With leftover fabric collected from tailors, this fashion entrepreneur started her sustainable clothing brands
Inspired by her grandparents who preached a minimalistic lifestyle, Bhubaneshwar-based fashion designer Benorita Dash promotes sustainable living through her brand Ladyben and Tilotama.
India has become increasingly attractive to the fashion industry in recent years and is expected to become the sixth largest apparel market in 2022 (worth $59.3 billion), according to The State of Fashion, a report published by McKinsey & Company. Already a manufacturing hub, the growth is also credited to the increase in middle-class consumers as well.
The rise in the culture of consumerism is argued to be the major reason of climate change. Fashion entrepreneur Benorita Dash believes designers can play an important role by adopting eco-friendly solutions.
Based in Bhubaneshwar, Benorita started her label, Ladyben, with a sewing machine that was gifted to her and leftover fabric she had collected from various tailors in the city. The tailors would tell her that these small patches of clothes would not be of any use but Benorita would breathe life into them by designing new garments.
Registered as an MSME in 2016, Ladyben also designs home décor products like curtains, bedsheets, cushion covers, table mat, in addition to garments.
Sustainable fashion designer Benorita Dash
Priced between Rs 300 to Rs 30,000 depending on customisations demanded by the clients, the products are available at ecommerce platform thoomri.com and her two stores in Bhubaneshwar and New Delhi.
Circular fashion
Benorita says she has always been interested in fashion and designing. However, she says pursuing a master’s in designing at Lovely Professional University allowed her to push the boundaries and explore the rich textile art of India, as part of her dissertation thesis.
After graduation, she worked as a sourcing merchandiser for an export house, ASN Industries, traditional clothing brand FabIndia, and was also a faculty member of the International Institute for Fashion Design in Ludhi.
In addition, exploring Ikat weaving and traditional handlooms of Odisha during her college years eventually led her to launch another brand Tilotama, in 2019. She also visited ikat weaving communities in villages like Sambalpur, Sonepur, Barpali, Bargah, and Nuapatna in Odisha, at the time.
“Despite being a sustainable practice, and India having the geographical indication (GI) for Ikat, it is still not as popular as other materials like chanderi and has a lot of potential,” says Benorita, who is also a certified pattachitra artist.
Her dissertation focussed on how designers can play a creative role in supporting handloom weavers to make money in the international markets.
Before setting up her store in January 2019, she would go door-to-door in Bhubaneshwar to take orders, coordinate the designs with the weavers and complete the delivery process herself. She also displayed the products at exhibitions across India.
While both ventures are eco-conscious brands, Benorita says that Tilotama is more to do with uplifting the weavers in the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar while Ladyben was a conscious effort to introduce and develop a more eco-friendly brand. She adds that products of Ladyben are relatively more affordable.
Sustainable lifestyle
Even when her family members were not happy with her decision to pursue fashion in the beginning, Benorita says her grandparents played a huge role in shaping her career as a sustainable and eco-friendly designer.
“People across the world are more aware of terms like sustainability now but all that I learnt and practised came from my grandparents. My late maternal grandfather was an ayurvedic doctor and would always advise us to live a minimalist and basic lifestyle,” she says.
Her 90-year-old-paternal grandfather was also particular about making use of whatever resource was available, without wasting any fabric or newspaper.
Clearly, she has imbibed these values as an entrepreneur and encourages her team to always carry a water bottle, avoid single-use plastics, and switch to eco-friendly practices in their lives as well.
However, Benorita shares that reusable eco-friendly packaging is a difficulty, as is the case with most sustainable businesses. While operations for Tilotama have been paused since the nationwide lockdown, the entrepreneur has single-handedly sold nearly 4,000 masks so far.
Besides looking forward to resuming operations post lockdown, Benorita plans to start a food venture as well.
Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan