This week, SUMAS students enjoyed the webinar on sustainable fashion by Kavita Parmar, who is an Indian born designer and activist living in Madrid.
She started working in the fashion industry very young helping major brands source from the far east. This gave her first-hand knowledge of the impact the fashion industry has on people and the planet and made her focus her work on sustainability for over 15 years.
She started the IOU Project in 2010 believing that true transparency and traceability were fundamental to make real change happen and empower the artisan and the customer together. IOU PROJECT using technology they developed, answered the question ¨WHO MAKES YOUR CLOTHES¨ years before the Rana Plaza accident happened as an example of good practice for other brands. Kavita has done consulting for major brands like NIKE, IKEA, Levis and many small and large government organisations.
She has won several awards for her work including the UNSSC Leadership Award and regularly gives lectures and talks on these issues around the globe. Passionate about using technology as a tool to help preserve our textile heritage, Kavita is working with Marcella Echavarria to develop an open-source WIKI of master textile artisans called XTANT.
She continues to design and produce the IOU Project collection which she uses as her laboratory to develop product with craft communities and help them get their skills to market.
image sources: https://texto-2020-en.web.app/journal/BdCXNES5cq6BSc8GdcXy/article
https://elle.in/article/kavita-parmar-sustainable-fashion/