NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Department of Fabric and Apparel Science organised an event titled ‘Mending Workshop’ on 16 April 2024 at Lady Irwin College. The workshop was held in association with Fashion Revolution, a global non-profit organisation which has become renowned for its fashion activism movement after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013. Its main goal is to end human and environmental exploitation in the fashion industry. For nearly a decade, they have been campaigning passionately for a clean, safe, fair, transparent and accountable fashion industry.
The event was organised for the undergraduate students of B.Sc.(hons) first year students. The event kickstarted with the Welcome address by Dr. Madhuri Nigam (Conveneor) who introduced the experts from Fashion Revolution India. The session begun with a thought-provoking introduction on Fashion Revolution by Mankiran Dhillon, who talked about “how to become a fashion revolutionary!” She introduced two thought provoking questions, viz., Who made my clothes? And What’s in my clothes? encouraging participants to get more involved in the clothes they buy and use.
This was followed by an interesting activity titled ‘Loved Clothes Last Longer’, conducted along with Khushi Sehgal. This activity encouraged all participants to write a love letter to their favorite garment with the help of five pointers, including its origin, heritage, mending relationships, making memories and finally personification.
This was followed by sharing of some interesting short videos, covering stories of people talking about their clothes and how every article of their beloved clothing had an interesting story behind it. The participants were encouraged to write their own love letters to their clothes expressing how they had ‘met’ and ‘fell in love’. Finally, the participants shared their letters with each other and it brought forth the need to make thoughtful purchases with clothes which bring us joy and perhaps even a special memory.
In the next part of the programme, designer Ashish Dhaka shared the interesting journey of his brand Beyni Boi and his work in the field of sustainable fashion. He also passed around some of his exquisite fashion creations which displayed his creative and original solutions towards increasing the life of otherwise damaged garments. Ashish asked students to not just think out of the box but actually chuck the box and think creatively! He also gave a live demonstration on mending to the enthusiastic participants, illustrating upon how to create a balanced and aesthetically appealing ‘mending’. It also highlighted this year’s theme of ‘Mend in public’, marking the anniversary of Fashion Revolution.
The workshop ended with a vote of thanks by Ms. Vibha Yadav, Associate Professor, Dept. of FAS. She acknowledged the support extended by Dr. Ruchira Agarwal, Dept. In Charge, FAS. She expressed gratitude to Dr. Seema Sekhri (Co- Convener) and Ms. Priyanka Pawar for making the event a success. The workshop helped to ignite young minds and succeeded in creating an awareness regarding responsible fashion consumption, promoting sustainability through the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle.
