Turning discarded clothes into chic wearables

It's hard to see beauty in another's discarded junk. But that is exactly what the designer duo of Delhi-based label 11:11 CellDSGN is doing. Their one-and-a-half-year-old fashion line, christened Reclaimed, uses old saris, second-hand clothes and much-maligned plastic bags as raw material for wearable and trendy clothes and accessories.

It was in 2008 that Himanshu Shani, 33, set up shop with a focus on ethical and sustainable fashion. Reclaimed, an initiative conceptualised by Himanshu's colleague Mia Morikawa, is an extension of that philosophy. "Value is a relative term and I think Reclaimed brings that out beautifully. It makes you think about waste, patterns in consumerism and the inherent potential in the discarded," says Mia.

11:11 sources its fabric — mostly khadis, natural silks and cottons — from weavers in Kutch in Gujarat and West Bengal. Reclaimed uses leftover scraps of these exquisite fabrics to make shirts, dresses, waistcoats and so on. "Every piece is made out of limited fabric and so each garment is unique in a way," says Himanshu, who graduated from Domus Academy, a design and fashion school in Milan.

On his return to India, Himanshu worked with a few manufacturers in Delhi to source textiles for his design studio but found it unfulfilling compared to the joys of working with weavers who are extremely "proud and passionate" about their heritage. Himanshu says he's never believed in working for a "season" and likes to build a relationship with weavers to evolve and experiment with them over the long haul. 11:11 has a line of khadi denims that it is developing from the short-stapled cotton grown by farmers in some parts of Gujarat.

Some of the most interesting accessories that Reclaimed has to offer are bags and clutches made out of recycled plastic weaves sourced from Khamir, an NGO based in Bhuj, Gujarat. Khamir has a large number of women that have been trained in plastic weaving. The process involves collecting plastic from industrial and urban waste, cleaning it and segregating it on the basis of colour and quality. The cleaned plastic is then cut into strips and woven along with organic cotton yarn on various looms. You'll never look at plastic debris in quite the same way once you have seen these colourful plastic weaves.

For raw material, Mia also visits Sunday markets in Old Delhi to pick up old saris for Reclaimed. She spends considerable time sorting through the heaps of second-hand clothes on sale to pick up old cotton and silk saris. "People usually have traditional views about the sari, how it should not be cut up and so on. But once a sari is worn out, you can reuse it beautifully to make new clothes," she says. Mia usually overdyes old saris and makes dresses and shirts out of them. One of Reclaimed's popular spin-off of the sari is available at the Bombay Electric store in Colaba, Mumbai. "The owner of Bombay Electric, Priya Kishore, donated about 50 old saris for our line and we came up with dresses and shirts for both men and women," says Mia.

Wearables from Reclaimed come within the range of Rs 3,500 to Rs 9,000. While most shoppers don't care much about the provenance of the garment they purchase, the line has been able to attract a number of people looking to make an eco-political statement with what they wear. "We don't think people are sceptical about wearing second-hand clothes. Moreover, the worn-out fabric is overdyed and the clothes go through a thorough transformation to look and feel as good as new," says Himanshu.