots are programmed to interact with humans in shared workforce. This use of artificial intelligence will facilitate employment rather than eliminating it. The collaborative dimension is the base of next revolution which is near and sure to come.

Is the world ready to welcome Industry 5.0?

One may be right to question the power of law as an interdisciplinary and normative tool that can lead a social change thereby redeeming lives in the process. It may be pertinent to revisit the Sophist challenge to justice in Plato’s ‘The Republic’, where the dialogue unravels why men behave justly? Is it because of the notions of divine retribution or do men behave justly because it is good for them to do so or is it because the mighty wish to subjugate the feeble? In light of this, the importance of a just Ruler (the State) in the present times is necessary, the lack of which would result in an impending disaster.

 

These are the most uncertain times most generations have witnessed; several economies in the world are at a standstill and the most basic human right, i.e. the right to freedom of movement, has been snatched from citizens. What does this story tell us? Are the citizens of most (even the most developed) nations not aware of the imminent danger that the novel corona virus, the Covid-19 poses to lives, economies and the future of the world as we know it. We saw the Italians singing in their balconies, we saw China’s graph flatten but what we conveniently skipped was the number of coffins piled up in Italy’s funeral grounds and the strict lockdowns imposed in the Hubei province in China.  

 

Why was it necessary for the State to intervene with fundamental rights of people in most countries in the world, including India? It was not because the State envisaged subjugating the feeble nor was it the might of imposing “divine retributions”, in the present scenario, the only viable reason seems that the subjects of the State simply are unaware of the right thing to do. The lockdown is not out of choice of governance or to redeem an advantageous ulterior motive (as challenged by many), the direct causation only indicated towards the absurdity of its subjects. The state has to use enforcements and the tools of reprimand to ensure the safety of its public, including the safety of the reprimanded. One is forced to look at the videos of Italian Mayors, requesting, or rather threatening the public to stay inside lest face the wrath of enforcement agencies and the flock of students celebrating spring break in Florida, USA. Closer to home, the gathering of thousands of migrant workers near Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border signifies the requirement of State intervention in the face of lack of protocols and awareness.

 

In the times to come, the imposition of these lockdowns will have tremendous undesirable and/or desirable effects on the growth and development of healthcare, small and medium sized businesses, financial economies, capital markets and more importantly the way we lead our lives. At the very least, the lesson each one of us can derive out of this is to never let the State be left with no other choice but to curtail our very basic rights, only to right a wrong exacerbated by our own incongruities.

It’s the first day of the Semester.

A walk into a group of unknown ,

Your heart thumps with nervousness,

How are they going be… you never know..

There are eyes staring at you from across the hallway,

Blunt and confused,

Waiting for you with eagerness

And waiting to discover the unknown you,

There is a certain level of confusion on both the ends of the road,

They want to know you but you are so unknown to them,

You see yourself as a teacher,

Whose Job is just to teach.

They see you as a teacher who shall be available for them to reach.

The initial exchanges of courtesy and you are still trying to learn their name.

They are nervous to approach you but both know we are in the  same game.

It’s been a week; a month and things seem to mellow down,

The tides once at their zenith seem to have calmed down.

The exchanges become lighter and class becomes brighter.

The shells begin to crack and the cocoon seems to open

The butterfly seems to flutter and inhibitions seem to be broken,

The classes are fun now for them and for you,

And evenings are about missing for them and for you,

The initial nervousness seems to have been replaced with excitement,

Even Saturdays are about looking forward towards Mondays,

Thinking of  them is about thinking of you,

And you are the only one who understands.

As the months go by you understand,

Students fill in the vacuum which only a teacher can understand.

They have now become a reason of that upward curve