eco-friendly echoes

BRAND MINC, the ‘eco-friendly’ fashion store for women and young girls was launched by Mishan Design Point Pvt Limited, a Bangalore based company pioneered by Mini Shibu, a post graduate in Apparel Design from NID, Ahmedabad and her husband Kochery C. Shibu. The concept has been to promote eco friendly fashion, working with hand spun hand woven fabrics, organic cotton and vegetable dyed fabrics and supporting a social chain of tribal cotton farmers, weavers and dyers community while improving environment.

The brand embraces the use of eco-friendly fabrics and environment friendly dyes. The col-lection is made from natural fabrics – cotton, linen, silk or wool that is handspun, hand-woven. Dyes used for colouring are vegetable and/or azo-free.

Says Mini Shibu, ‘‘when I left the job as head designer from Weekender in 2006, it was a difficult step. Starting on my own was a dream which I cherished since passing out of NID in 1992. It took some hard decisions to venture out on something independently.’’

‘‘We spent about six months researching various prospects of sourcing organic material and vegetable-dyes. The selection of available vegetable dyes to match the fashion trends was a design challenge. We also developed a range of colours from the dyes to make the summer collection 2008 with a new lot of fabric dyed to the new colours. We finaly narrowed down to a rehabilitation centre for weavers near Thiruvannamalai, which was set up to promote craftspeople and their trade, and Gandhigram Dundigal, where organic cotton is hand spun and vegetable dyed.’’

‘‘All the customers who have tried/bought our garments have been pleasantly surprised that Khadi could reach such levels of excellence in design, fashion, fit and finish.’’ Says Kochery C. Shibu: ‘‘The approach of fashion with a conscience envisages supporting social chain of weavers, dyers and cotton farmers whilst improving the environment.’’

MINC uses fabrics that are predominantly handspun or hand woven, the silhouettes are clean, crisp and contemporary and lean towards a western aspect with eastern influences

MINC uses fabrics that are predominantly handspun or hand woven, the silhouettes are clean, crisp and contemporary and lean towards a western aspect with eastern influences. There are sleeveless kurtas and kimono throws in pinks and yellows with a touch of embroidery and sequins on the border – they all manage to be subtle in the way of the use of toned-down shades.

Eye-catching are the brush cotton jackets -again without any buttons – giving a very stylish, modish look. The tussar silk jackets are also worth a buy – they are chemical-free and very chic. Also worth checking out are kurtas with

short puffed sleeves in yellow and off-white.

At Minc, the price tag varies between Rs. 600 and Rs. 1,800. You can get a pleated blue skirt at Rs. 630, cotton pants for Rs. 710 or wraparounds for Rs. 1,000. Whatever you pick at MINC, will be something that’s not commercial or mainstream, but be a different outfit that’ll add variety to your wardrobe. Minc is on the 2nd floor, Sigma Mall, Cunningham Road.

—Express Features