Divyam Mehta

Made From Agricultural Waste A/W 22 / Source: Divyam Mehta

AsiaHempNettle FibreTextiles

3 MINUTE READ

Jessica Harman

WHAT WE SAY:

Fashion shows can be indulgent and disconnected from our environmental zeitgeist, but they are also a powerful tool to enable designers to experiment with emerging new materials.

This stunning collection shows that making clothes from agricultural waste is not just possible, but desirable. We'll get truly excited when big brands deploy this material in mass market collections. Scale and speed is everything now in the path to fix fashion.

KEY FACTS:

Lakme Fashion Week 2022 saw Indian designer Divyam Mehta present a collection made with Altag fibre, which is made from agricultural waste from crops like Hemp, pineapple, Nettle and banana.
The fibre is produced by Altmat, a Gujarat-based material innovation company. Altmat is part of the Fashion For Good Untapped Agricultural Waste Project, which is exploring how to scale technologies that turn agricultural waste into textile fibres.
Divyam Mehta is a designer known for slow fashion and ethical practices, producing limited qualities of his collections.
Following the fashion show, the collection is being showcased at Fashion for Good’s museum in Amsterdam.

Made From Agricultural Waste A/W 22 / Source: Divyam Mehta

Made From Agricultural Waste A/W 22 / Source: Diyham Mehta

DIVE DEEPER:

Lakme Fashion Week 2022 saw the show return to Delhi’s Dhyan Chand National Stadium after two years of absence due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The returning 2022 show featured a day dedicated to sustainable fashion and partnered with strategic players, such as Reliance India’s R-Elan textile business and the United Nations Environment Programme.
According to Divyam Mehta, he was heavily inspired by the Kondha tribe and their connection to nature, leading him to seek out agricultural waste as an ingredient.
He said that the fabric was “raw and refined at the same time; it feels like linen and falls like wool.”
In Fashion for Good’s report, ‘Unlocking the Trillion-Dollar Fashion Decarbonisation Opportunity,’ it states that up to 92 million tons of agricultural waste is burned annually in India, which in 2017 created approximately 149 million tons of CO2.

[The material is] “raw and refined at the same time; it feels like linen and falls like wool.”

Divyam Mehta

Key Design Considerations:

When will Altag scale beyond limited collections?

While Altmat reports that its minimum order quantities are typically two tons of yarn, this is the first time its fabrics have been featured in a collection and it has not yet released any commercially available retail collections.

Is Altag suitable for your garments?

Per Mehta’s comments above about Altag’s linen-like feel, as a fabric it will be best suited for garments that embrace a natural finish. Furthermore, if natural fibres are blended or finished with synthetic components it will create issues at their end-of-life. Consider how these issues will shape your designs.