“Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword now, it’s the need of the hour,” emphasises couturier Roshni Mukherjee who started her label Myosutra in 2017. “It’s the only way we can reverse the damage we have caused to our environment,” adds the London-based designer who prepared a special Uttariya with the London skyline for the folk music band from Kolkata - Bhoomi. Mukherjee who operates from Facebook and who is known for her exquisite handloom saris and bespoke jewellery, speaks to Indulge about her new collection where she is recycling saris to create interesting line-up. Excerpts:
The new collection is recycling saris. Give us more detail about that.
This new collection of Myosutra is called swap that saree and the idea behind this new endeavour stemmed from the need for sustainability that is being talked about a lot these days in the realm of fashion. This collection is primarily about recycling the old sarees that are lying around your closet and turning them into an entirely new outfit.
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What is the idea behind the collection?
The idea behind this collection is to make the consumers conscious and help them make the smart choices instead of wasting their resources on new outfits every time there’s an occasion to attend. This collection emphasises on the need for treating clothes like an investment. In fact, this is also another way of giving it back to the environment as I believe we owe everything to it, even our very existence. So, sustainability is definitely the way forward.
What kinds of saris are you using and what can we find in the collection?
The fabric we’ve most used in this collection is silk. NRI clients tend to prefer silks more than any other fabric as it's easy to maintain. But people here are warming up experimenting with different fabrics now. Dhakai and Dhonekhali are quite popular in UK now. Also, old Benarasis and Kanjeewarams give an antique look to the collection and consist of an array of colours. I generally love playing around with the different colours, which means the consumers will have a wide variety of options to choose from.
As with any other collection of Myosutra, the focus will always be on sarees, but we have been experimenting with various Indo-western outfits made out of recycled sarees. The ethnic fusion outfits from Myosutra have already been popular among our consumers. So, the collection consists of the best of traditional and indo-western fusion.
Where do you source your material from?
For this collection, we only focussed on recycled materials. Otherwise we source mostly from India and Bangladesh.