The history of clothing mirrors the progress of human civilisation. Unwittingly, we use a slew of textile metaphors in our daily lives. We comment on "threads"; we "seamlessly" integrate x with y; we "weave" through traffic as technology touches every "fabric" of our lives. Fascinating?
However, in recent times, fashion has fallen into disrepute. Dyeing and finishing alone are responsible for 3% of global CO2 emissions and over 20% of global water pollution. And 2,700 litres of water are needed to make just one t-shirt, which would be enough for one person to drink for 900 days. And let us not even get started with fast fashion.
So can technology help solve this? Rajesh Narkar, an industry veteran, joins this episode to help us navigate this world of runaways and glamour to find possible answers.
DM us your responses on Insta or YouTube or at 3TB@unblox.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Sam. Hi, I'm hi, I'm shit. And you're
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Speaker 1: listening to three TV? Three.
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Speaker 1: Hi. I'm welcome to Three TB A podcast where Three
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Speaker 1: Tech is Banter. It is a podcast where you can
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Speaker 1: explore tech in the non tech way. It is about
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Speaker 1: how the tech and economics behind the tech
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Speaker 1: uh impacts us today. And in the future, it is
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Speaker 1: full of information, fun facts, common sense and it is
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Speaker 1: actually spoken in a language that everybody can understand in
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Speaker 1: today's episode. We continue with our theme, which if you
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Speaker 1: remember last episode was Roti Kara and Ma we spoke
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Speaker 1: about Roti and Agri in our previous episode. But in
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Speaker 1: this episode, we are going to talk about the or fashion.
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Speaker 1: Let me start with some very interesting
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Speaker 1: quotes that all of us know. Right. Whoever said that
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Speaker 1: money can't buy happiness, simply didn't know where to go shopping.
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Speaker 1: A mantra by which a lot of people seem to
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Speaker 1: live their lives.
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Speaker 1: Um When you think of um fast fashion like Zara
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Speaker 1: almost always, you say grab it now, tomorrow it might
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Speaker 1: be gone forever really. And that's what what the world
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Speaker 1: of shopping has become. It's encouraging us to do outfits
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Speaker 1: of the day to put up new outfits every single day,
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Speaker 1: buy more than be really utilized. And therefore like someone
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Speaker 1: very nicely said, I think it was Livia Firth who
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Speaker 1: said fast fashion is like fast food.
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Speaker 1: After the sugar rush, it just leaves a bad taste
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Speaker 1: in your mouth. When we think about fast fashion, right?
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Speaker 1: We really need to understand that while all of us
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Speaker 1: love the clothes, all of us love to fill our wardrobes,
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Speaker 1: there is some data which is really, really scary. So
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Speaker 1: you want to talk about some of the impacts of
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Speaker 1: fast fashion on the environment. Yeah. Yeah. So in fact,
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Speaker 1: uh fast fashion has somehow got everyone's uh
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Speaker 1: fancy because it's fast and uh
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Speaker 1: and it kind of allows you to kind of, you know,
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Speaker 1: do these quick roles very quickly. But unfortunately, I think
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Speaker 1: it is having a huge negative impact on the environment
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Speaker 1: on all of us and very unwittingly kind of causing
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Speaker 1: a huge amount of and some just simple facts, you know, in,
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Speaker 1: in which we kind of uh
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Speaker 1: uh it's just like, you know, things like dying and
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Speaker 1: finishing alone, you know, these processes apparently release some 3%
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Speaker 1: cause 3% of global CO2 emissions uh and over 20%
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Speaker 1: of global uh water pollution.
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Speaker 1: Uh it, it is uh you know, very, very difficult
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Speaker 1: to picture that, you know, 2700 liters of water are
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Speaker 1: needed to make just one t-shirt. Ok. And that's the
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Speaker 1: amount of water a person drinks can drink over 900 days.
