Building a sustainable future with Descatuk
With a strong focus on finding the right fabrics for our sustainable effort, we are very proud of our partnership with Dev Ethical Sustainable Crafts and Textiles (DESCATUK), a social impact start-up in Dehradun, Uttarakhand (India) for the innovative new natural fibre (HIMGRA) used in our NICO jacket printed in one of our signature prints and enhanced with embroidery and quilting.
HIMGRA is a new natural hollow fibre extracted from perennial grass that grows rain-fed without fertilizer and pesticides, at high altitude Himalayan regions of Uttarakhand. When you wear this jacket, you become a part of an amazing journey and story. Discover how it all began.
A Backstory
Sustainable was a word everyone was talking about, so on our mission to 'walk the talk' we began exploring what it really meant. We researched online forums, had conversations with people in the industry and attended various virtual conferences on the subject. Most of our research led us back to the same question 'Is true sustainability itself even sustainable?'. At the industry level, the term was vague and undefined while on a personal level everyone’s understanding of the word was different which left us in a lurch without any manuals or thumb rules to follow.
A Man of Steel
A chance encounter with Mr. K.D Sharma, from Descatuk, an extremely soft spoken and polite gentleman with fire in his eyes and an expertise in textile, showed us the right path. Mr Sharma introduced us to this awe inspiring concept of creating base fibre made with wild grass grown indigenously in the Himalayan range, called HIMGRA, which seemed unbelievable so we requested for swatches and yardage to test for ourselves.
We were amazed at the results we were achieving testing out various surface techniques on it. The results were even more phenomenal when the HIMGRA was blended with cotton and Liva, a man-made cellulosic fibre and this cocktail resulted in a sturdy and versatile weave which had a beautiful drape and soft feel.
It was evident that Mr Sharma was working on this at a grassroot level and understood the nuances of fabrics and textures right from the seed. His knowledge and passion to innovate with the HIMGRA yarn was immense and his organisation Descatuk, harnesses traditional skills of rural women in Uttarakhand for sustainable use of its natural resources — fibres and natural dyes. Thus, supporting their livelihood using ethical, transparent, and verifiable practices.
Fabric with a Heart
This fabric is not just a purely sustainable one, it also has the might of an entire community behind it engaged in the activity of production, right from picking the grass to soaking it and later sun drying it to form a cohesive mass which is then spun into yarn.
Not only is the journey of this fibre completely traceable, it is also as organic as it could be. The hollow nature of the fibre gives the final fabric thermal regulating properties and the grass itself has medicinal properties and is traditionally used in ayurvedic balm recipes to relieve inflammation and pain.
Our Offering to you
In our collection, you can find the NICO Jacket which is a beautiful representation of our love for NNF and the organisation responsible for bringing it out. This is our ode to a wonderful human being and his team of beautiful people who are working tirelessly to bring about a change at a textile level which has always been an integral part of the Indian legacy as well as its economy.
Circular Fashion
In keeping with our ethos of being genuinely sustainable, we are currently devising a system of transporting all factory scraps back to Descatuk, that will then be utilized for making patchwork bags and pouches, to sell as recycled packaging. This will help generate more employment and income for the community, as our give back.
We hope that as we grow we can innovate further on this and increase our collection with this novelty fabric.
If you have tried this B77 Nico jacket in HIMGRA, or love our story, do leave us a comment!
