made tkauu

टिकाऊ ~ Tkauu, means ‘durable’ or ‘lasting’ in Hindi-- just how we want our planet to be.

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Community • Is the coming decade more about community and collaborations? Trying to find connections, we stumbled upon conversations with a couple weavers from different communities. While collaborations were always on our mind to start work with. It has led us to know more about a craft, and culture of a community. It has only empowered us by empowering them. With these changing times we aspire to move together with the community by finding deep connection with the planet, while holding our conversations safe and strong.

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Conversation • ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Why conversations are important? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ With the urge to find connections, slowly the conversations began, with our past leading us to the answers of our present. Which defined existence of why and what are we today. How neglecting have we come across as human on this planet. A neglect towards our planet as well as to our fellow humans and living beings around us. However, this pandemic has taken away the scared conversations we had. For us this has been the time to Jungle around the nature to find more organic tactile conversations.

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Connection • What is connection without empathy? We took these few months to understand a deeper meaning about connections. Connections within and around us, which can create that spark to bring the change in a positive manner. We Navigated our connections in a way that energizes us to shape a better planet, empowering everyone around us, so we grow together from here, and work along with each other. Have you tried your search for deep connections yet ?!

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What we completely love about design is , how it’s evolves through various mediums . While our previous post spoke about the print developed from manipulating fabric (a pretty accident) , this one is about how we went ahead to weave the same print with beautiful yummy yarns . We believe Design, as it evolves also translates different emotions though various mediums used . For us it was the sheer sense of touch delivering tranquility within! Being a textile designer, touch is an extreme character we deliver through our textiles . Such an irony to post , to desire and to long for a sense of touch during a time of pandemic which requires social distancing at its core to resolve . Haven’t all of us realized the core value of sense of touch during this pandemic the most ?

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Talking a little more about our previous post. We love accidents. It gives one so much of a different perspective to imagination. We so believe in them that we always love to keep our accidents much closer to our heart. So then what happens to them ? Tada - Here it is . Being a print artist we love creating prints from fabric manipulations . And just because we saved on a couple of our denim accidents , we turned them into beautiful oceanic icy denim print. Inspiration - Arial view of ocean with melting ice burgs .

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‘We don’t make mistakes , just happy little happy accidents.’ Circa: 2014

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Coming to the end of our series of ‘know your wardrobe’. Our last post is: What goes inside your wardrobe? Do you follow any kind of shopping rule? Don’t we all love shopping. Yes, indeed, we all do. As the lock down starts easing, we might hit back to the cycle of shopping and hunting for new trends in the market. Our markets are already flooded with green-washed images of all those fast fashion brands. This is how they aim to sell their product. But a lot of our fast fashion is boosted by our impulsive buying behavior. Means the purchases we make are fast – unconscious decisions, unconscious buying leads to unwanted clothes. So, what happens next? If you really made a purchase for an occasion, then maybe it will be worn a couple of times. But then what? We get caught up in the cycle of not repeating the same garment for any other occasion. But I think the problem starts with the very idea of buying something which needs to be worn for a few hours or maybe we get bored by it too soon. Fast fashion is like junk food. As junk food being bad for our inner body health, fast fashion is bad for our outer body and our planet. So how does fast fashion affect our body or our planet? - Tricks us to spend money more often. - The more you own, the more cluttered is your wardrobe and mind, leading you to stress every time you want to go out. - Fast fashion gets discarded, only ends up being filled up in our landfills. - The quality of fast fashion equally as cheap as its cost, hence the disposal rate being much higher. Choose wise, Be conscious!

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Know your fabric. Time to pick up each of your garment and learn a little more about its material and fabric care. Each of your garment will have a various label and tags on your clothing. Some are attached to your garment and some are the branding tags. They exist for a reason, they brief you about the material of the product, wash care instructions and the brand story. As much you enjoy the brand story, somewhere the rest of the information gets neglected. So basically, each of your wash care symbol has a different meaning and connotation to it. Know your wash care symbols thoroughly to know about which fabric needs what kind of care. Like silk, would need a dry cleaning mostly, similarly your whites generally need to wash separately. You will learn about materials which are easy care and luxury care. There is another aspect of knowing your fabric other than just taking care of it. When you know your fabric, you also know which kind of fabric is best suited for your body or activity. So, let us say you want something to wear for summer. However, adorning a fabric which is not breathable for your skin would turn out to be a disaster. Hence it becomes necessary to know why what comforts your skin. So, why should you know your fabric? – Care for your clothes and skin in relation to the season or activity you do, both resulting in forming a longer relationship with your clothing and body. Tip - You could easily club this exercise with hanger rule while decluttering your wardrobe, to manage your laundry better. And like I always said it is equally vital to know what goes on your body just like what goes inside your body. Image source - Pinterest

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Solve it like numbers, but don’t dread it as math. Revamp your style quotient.

