Think of the first thing that comes to mind when someone says "sustainable fashion". A loose-fit
khadi kurta or maybe a flowy dress made of organic cotton? But when it comes to casualwear, sustainability has not been able to make its presence as strong, especially among home g rown brands. To change this, newly launched label OG&Co brings The Garden of Eden, India's first-ever bamboo
and beechwood athleisure line. We speak with founder and creative head Urshila Rao Ganji to find out more.
Tell us about the new collection, what was it inspired by?
The collection was inspired by an aim to make a shift in the athleisure clothing segment — a segment in which the most amount of synthetic clothes are made. Thus, this segment needed focus with regard to sustainability. This is our first collection, titled The Garden of Eden. It’s the story of temptation and not eating the ‘lovely-lookingapple.’ Choosing something nonsustainable is never a good idea and that’s exactly what we depicted with this collection.
Take us through the colour palette.
More than being inspired, the colour palette has been uninspired by the existing colour palette of activewear and streetwear in the market, which majorly comprises basic colours like black and shades of dark blue and red. The idea was to refresh these colours with a very delicate sky blue, space grey, pure white, dusty rose — colours which are rarely found in this segment. We wanted to allow the consumers to use these garments for diverse needs.
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What fabrics have you chosen for this collection?
We are extremely proud of our fabrics, as they have been formulated exclusively for our brand. They have been formulated by a vendor who has specialised in organic fabrics with patents. We have a hemp blend that has a high percentage of hemp and low percentage of organic cotton. We also have a beechwood blend with organic cotton and recycled spandex. Bamboo blends for tanks and shorts were made from recycled poly with play-dry effect and mesh.
What silhouettes can we look forward to?
We have really different crop top styles in three varieties, tanks for women and men, running shorts, joggers, hoodies and a few more.
Tell us about your next projects.
We have already started working on our next edit and it’s really exciting. We’re introducing a plethora of styles and showcasing some design details that are different from the current collection. There are a lot of surprise elements in the next collection, we promise!
INR 3,100 onwards. Available online
Email: prattusa@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @MallikPrattusa