Opang Jamir bats for sustainable fashion

Dimapur, April 10 (EMN): Former Mister India International 2012 Opang Jamir on Sunday said that the Northeast was a ‘treasure landmine’ of indigenous textiles which was a boon for upcoming designers to in-cooperate in their innovative designs.

Jamir was speaking at the International Institute of Fashion Design (INIFD) Guwahati on the topic ‘sustainable fashion’.

He said that the indigenous loin-loom and the natural fabric found in Northeast were unique and needed more highlight to make it into a blooming business venture, an update stated.

Jamir said that fast-fashion and usage of artificial fabric could result in environmental catastrophe

Considering the consequences and environment catastrophe and therefore encouraged the INIFD Guwahati design students to be warriors of the environment and be mindful of their actions and fabric use in their clothing.

“Ironically in India, we had a blueprint for sustainable fashion economy less than 100 years ago defined by Gandhi,” he said and added that he believed in a decentralised government and wanted to empower each village with its artisanal eco-system of weavers, dyers, embroiderers, craftsmen etc.

He said that each village was a microcosm of the nation and on a country like India that employs 17 million handicrafts workers in village, ‘we’ve forgotten the narrative Mahatma Gandhi handed us at that time, which was about self-reliance,’ it said.