Rajkumari Sharma Tankha
High-street fashion brand Shaye recently launched its Upcycled collection that features shirts, blouses, T-shirts and accessories like headbands and scrunchies. Each product has been made using a pastiche of beautiful, left-over fabric pieces that would have otherwise gone to waste. Life & More spoke to Shaye founders Pooja Kapur (PK) and Akshay Singh (AS) to know more about the collection. Excerpts:
Tell us a little more about the new collection. What all it comprises and how much time did it take you to come up with it
PK: The new collection came up during one of our brainstorming sessions, when we saw a lot of usable but discarded fabrics lying around. We decided to use these to create interesting patterns and then garments.
AS: The trick was to use harmonious colors and complementary prints together. It is an ongoing process, once the idea came about we were able to implement within a month or so.
Where did you source the raw material from? How challenging was it?
AS: The raw material sourcing was from our office, especially from the cutting and production departments. We collected all the scrap fabrics from the office and the fabrics were segregated color wise. The challenge was to ensure we had enough fabrics in each colorway to build the collection but we turned it into a company initiative where people across departments joined forces to collect waste fabrics.
Why did you choose scrap fabric? How tough is it to create garments from it?
AS: We realized that there was a lot of good quality fabric being discarded at various stages of production. It seemed wasteful and was in a perfectly usable state so we collected it and put it all together to create patchworks that worked as one harmonious pattern. We started constructing yardage by colors and complementary patterns.
PK: In fact, this has become so popular that it is the inspiration for new patch prints. We plan to continue doing this with every seasonal collection.
Who is your target buyer for this collection?
PK: Women who appreciate our bold designs.
Do you think the prices are expensive, given that these pieces are made from upcycled fabric?
PK: We think the pieces are very affordable.
AS: Putting together an upcycled collection is more expensive and time consuming since it involves a lot more planning and stitching details.
Are people open to buying these products? Did you do any prior research/market survey on whether people were keen to purchase upcycled clothing?
PK: People are loving this collection. We did not do market research it came more from our desire to use our wasted beautiful prints with a whole new interpretation to them.