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Speaker 1: In fact, so much so, you know, this has become
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Speaker 1: such a big issue that
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Speaker 1: the UN has actually set up an alliance for, of fashion.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's, it's like, you know, it's like, really
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Speaker 1: thinking of fashion, like terrorism or climate change that, you know, it's,
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Speaker 1: it's so serious that the UN thinks that there should
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Speaker 1: be an alliance to kind of fight it. Uh But yes, it,
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Speaker 1: it is a, it is a problem because it is,
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Speaker 1: it, it's kind of uh flying under the radar, so
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Speaker 1: to speak because, you know, nobody thinks of clothes as
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Speaker 1: creating problems and I think as, uh uh you and me,
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Speaker 1: we were discussing that, you know, it's got to do
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Speaker 1: with people, you know, uh driven by media, people discarding
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Speaker 1: clothes faster and, you know, this whole
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Speaker 1: whole thing which is kind of piling up on the
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Speaker 1: one hand, clothes are getting made faster and the other hand,
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Speaker 1: you are kind of, you know, getting rid of it
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Speaker 1: at a much faster pace because of the entire ecosystem pressure. So, yeah,
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Speaker 1: uh fast fashion is, is a serious, serious. Uh,
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Speaker 1: so many husbands will agree with you and, and treat
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Speaker 1: shopping as criminal for another time. Um You know, one
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Speaker 1: of the biggest changes that since we are talking about
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Speaker 1: fashion and it stuck me just this, uh yesterday that, uh,
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Speaker 1: since I have been in Ireland, I have got
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Speaker 1: flyers, uh, almost, uh, twice in a month about donating clothes. Ok. Now,
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Speaker 1: why it is peculiar is that, um, when I was
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Speaker 1: in India I, I, there were some drives, uh, but
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Speaker 1: not so many. Uh, but in Ireland I have seen
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Speaker 1: them multiple times. You have places where, and parts where
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Speaker 1: you go and put your clothes. Uh, you know, I
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Speaker 1: don't know, somehow it stuck to me that. Why, why
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Speaker 1: is there so much talk about clothes and
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Speaker 1: you know, trying to donate clothes. And then uh another
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Speaker 1: statistic that hit me was that, you know, uh and,
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Speaker 1: and most of the time it would be, the destination
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Speaker 1: would be Africa and Asia.
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Speaker 1: And what the statistic was that 15 million clothes arrive
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Speaker 1: in Ghana? It seems every week. OK. Now there, there
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Speaker 1: can be a good and a bad part, a good part,
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Speaker 1: maybe clothes are also needed by them and you know,
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Speaker 1: Europe and primarily from Europe and us, you know, and,
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Speaker 1: and they are getting their clothes. The sad part is 40%
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Speaker 1: of that material lands up in the land fields, landfill. So,
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Speaker 1: so they are actually not
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Speaker 1: being used. So it's, it's like, you know, you, you
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Speaker 1: make your problem someone else's problem and they are dealing
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Speaker 1: with it. It's, it's just ridiculous. I mean, the amount
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Speaker 1: of clothes that get donated. So this is very strange that,
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Speaker 1: you know, II I tried very hard to find something
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Speaker 1: which is in India but uh I, I was definitely
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Speaker 1: able to find this whole thing. Uh people and their
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Speaker 1: steps against fast fashion. You know, like there are some
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Speaker 1: second hand sellers. Like I think it's something called thread
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Speaker 1: up and Mark. I think they're based out of uh
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Speaker 1: people are supposed to send their unwanted clothes like you
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Speaker 1: talked about in Ireland and, you know, other people buy
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Speaker 1: them at a low price. Then there is a whole
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Speaker 1: move about renting clothes and there is some rent, rent
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Speaker 1: the runway. And I think there is a UK based
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Speaker 1: company called uh Girl Meets Dress and there's another Dutch company.
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Speaker 1: So I think there is a huge move in that direction. Definitely,
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Speaker 1: the problem is not the, what you are saying is
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Speaker 1: a is a positive one. So you donate clothes and
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Speaker 1: reuse them and it goes on and on and on
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Speaker 1: perfectly with you on that. The issue
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Speaker 1: is that this is Don this donation seems to be
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Speaker 1: my trash. I'm shipping somewhere else and it is landing
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Speaker 1: in their trash also. They are not using it. So,
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Speaker 1: so I'll I'll, you know, in, in India, probably in India,
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Speaker 1: probably the the the issue is, is not so, you know,
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Speaker 1: grave because we have been brought up, you know, if
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Speaker 1: there were two brothers in the family, the the the
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Speaker 1: clothes are passing on getting re use and there is
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Speaker 1: a life cycle, which is way higher. The life
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Speaker 1: clothing piece and item has gone down drastically in Europe.
