NIFT students in Chennai knit a swatch made of banana and aloe vera
Zaina Niyaz and Nitya Taunk, students of knitwear design department, working on their final year project using natural fibres and organic wool and cotton at NIFT, Chennai. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: Zaina Niyaz of Egmore here is a final year student of NIFT-Chennai. She specialised in knitwear design. To make fashion eco-friendly and sustainable, she came up with an innovative idea for her final year project. She experimented by knitting a swatch made of banana fibre and recycled organic cotton and aloe vera fibre and silk which has medicinal properties and is also eco-friendly.
For more than two years, NIFT students have been experimenting with organic products like organic cotton saree, which is free of chemical pesticides, sandalwood powder and lemon used for dye solution, neem paste, bamboo fibre, jute and with other natural fibres. They also recycle waste fabrics.
V.R. Karthikeyarayan, associate professor of textile design department, said, “Organic product is not popular in the market. So from the college campus itself we have allowed students to experiment with natural fibres to enable them to take it to the market and popularise it. For the last few years students from knitwear design and textile design department, are more into experimentation with organic products. They come up with an environment-friendly product.
“We intend to offer change, because that’s what fashion is all about, he added. Accordingly, students also come up with new ideas and new type of products,” said Kaustav Sengupta, associate professor of fashion technology department.
Explaining the medicinal properties of these natural ingredients, Zaina, said, “Banana fibre is branching into natural, biodegradable and sustainable fashion. In case of aloe vera, it is antibacterial and if all goes well and is used naturally then it will not only kill bacteria but also there won’t be any body odour.” She also knitted using pure silk as the top base and organic cotton as the bottom base. A material made of organic cotton and silk will prevent one from any kind of skin infection, she says. There is zero wastage in knitting.
Her classmate Nitya Taunk from Andhra Pradesh is also into similar such experimentation. She knitted a piece of cloth in which the top side is made of natural wool and bottom side of organic cotton. “Natural dye is done through iron rust and jaggery (gur) that is blended into a mass which turn into black colour. Both natural wool and natural dye has medicinal properties which is soothing for skin, so I chose this for my project,” she says.
Though hailing from Andhra Pradesh, her native is Gujarat. So, for her project, she had been to interior Gujarat and discovered the traditional use of natural ingredients in clothing. According to Muslim mythology, silk should not touch the skin. So keeping this in mind, weavers in Rabari village in Gujarat, made a fabric called 'mashru’ in which silk and cotton is mixed.
“I wanted to use this fabric for my final year project. She wanted to do that in knitting using different techniques as none had tried it before. Both did not prefer placement. Nitya and Zaina want to introduce their own label.
Students from other departments such as leather design also came up with innovative designs for their final year project. They worked with brands like Tata International and Bharatiya International.
( Source : dc )
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