Did you know that just changing your combinations of the clothes you owe can also add so much to your style? Yes, there are plenty of combinations that could be done with what you have in your wardrobe. Fashion for me is nothing but styling. Clearly from the trends you see, if you still need to look stylish, then you can always mix and match whatever you already have. If you are a beginner, you can pai up prints with solids to play safe. If you believe you can carry colors well, you can play around with some color blocking in your garments to make it bold statement.

As consumers it is important for you to develop a style sensibility to be able to understand your own buying behavior. You can only get trapped in the chain of fast fashion not knowing what suits you or what defines your style.

It does take time to know your own style, however the amount of flipping you do through various fashion magazines, you already know what you like. You just need to de clutter your mind to sit down to understand what is comfortable yet stylish for you, which also might be something you already owe.

As I ask to dig deeper into your wardrobe, similarly I also suggest you peep deeper into your own minds. That is where your consciousness lies. From where you become conscious about our choices relating to your decisions of spending money on a certain garment. If you understand what you need you would be making a conscious choice of what you will be buying. SmallSteps towards bigger change in your mind and wardrobe !

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Know your most durable garment from your wardrobe - Denim.

Goes without wash for ages, while getting better with aging. So being a denim enthusiast, I had to add this. As we all own at least a couple of jeans in our wardrobe, hence I felt it was important to address all the myths related to jeans.

Denim is the most durable fabric from which our jean is made. Due to its durability and wear and tear, it has the most life compared to any fabric. However, with passing years, it also gains a lot of its character with time and usage. It was used by miners and sailors initially being a sturdy and touch fabric in nature.

Raw denim when worn for longer time, adapts to the body, and characteristic of its user, hence making it the unique like its wearer. The fabric is almost a blessing in disguise. It has a property of fading with time; hence one can find various finishes on the jeans for the same. Denim also looks best even when embroidered or patched to mend it. Mending has worked the best with denims, for it adds a new character and talking about a story of the wearer.

However, I have found a lot of people throwing away their jeans just because it no longer serves the purpose. It starts looking faded or if the denim gets torn somewhere, they tend to discard it thinking that it can no longer be worn. While you can fancy faded, painted or embroidered denim to be brought from the market, I would suggest to let your existing denim stay longer so it will shadow the character of your body. So next time before you plan to discard any of your existing denims, find out ways to mend it. Trust me it will give a very new look to your denim. Trust your denim, it’s a best friend which will go with you for much longer time.

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Managing your wardrobe is hard and easy at the same time. First things first, you need a mind set that you would want to purge what is in your wardrobe. It is important that you acknowledge that you already own a lot more than you know. So, coming to the point this step of decluttering your wardrobe just makes your life simpler. As there must be so many clothes that lie inside which you don’t wear anymore just because either they are old fashioned , or they don’t fit you, and simply you have forgotten that you own them.

This little exercise would be your first step to declutter your wardrobe. Done and tested, I am writing down this by taking the inspiration from many. The hanger rule. You at least got to follow this for 6 months to see what is inside your wardrobe, the ones you need, and the ones which needs to go away.

So here is the trick, all your hangers should be hung pointing in your direction, or the wrong direction. When you wear something, you need to hang them pointing to the direction opposite to you or the normal way. This way you would easily know which clothes you wear. After six months you would know how many, with the hangers pointed in your direction, are the ones you are not wearing at all. They are ready to be donated or sold online or maybe you need to try them.

I also feel this helps you to know which clothes you own. For someone like me I forgot that I owned a printed pant which could be paired up with one of my white shirts. It almost adds a new life to my wardrobe, without even spending a single penny. This changes the life of your wardrobe, by adding so much of time, unspent money and helps you declutter your mind.

Happy Decluttering!

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Find or know ways to improve the life of our belonging. – clothes .

We are the superior race on this planet, not just to overuse what is around us. Being smart enough, we also know how well to prolong the life of an object be it be an electronics or furniture. Certainly, if we have the capacity to do so in other objects, then we need to maintain a long-term relationship with our clothing too. It is vital that we should find out ways to know more about our clothes, which is much easy in terms of clothing.

There are some very straight ways to improve the life of our old clothes. They can be de-stained, mended with patches, embroidery, can be cut to sown into a new design, can be dyed, or painted. Crochet between the holes of the socks, paint on the old shoes, or just embroidery on the old favorite jacket.

While all of this will ultimately add life to the clothes, it will destress is too, by keeping our favorite memorable top/jeans/shirt with us. Not all of us know how to stitch, embroidery or crochet, however living in the era of internet, we can find multiple videos to help you learn a new skill. Image we are have a win – win situation – we learn a new skill, we destress ourself, we can repair our clothes, we don’t have to spend on new clothes as we already have given a new life to our old ones, and our favorite clothing stays with us longer.