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Speaker 1: I mean, there are times when people buy something uh
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Speaker 1: which is in fashion and probably never end up wearing
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Speaker 1: because it went out of fashion the next month. You know.
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Speaker 1: So in fact, uh sustainability and I'll give you an,
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Speaker 1: it's not to do with clothes. But uh a friend
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Speaker 1: of mine, he gave me some furniture because we moved
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Speaker 1: into a bigger house. So he kept it then that
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Speaker 1: furniture went by, help took it away and he's taken
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Speaker 1: it to his village and you know,
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Speaker 1: he's done it up and all. So, in fact, the
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Speaker 1: other day with the friend of mine came, he said,
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Speaker 1: you know, I have to put my furniture on Blockchain
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Speaker 1: because I must trace the province because I don't do
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Speaker 1: in this situation when I buy back my furniture second
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Speaker 1: hand one day. So, so I mean, yeah, India is
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Speaker 1: a peculiar situation of sustainability in that sense,
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Speaker 1: but it has a positive uh feature of sustainability. But
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Speaker 1: I'm going to wrap both. Uh at least you're gonna
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Speaker 1: get wrapped on your knuckles by me as a woman
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Speaker 1: on the show saying, how can you say women? Let
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Speaker 1: me tell you that uh the fear of missing out, right?
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Speaker 1: And the
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Speaker 1: the need to hold for fast fashion government is both,
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Speaker 1: it's both men and women. So let me tell you,
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Speaker 1: there is enough and more data, which says that an
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Speaker 1: average person holds fast fashion because of the fear of
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Speaker 1: missing out. However, only half of those clothes are worn
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Speaker 1: and 50% of those clothes get, um, remain untouched. The
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Speaker 1: other bizarre thing. And I think this applies to all
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Speaker 1: of us, right? If, if you remember the good old days,
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Speaker 1: when
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Speaker 1: at least I knew when I was in the world
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Speaker 1: of fashion. Uh, we used to have autumn, winter, spring, summer,
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Speaker 1: fall seasons and collections right today. Thanks to fast fashion brands,
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Speaker 1: whether it's the Zara, whether it's the Primark, whatever of
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Speaker 1: the world,
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Speaker 1: you actually land up having 12 such collections coming out right.
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Speaker 1: Every month you see renewed collections and because you're seeing
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Speaker 1: it every month earlier when you had four, you would
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Speaker 1: go to the store maybe twice in a year and
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Speaker 1: buy things. I remember when I used to be a
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Speaker 1: shopper shop that an average visit of a consumer was
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Speaker 1: on more than 2.5 times, right
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Speaker 1: store. But today when you're sitting at home and clicking
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Speaker 1: and having it delivered and you know, fashion is changing
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Speaker 1: so quickly and I have to wear the outfit of
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Speaker 1: the day and get all the likes on my Instagram
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Speaker 1: ID and all of that. You are landing up buying
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Speaker 1: more and more clothes. And this is true. I think
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Speaker 1: of both men and women in this country and not,
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Speaker 1: not just a country in the world. And I think
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Speaker 1: that's one of the big,
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Speaker 1: big things uh that is happening uh in the world
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Speaker 1: and to your point of you know, Ghana and a
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Speaker 1: few other places which are getting the landfills. I I
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Speaker 1: didn't know this but a garbage truck full of clothes
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Speaker 1: is burned or landfill every second. I mean that is
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Speaker 1: shocking data.
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Speaker 1: It says there is enough fruits that we are dumping
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Speaker 1: and wasting to fill 1.5 Empire State buildings every day.
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Speaker 1: I can't even imagine what we're doing with so much
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Speaker 1: of clothing. And I sometimes feel that maybe our parents
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Speaker 1: were right in bringing us up by saying you will
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Speaker 1: get new clothes at Diwali which was a festival time
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Speaker 1: and you would get a new pair of clothing on
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Speaker 1: your birthday, right? Twice a year because it was occasions
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Speaker 1: you got that. So in fact that
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Speaker 1: I wonder, you know, in Hindi movies, how kids got
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Speaker 1: lost because typically when wearing the clothes from the same cloth,
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Speaker 1: you can easily find them. There is just no way
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Speaker 1: you can get lost, right? Because you know, like, you know,
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Speaker 1: same cloth was bought, same shirt. Everybody in the family
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Speaker 1: is absolutely correct. That is how we are. And I
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Speaker 1: think to that extent, we should look at sustainability in India.
