Meet The Women Giving Conscience To Old Denim And Saving Thousands Of Litres Of Water

Denim - we all wear it, most of us have grown up with it, and we love it. It is style and comfort, young and old, informal and formal - all at once. Denim is widely used in the fashion industry and has become a global fashion staple. However, the production of denim garments, right from growing the cotton for it, to the dyeing and finishing processes, takes a significant toll on the environment.

It takes around 1,000 liters of water to grow the cotton needed for a pair of jeans. And another 50 liters for that faded texture. When a pair of jeans is thrown away, it just adds to the waste load of landfills.

Also Read: 'Refash', One Stop Store For Upcycled Fashion

The wasteload of jeans was a huge bother for Pooja Malhotra and Prerna Anand. So much so that they both left comfortable jobs of almost 20 years to start the social enterprise, Rejean.

In a conversation with NDTV, Pooja Malhotra, Co-founder of Rejean recalled her journey. She said,

Before this, I was in the advertising industry for over 20 years. Sometimes I teach marketing and advertising-related subjects in business schools. I and my business partner always wanted to start something of our own and when we saw the waste around us and how it results in environmental degradation, we thought of working in this area.

For Prerna, the inspiration behind Rejean came from her son Satvik. She shared,

There was a requirement from his school that children should carry cloth-based school bags, preferably recycled and upcycled. I took out an old pair of denim using which I made his first school bag. That bag was the start of Rejean. From there to now, we are into a lot of upcycled denim accessories.

Also Read: Panipat, World's Textile Recycling Hub, Creates New Clothes From The Old

It was not easy to give up full-time jobs after working for two decades. To suddenly leave it all and start a new brand, that too in a competitive environment with other brands doing the same work wasn't the easiest. But, Pooja and Prerna did not give up and managed to break through the clutter. Pooja said,

Initially, the challenge really was to find the right kind of tailors who we can work with. Anyone can make goods from fresh fabric, but it is not so easy to upcycle waste cloth and not every tailor wants to do it. So, to find tailors whose sensibilities matched ours was a challenge. We did many trials and errors. Secondly, there is still a lack of awareness about recycling and upcycling. We use ‘recycling' and ‘upcycling' interchangeably but these are two different terms. Making people understand that our products are ‘upcycled' was also a challenge to begin with.

One of the products Rejean has is a sling bag. Sharing the customer feedback on the upcycled bag, Prerna said,

A product was delivered down south and the customer picked up our card and called us to tell us that this has been one of the best upcycled products. He had purchased the product via Amazon and now he wants to place an order with us at a corporate level. It felt good to receive positive feedback.

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Ramesh Chand is the senior masterji, or master tailor, and has been working with Rejean for four years. He has been principally responsible for ensuring that every piece of cloth and every scrap is put to good use.

Ramesh Chand, a resident of Sangam Vihar in Delhi and Master Tailor said,

I make laptop bags, tote bags, small pouches for children and also school bags for children. The main feature of our company is that we do not let even the tiniest piece of cloth go to waste. Waste cloth has a very harmful effect on our environment. We try to use every shred of cloth somewhere or the other.

It is Rejean's aim to reuse fabric that has been discarded or is a complete waste for factories. Most of the artisans working here have been employed from surrounding areas. Rejean is not only upcycling waste denim but is also keeping traditional art alive with the use of Madhubani and different embroidery techniques on their products.

Also Read: Project Jeans Turns Discarded Denim Into Sleeping Bags

Pooja explained,

Since we make products out of waste with the intent to put an end to the fabric going to the landfill, we have used over 500 kilos of textile waste in making new products. We are also helping the local communities of artisans and tailors. There are various crafts in India like Madhubani art, embroidery, painting and crochet – these are some of the regional crafts that we introduce in our products in an attempt to keep them alive.

There are a growing number of businesses that are working hard to revolutionise the fashion industry by developing sustainable alternatives while keeping ethical and sustainable concerns in mind.

Truly, Upcycling is the way ahead! It is time for all of us to become more aware and accepting of using upcycled products. We are all responsible for managing the waste that we generate. As environment-conscious citizens, we all must do our part to protect the planet, because no one else will do it for us.

Also Read: 'Share At Door Step', A Social Enterprise Is Here To Take Away Your Discarded Clothes And Items