Challenges and Opportunities for Circular Fashion in India

Abstract

Circular fashion is a budding phenomenon in contemporary Indian fashion landscape, though the concept is antecedently woven in our traditional social fabric. To save our mother planet and its environment, as well as to minimize the depletion of natural resources from the adverse impact of fast fashion and consumerism circularization of production and utilization processes is of utmost importance. Adoption of circular fashion practices can be established as key to the socio-ecological-economic issues being faced by fashion manufacturers and consumers. It requires amalgamation of sustainable fashion technology with traditional textile crafts in all stages of manufacturing and use of textile products so that maximum utilization of waste generated from one segment can be done as raw material for the another one. Many innovative processes and techniques are being adopted by various Indian fashion houses across the supply chain as circular business models. It facilitates minimal consumption of virgin natural resources in addition to economic bonanza for the fashion industry troubled with financial crisis due to COVID-19.

Circular fashion is in its nascent stage in the modern Indian fashion industry confronting innumerable problems for adoption and recognition it ought to have. This paper deals with the challenges that come across during selection of raw material, dry and wet processing, cutting and stitching, packaging, transportation, retailing, use and post-use for circular fashion in India. Brilliant waves of opportunities surging to trigger circular fashion innovations and practices consequential to its perspective growth in local, regional and international market have also been discussed in the paper.