Photography: Clicked between one of mending sessions.

Fabric: Denim.

4-year-old American Eagle jeans.

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Trends have lately become the key promoters of the fast fashion these days. With fashion changing every other week, it leads most of the people to invest in fashion pretty often. Trends tend to trick buyers investment as something different and new, but it is necessarily not. At least not the ones which come down to the streetwear. So here is the catch for it. Most trends already exist in your wardrobe. Fashion is nothing but a repetition of trends. For instance, boot cut jeans, harem pants, crop tops are returning trends only with a mix and twist in fabric/print/length. Also, if you believe in following a trend blindly, let us say that sustainability is one of the most trending fashion since 2019. So how about following something new, spending consciously, and choosing to buy wise and less? Always remember, what you need is what you already have in your wardrobe. Fun Experience: I personally own a boot cut jacquard jeans, which my Dad had got for me a few years ago from Paris, but I never discarded it (for my love for denim). So now that the boot cut jeans is back in fashion, I am wearing it again, however the jacquard part is missing in trends these days, making my jeans the most unique among any of the jeans which Is available in the market.

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Do you always think that clothes can make you look better? The more, the variety, the trendiest you have, the better you can look. However, a great style does include a great accessory. With the right combination of a handbag, perfume, and shoes, it can give any older outfit a newer look. Just peep into your wardrobe to know what accessories you already own. I am sure that there are good number of scarves or bandanas, bags or tie or shoes that you already own, they just need to move out to be paired up with your clothes. If you still feel the urge to shop, and find the clothing these days to be expensive, yet want to spend effectively less money, then invest in accessories. They totally change any look that you have already flaunted. Think about ways to add good accessory which might trigger other sense than visual, just like a good perfume. You dress up to look great visually, however perfume is adding aroma to your persona, which ultimately triggers the sense of smell in most of the people. If you wish to play safe, you can always go for subtle smell. But I feel it adds the notch to your persona. Using what is in your wardrobe and sticking to not buying clothing are great ways to turn sustainable. However, if you still need to invest in some accessories, look in for brands that are making accessories out of waste, or those who are supporting local artisans. That indeed would be a great way to be a conscious buyer while leading a sustainable living.

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Know your body and mind.

Knowing your wardrobe begins with knowing your body type and your mind. Just like food, how you are allergic to certain ingredients or food because your body do not take these foods, there are few styles and fashion trends which are not meant for your taste and body type. When you do not know what suits you, you end up following trends recklessly, without knowing if we really want it. Look into your wardrobe, there must be a lot of clothes, which you may have just bought it because it was trendy or looked good on your friend or on a celeb. Think again, it is always best to wear what looks like your own skin. Your clothes should define you and not the celeb/trend/friend you are following.

The idea is to understand your body type. Yes! your diet and workout sessions are planned according to your need and body type, so why not to have clothes which are best suited for your body type. Let us say what looks extremely good on you will not look good on anyone else too. Then why run after trends when you can look the best in your style. And there are always so many amazing sites that suggest you what would suits best on you.

So, learn more about your body. Learn what styles you like, what materials are comfortable for you and stick to them.

Photo source : Pinterest

Illustrator Nancy Chalmers

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The first step towards sustainability is always knowing what you have . How many of us do get this time to actually peep into what lies inside than outside ? I am going to post a 9 pointers stating what you need to know more about to form a great relationship with your wardrobe ! ! Ultimately leading to a mindful life and thoughtful purchases !

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Who made my mask?

While we sit at home, scrolling through our phones to shop for more masks, with each buy we let another work come out to work so they can create these pretty masks for.  However, the question of the hour is Who is making our masks? We have been pretty much into the idea of ‘who made my clothes’, but are we also asking the prior question right now? Can we even ask this question right now? In the deadliest of times we are expecting our worker to suffice our fashion trends is the biggest flaw we are facing.

Currently the world is dealing with mental, somatic, and economic crisis, we still want someone to come to work, keeping their physical health at stake so they can stabilize their economic adversity. Just so we can wrap our face with the fashion status. If our demand as consumer is the driving power of supply, then this is a good time for us to reflect upon the necessity of this unwanted demand.

Let us also not forget that these masks all together will have an ultimate home – our landfills or the oceans, hence becoming a trend. Unlike clothes, which still have a possibility of resale, or redesign, mask being too small might not be redesigned into something new, or not resold with the risk of being unhygienic.

Can we pause to (re)evaluate, if these disposable masks need to become a part of our lives, at the cost of the life of disposable worker who is pressured to work during this time of pandemic , to earn the disposable income for themselves?

Can we also reflect if a mask really needs to become a fashion accessory? Leading it to become another part of fast fashion world?