As India continues to grapple with COVID-19 several small and slow fashion brands are showing up and doing their bit to help the people afflicted by it, we list out a few conscious fashion brands with a conscience. From importing oxygen concentrators and creating makeshift beds with oxygen to donating all their proceeds, they have found ways to help.
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Advaeita Mathur, from Studio Metallurgy, is known for her non-conventional jewellery and keeping with the ethos of her personal and brand philosophy she has been striving to find for lesser-known organisations that might be in need of funds to help with the pandemic relief. She is constantly on the lookout for vetting their authenticity personally, even as we spoke over the phone. For the first edition of sale proceeds, she directed it to Hemkunt Foundation and MCKS Food For the Hunger Foundation.
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Her accessory brand was one of the foremost ones to begin a drive on her social media page for Covid relief last week. “It was about time, isn’t it,” asks Advaeita. The Gurgaon- based designer-curated ten of her exquisite and hand-textured bestsellers for the drive.
Abhineet Boochra, the director and founder of the Jaipur-based jewellery label, Sangeeta Boochra, has got together with Dr Aslam Nagra 25 beds and imported oxygen concentrators, where they are helping COVID-19 patients who can’t find hospital beds. He says, at the moment their team get around 15,000 calls a day asking for help with these resources from COVID-19 patients. “We are getting in touch with hospitals from our own contracts and trying to find places in hospitals whenever we can as well,” says Abhineet, who says that volunteers are welcome to help them with manpower and oxygen concentrators.
Meanwhile, slow fashion label Mae, known for their upcycled designs, helmed by Jayeta Rohilla is directing donating 100% of our proceeds from sales over the weekend to Hemkunt Foundation, Khalsaaid India and Mazdoor Kitchen. “The last foundation is ensuring that none of the karigars (artisans) go without meals during the troubled times,” says New Delhi-based Jayeta as we speak to her. She has been using her Instagram stories to raise awareness about the same and her drive is still open. Meanwhile, another ongoing drive is that of Radhika Agrawal Studio, from Mumbai. We reached out to them and found that the statement jewellery label has launched a new and accessible workwear collection, The Cercles Hoops, and to start a fundraiser where the entire sale proceeds are donated to Hemkunt Foundation.
Talking about making strides, label The Olio Stories (helmed by women entrepreneur duo Aashna Singh and Sneha Saksena) was the talk of the town as what they achieved was no mean feat! They made a giant stride for sure and inspired a whole lot of their contemporaries. They raised and donated ₹12.5 lakhs in total and talked about where they directed the funds as well. “We started our drive last Thursday, with the intention to raise ₹2,00,000 in three days but we raised that in the first hour of the first day. We kept raising our targets and our customers kept meeting them. Our last target for the day was ₹10,00,000 and we had to close the drive because we were running out of stock,” says Aashna, adding, “We’re already seeing a ripple effect, with other brands launching similar initiatives. And every contribution counts! We donated to 5 organisations: Hemkunt Foundation, Enrich Lives Foundation, Khanna Chahiye, Mission Oxygen, MCKS Food.
Some of the other fashion brands we spotted on Instagram coming through during this difficult time include Roma Narsinghani, The Jodi Life and Verandah. even as the upcoming slow fashion brands tirelessly continue to do their bit, one hopes that some of the well-known names also chip in with such drives and create an impact.