Introducing Redo, India’s first sustainable workwear clothing for women. The Delhi-based brand is empowering the modern working woman through classy, versatile, and quality capsule items made to last. Using sustainable textiles and ethical production processes, while meeting the aesthetic and utility needs of women worldwide, this upcoming brand is leading the way for new designers in India.
Redo founder, Aanchal Bansal, is no stranger to working with revolutionary leaders in the fashion industry in India. Before launching Redo, Aanchal was working with well established Indian brands including Doodlage, India’s leading zero waste, upcycling fashion brand, and Atulyakala, a Forbes awarded deaf-run lifestyle brand, where she developed various products, communicating with her team in Indian Sign Language as the Business Head.
After gaining work experience, she enrolled at NIFT Bangalore for a Masters of Fashion Management to fulfill her childhood dream of an education in fashion.
Redo was incorporated as a private company in the summer of 2018. After an year of searching the globe for sustainability certified fabrics, conducting hundreds of consumer surveys, and perfecting fits over a period of 6 months, Redo is ready to be the incumbent leader of women’s sustainable workwear in India.
The “self-taught designer” believes that fashion should always incorporate beauty, sustainability, and utility to the consumer – evident from the design of her first release from Redo, the Reversible, a suit-dress made from 46 recycled plastic bottles and certified organic cotton.
See below a Q&A with Aanchal Bansal, Founder of Redo.
Q: Tell us about the versatility of your amazing new jacket, the Reversible!
Our first product is a suit-dress for working women which can be worn four-ways. It is a reversible garment. On one side, it has a stunningly smooth plain black fabric which works perfectly for formal occasions. And on the other side we have a grey handloom fabric which has a houndstooth-inspired weave.
Wear it as a dress for important occasions like a meeting, an interview or a public speaking event. And style it as a jacket when you are on-the-go. The idea is to give the redoer purchasing this garment enough creative freedom. It’s important that we develop a relationship with our clothes.
Styling them in our own way and taking care of our belongings helps us derive maximum utility out of each of our purchase. We made sure that the Reversible is super durable and impeccably neat so you can wear it for years (and even decades) to come.
Q: What inspired your journey in sustainable fashion?
My journey with fashion and the problems associated with the industry started quite early on in my childhood. Reading about the works of pioneering international designers like Coco Chanel, Elie Saab, Burberry etc. in page 3 of national dailies and discovering various sales going on at local malls was a regular affair for me.
But from time to time, I would come across disturbing articles about the plight of sweatshop labour in garment manufacturing sector and deteriorating state of rivers in China because of effluent discharge by dyeing factories in the main newspaper.
During every school summer, me and my family would drive up to my grandmother’s place in Uttarakhand. However, the sight of rising landfills on our way would leave me distressed each of those years. I couldn’t even fathom all this completely but as sensitive young citizen, I could feel its magnitude.
This gap between the glamorous facade of the fashion industry and the grim reality of social as well as environmental inequity bothered me. And it is in that gap that I found my purpose. I don’t remember a particular moment when I chose sustainable fashion; I just stayed true to my values and grew into the movement.
The only fashion system we need right now is the one in which we innovate with the planet’s limited resources. Production and consumption must be scaled according to the planet’s ability to sustain. Hopefully, all these guidelines and good practices will become widely enforced laws soon.
Q: What inspired your concept for Redo?
Plastic. It’s everywhere- our food, water, clothing etc. all come in plastic packaging. It terrifies me that if we continue to use and dispose at the current rate then, the ocean will have more plastic than fish by 2050. I was clear that I want to make products which aid sustainable living of people who are ‘redoers.’ Starting up in 2018, the onus was on me to launch extremely responsible and well-thought clothing as the womenswear market is already overloaded with options.
Hence, our first product is a versatile suit-dress for working women. It is made with 46 recycled plastic bottles and certified organic cotton.
The aim is to make getting dressed ethically easier than ever before. Once we have simplified ethical clothing, we would love to take our community on a gradual journey of sustainable and zero-waste living.
Q: Why sustainable workwear?
There’s a profound gap in women’s workwear in India. If I ask anyone to name a men’s workwear brand, they will be able to name a dozen. But if I ask someone to name one dedicated to the rising number of women’s workforce in India, it will be
difficult to think of any significant player. That’s where Redo comes into the picture. We make boardroom-worthy sustainable workwear for Indian women on the rise. Redo sustainable workwear is designed for women, by women because we understand how important it is to project one’s credibility in the workspace.
We make sure that our designs act in the service of the woman wearing them. Our core belief is that when women do well at the workplace, the world becomes a better place. Redo clothing is a departure from monotonous pant suits, fake pockets, uncomfortable necklines and shirts which refuse to stay tucked in.
If a working woman’s clothing can convey a sense of power, then the woman wearing it can direct her energy elsewhere. Our mission is to take the work out of dressing up for work and make it an act of joy.
Q: Tell us about the materials you’re using to create the Reversible and future pieces.
One side of the Reversible is made from an Australian recycled polyester fabric which is made of recycled plastic bottles. It also incorporates twill weave and weft stretch. It’s lightweight, wrinkle-resistant, moisture-wicking, and the end product feels as luxurious as a wool blazer.
Moreover, it comes with three global certifications so that consumers know that they are buying an ethical product. The other side is a breathable handloom fabric woven by Indian artisans in a houndstooth-inspired weave. It takes as long as two months to make each of these fabrics.
In our future capsule collections, we would love to use certified hemp, bamboo, viscose, econyl, and organic cotton fabrics. A few years down the line, our goal is to co-develop innovative fabrics with leading textile mills to create a range of products which is more versatile.
Q: Why are you only launching one product at a time?
We love fashion but there are just too many clothes being produced, consumed and discarded thoughtlessly. Over 26 billion pounds of garment and textile waste reach the landfill every year. That’s not a good look for us humans and it’s extremely rough on the planet.
Our pursuit of responsible fashion makes us very item-driven. So, by launching one item or a small capsule collection at a time, we are trying to find clothes which have a high product-market fit. Our offering must solve multiple pain-points of the user and become a part of their life.
Q: What’s next for REDO?
We are conceptualizing a concisely edited capsule collection of a few versatile pieces. What’s going to be so good about them? All of them will be made with some of the most sustainable fabrics in the world and by some of the best crafts(wo)men of India. Redoers will be able to mix and match them to create a month’s worth of outfits.
Working women all over the world would be able to buy the entire capsule or shop individual pieces to start building their dream wardrobe. Just like the Reversible, all of our designs will be hyper-functional and designed to be worn multiple ways.
Listen to our Causeartist podcasts here.