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Speaker 1: But you know, I remember when my son was going
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Speaker 1: for university, he had written this whole essay on the
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Speaker 1: journey of his t-shirt,
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Speaker 1: right? From where it came to where it became his
00:10:43
Speaker 1: t-shirt and then became all the way a rag cloth
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Speaker 1: in the house and then got thrown that. That really
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Speaker 1: is the life cycle of any outfit in this country.
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Speaker 1: So if you think about it as slightly more sustainable
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Speaker 1: countries like India where a shirt is worn by you
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Speaker 1: and then I don't know if you're aware of the
00:11:02
Speaker 1: fact that, you know, you can turn your colors. So
00:11:03
Speaker 1: typically collar is free, but there are tailors in this
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Speaker 1: country who flip the collar around so you can flip
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Speaker 1: the color around it and give it to somebody else
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Speaker 1: and they can wear it for a few more years.
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Speaker 1: And I think that's phenomenal. We should be extremely proud
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Speaker 1: as a country with the work we're doing
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Speaker 1: and how we increase the life. So in fact, your,
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Speaker 1: so in fact, your collections uh 12 collections uh thing
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Speaker 1: uh just reminded me of a paradox. Actually, there is
00:11:33
Speaker 1: actually a fashion paradox. It's called the Piracy paradox. OK.
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Speaker 1: So the thing is that all the high end labels
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Speaker 1: they come out with, you know, one collection, whatever, then
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Speaker 1: they launch it
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Speaker 1: and it does well and then immediately people start cloning it, right?
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Speaker 1: And then there are hundreds of fakes that go out, right?
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Speaker 1: So it's a great source of irritation for these brands
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Speaker 1: that what happens. But if you look at statistics, the
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Speaker 1: fashion industry is not slowing down. So it is growing.
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Speaker 1: So if fakes are not hurting them, then what's the issue?
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Speaker 1: So so some professors figured this out. They said, you
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Speaker 1: know what happens so that you know a new collection comes,
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Speaker 1: people buy it, ok? Which is the top end, you
00:12:12
Speaker 1: know the high end the Met Gala guys, you know,
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Speaker 1: they they buy the stuff, then it gets
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Speaker 1: loaned other people buy it. OK? So it becomes accessible
00:12:19
Speaker 1: to masses. But what it does is now that those
00:12:22
Speaker 1: those rich guys don't want it. So they need another collection.
00:12:25
Speaker 1: So the fashion houses come out with another collection and
00:12:27
Speaker 1: this cycle goes on and on. So it's piracy but it's,
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Speaker 1: it's beautiful for everyone. So this is the fashion piracy
00:12:35
Speaker 1: paradox that we're talking about.
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Speaker 1: But um I must admit that over the last few
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Speaker 1: years especially I think the pandemic did bring to mind
00:12:45
Speaker 1: the fact that you don't need as many clothes as
00:12:47
Speaker 1: you were kind of piling up in your house. And
00:12:50
Speaker 1: I think there's been a certain shift towards understanding that
00:12:56
Speaker 1: we need to become a little more conscious about the
00:12:58
Speaker 1: kind of clothes we wear.
00:13:00
Speaker 1: And you know, while we've laughed about it and talked
00:13:03
Speaker 1: about the seriousness at one level of the number of
00:13:06
Speaker 1: clothing pieces that we are owning.
00:13:08
Speaker 1: I think the challenge is not just that the challenge
00:13:12
Speaker 1: is the lack of sustainability that happens because of the
00:13:16
Speaker 1: entire supply chain from sourcing, you know, natural fibers to
00:13:24
Speaker 1: it getting produced into a garment to it, reaching you
00:13:28
Speaker 1: and then going back somewhere, that entire chain actually
00:13:33
Speaker 1: is not really very well thought through and is not
00:13:35
Speaker 1: sustainable at all levels. And that I think is the
00:13:38
Speaker 1: aspect that we must uh really kind of look at
00:13:42
Speaker 1: in the future because from dyes which are polluting water
00:13:46
Speaker 1: to fabric, right? The fact that polyester as a fabric
00:13:50
Speaker 1: is a nightmare. Nobody ever thinks about how long it
00:13:55
Speaker 1: takes for polyester to decompose.
