Chic, smart and trendy, fashion designer Rimi Nayak’s upcycled range of clothing and accessories, with which she launched her new label About TuRN, has love for environment at its core. A chat with Rimi.

The collection has been on your mind for a while now. Was the #NewNormal a push?

I have been working on this range for quite sometime now. For a while we have been trying to convert our workshop into a zero-waste unit and there were various steps that were taken from our end to ensure that. Our upcycled new line is actually a result of this idea and after a set of R&D procedures, we finally launched our new label About TuRN.

The pandemic definitely played a major role in this realisation as during the difficult times when we were stuck inside our homes, we all were realising how the changes in the environment are affecting our lives and how each one of us, in our own way, is responsible for this. So it was a conscious decision from our end to work on the upcycling model and do our bit for a greener environment.

You have done accessories too and felt the same excitement when you were in college!

Actually, I have studied leather design from NIFT and accessories was a big part of our syllabus. I know the technicalities of making bags, shoes and hard goods in depth and I have always been keen on starting an accessory line for a long time but was not really getting the right opportunity to start. So as I started this line About TuRN, I wanted to focus on accessories and it actually gave me the same excitement of my college days as I could return back to the patterns and the technicalities of designing and making the accessories.

What are your design memories from college? Did you upcycle a lot ?

Upcycling has been my design language since my college days. Be it using my mother’s old saris to make collections for college projects to using old quilts to make jackets. Even my graduating collection was a combination of old discarded vinyl prints woven with leather to create accessories. I even got awarded at the prestigious Lineapelle International Young Designers Awards in Italy for that collection, after my graduation.

The collection looks chic. It must have been deeply satisfying for you to upcycle scrap...

It was truly satisfying to work on this collection as it was aligned to a greater cause of waste reduction and greener environment. Creating unconventional surface techniques has always been our signature. So it was an interesting experience for us to create textures from the scraps. It wasn’t a very easy one at the beginning as we had to balance aesthetics, practicality and creativity while making the textures. The process was a long-drawn one, beginning with collecting all the fabric waste and then segregating them according to prints and colours before finally creating the textures.

Give our readers a sneak peek of the collection...

Our Fall/Winter 2021 collection is inspired by a single introspective question, are our choices environment friendly? According to a study by the International Journal of Sustainability, it is estimated that approximately 20 per cent of textiles are wasted during the garment manufacturing process. This motivated us to upcycle the wastage from our production floor to create a new range. Since surface texturisation has always been one of our signature design languages, we tried to create a unique one-of-a-kind texture by upcycling the waste fabrics and trims. Our latest line, About TuRN, is made entirely from discarded fabric trims and scraps from our production floor. Since the texture is a combination of assorted fabric scraps, every piece is inherently unique with a signature look. The range comprises accessories like bags and shoes along with garments. This collection is our humble contribution towards embracing a more sustainable design approach towards a greener environment.

You also have a new logo for this range. Will this be a permanent feature now in the range you offer?

We intend to urge the consumers to make an about turn in their fashion choices and opt for a greener and more sustainable consumption pattern. We have also created a new logo for the range and it incorporates the RN initials from our current label as well.

What’s upcycled in your personal wardrobe?

I upcycle a lot of stuff in my personal wardrobe. Be it making dresses out of my mother’s old saris to repainting or creating textures on old bags and shoes. I believe everything that we throw away doesn’t go away, so we should be more mindful about what we discard and consciously try to reduce the waste that we generate, especially in the context of our wardrobe.

Can you give our readers some cool upcycling ideas?

I believe upcycling should be a way of life rather than just a fad. And once we can look at upcycling as a way of life, we actually realise that we can do so much with all the stuff that we have lying around us, unused. We can repaint, restitch, recreate so many things out of our old clothes, shoes, bags or even other accessories. Next time before throwing away an old outfit just think what more can you do to upcycle it. There’s a famous saying that I swear by and it captures the essence of upcycling perfectly — “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

Tell us about your favourite accessories...

My most favourite accessory is co-incidentally an upcycled clutch bag that I had got from South Africa made out of repurposed vinyl print billboards. It is a super quirky clutch that goes both with formal wear as it adds a character to my look and also goes with casual clothing.

What more do you want the brand to stand for?

About TuRN is my humble contribution and effort towards a more sustainable and greener planet. My vision for the brand is to make sustainable fashion more accessible to my clients and engage them in a conversation around conscious consumption of their fashion choices.

Pictures: Sandip Das

Models: Mohor Datta & Soumyasri

Make-up: Sayon Das