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Speaker 1: If you put it into a landfill, it is humongously long,
00:14:02
Speaker 1: number of years, it will be decades that it will
00:14:05
Speaker 1: take for polyester to decompose. And the funny thing is
00:14:09
Speaker 1: that so many governments have polyester. So it's one of
00:14:12
Speaker 1: the largest fabrics, right? And therefore think about it, we're
00:14:15
Speaker 1: just creating so many more issues. The other thing that
00:14:18
Speaker 1: I was talking about, which is the packaging and all
00:14:20
Speaker 1: of that.
00:14:21
Speaker 1: Did you know that 200 to 500 tons of microplastics
00:14:25
Speaker 1: from textiles enter the global marine environment each year. It's
00:14:29
Speaker 1: ridiculous because everything comes in a plastic bag gets shipped
00:14:33
Speaker 1: in a certain way. So it's unsustainable at many, many levels. Yes.
00:14:38
Speaker 1: So when you mention microplastics, it's just uh kind of
00:14:42
Speaker 1: rang a bell
00:14:43
Speaker 1: a few days ago, I saw the news and probably
00:14:47
Speaker 1: limited to Europe. Uh some of the areas in Europe
00:14:50
Speaker 1: have got rain recently which had traces of microplastics. So,
00:14:54
Speaker 1: so this microplastics as you know, it's really getting a
00:14:57
Speaker 1: serious uh becoming a serious problem while we
00:15:00
Speaker 1: produce this whole topic of Capra part of our roti Kara.
00:15:04
Speaker 1: We'll end this section and probably in the next section,
00:15:08
Speaker 1: we'll talk about the, the positives also that how, how
00:15:11
Speaker 1: sustainable fashion is coming up and trying to alleviate this problem. So,
00:15:16
Speaker 1: stay tuned.
00:15:24
Speaker 1: OK. And so welcome back to this next segment and
00:15:28
Speaker 1: I think we kind of beat up fashion quite a
00:15:29
Speaker 1: bit in the first section. So we'll kind of go
00:15:32
Speaker 1: back and kind of uh give it a bit of
00:15:35
Speaker 1: a pat on the back. I came across this very
00:15:37
Speaker 1: interesting quote uh said that the most profound technologies are
00:15:41
Speaker 1: those that disappear, they weave themselves into the fabric of
00:15:44
Speaker 1: everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. So, you know,
00:15:48
Speaker 1: there was a paper in 1991.
00:15:50
Speaker 1: So I think uh in fact, it goes on to
00:15:52
Speaker 1: say it is like very seamless while you may have
00:15:55
Speaker 1: not kind of immediately caught the drift. But we, what
00:15:57
Speaker 1: the point really was that we just cannot get away
00:16:00
Speaker 1: from textile metaphors in our daily life. You know, like
00:16:04
Speaker 1: we catch air shuttles, shuttles actually goes in looms, we
00:16:07
Speaker 1: weave through traffic,
00:16:09
Speaker 1: we follow comments, threads and you know, what have you.
00:16:13
Speaker 1: So actually the story of textiles literally is the story
00:16:17
Speaker 1: of science, technology, culture and civilization. So, you know, it's
00:16:22
Speaker 1: it's kind of has been as human beings have evolved.
00:16:25
Speaker 1: I think clothing and fashion has evolved
00:16:27
Speaker 1: and so much so that, you know, people got very
00:16:30
Speaker 1: excited about finding out when did we actually start clothing ourselves?
00:16:34
Speaker 1: So this started off as a with this little boy
00:16:38
Speaker 1: came home and he had some lice in his hair.
00:16:40
Speaker 1: So while most parents would get really, really upset, uh
00:16:44
Speaker 1: This kid's father unfortunately worked in the Marx Planning Institute
00:16:47
Speaker 1: of Technology
00:16:49
Speaker 1: in the anthropology department. So he thought that it would
00:16:52
Speaker 1: be a great idea to use lice to figure out
00:16:55
Speaker 1: the origin of clothing and the way that happens and
00:16:58
Speaker 1: without kind of uh taking too much time and going
00:17:01
Speaker 1: through the science of lice. So apparently there is a
00:17:03
Speaker 1: certain type of lice that they call head lice. And
00:17:05
Speaker 1: then there are a certain type of lice called body lice. The,
00:17:09
Speaker 1: the reason why this becomes important is that apparently body
00:17:11
Speaker 1: lice cannot exist or survive without being attached to cloths.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: So they kind of die in normal air xy A.
00:17:18
Speaker 1: So what this, what they started doing is they kind
00:17:21
Speaker 1: of kind of went back and traced mutation by mutation
00:17:24
Speaker 1: and to figure out where did this go back to
00:17:27
Speaker 1: like years and years? So lo and behold, and I
00:17:31
Speaker 1: have no idea why they figured out that human beings
00:17:34
Speaker 1: started wearing clothes between 40, 250 110 years ago.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: Uh There's a lot of uh mystery and there's a
00:17:42
Speaker 1: lot of human cry as to why this, this research
00:17:45
Speaker 1: is not there. But I just wanted to prove to
00:17:47
Speaker 1: you why people are so passionate about clothing that they
00:17:51
Speaker 1: will do just about anything
00:17:52
Speaker 1: to kind of figure things out. So, yeah, so that
00:17:55
Speaker 1: that's my little piece. So and and I've made it extremely,
00:17:58
Speaker 1: extremely difficult for the relation to say anything else that
00:18:01
Speaker 1: we can connect to this. After that. I I heard
00:18:04
Speaker 1: that there is some German that then probably there has
00:18:08
Speaker 1: to be a way where food can be converted into
00:18:11
Speaker 1: a clothing. So so low and be right. Yeah, you're right.
00:18:16
Speaker 1: I plot out of tea, milk and coffee. So yeah,
00:18:21
Speaker 1: I think
00:18:22
Speaker 1: there is some connection between uh biochemical research happening um
00:18:27
Speaker 1: where uh the actually by a student and the student.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: But you know, um there is a lot of connections
00:18:47
Speaker 1: because of late if you think about it, cork is
00:18:50
Speaker 1: being used, right? Uh very regularly to make accessories and
00:18:54
Speaker 1: things like that. Banana fiber in India is very, very
00:18:58
Speaker 1: large in terms
00:19:00
Speaker 1: of clothing. So there is a lot of things that
00:19:02
Speaker 1: is coming out of banana fiber that is happening, you know,
00:19:05
Speaker 1: you cannot have hemp otherwise in this country but hemp clothing.
00:19:10
Speaker 1: Uh so there are brands which are taking hemp and
00:19:12
Speaker 1: converting it into uh fiber and fabric.
00:19:16
Speaker 1: Um So I think the fact that people have started
00:19:19
Speaker 1: going back to nature to identify things uh which they
00:19:23
Speaker 1: can use to make sure that all of the clothing
00:19:26
Speaker 1: that we're using. So we may continue to use or
00:19:29
Speaker 1: buy things which are unnecessary. But at least we will
00:19:33
Speaker 1: not do as
00:19:33
Speaker 1: much damage to the environment because at least when Cok
00:19:37
Speaker 1: goes back, it, you know, it doesn't take as long
00:19:40
Speaker 1: to decompose as for example, polyester words, right? So that's
00:19:45
Speaker 1: something that's happening. I also think what's shifting and which
00:19:48
Speaker 1: is very, very encouraging as far as I'm concerned is
00:19:51
Speaker 1: um when you look at research, what they're saying is
00:19:55
Speaker 1: that the next generation is become extremely conscious and they
00:20:00
Speaker 1: are therefore willing to buy more sustainable fashion. They are
00:20:05
Speaker 1: looking at uh tags which check for sustainability in clothing.
00:20:10
Speaker 1: They are saying that sustainability in fashion is becoming uh
00:20:15
Speaker 1: more important, right?
00:20:17
Speaker 1: And um I think that's very heartening for somebody like
00:20:20
Speaker 1: me where if we talk about the fact that you
00:20:23
Speaker 1: look at the tag right before you decide whether I
00:20:26
Speaker 1: want to buy this piece of clothing or not. I
00:20:28
Speaker 1: think that is very interesting as long as there is
00:20:31
Speaker 1: awareness which says that,
00:20:32
Speaker 1: hey, when I'm buying, am I seeing whether this is
00:20:36
Speaker 1: sustainably made or not? Or is this a pair of
00:20:40
Speaker 1: jeans which is taking away 6000 liters of water? Right?
00:20:43
Speaker 1: Or are we buying from companies which are putting back
00:20:47
Speaker 1: into the environment? What they're taking away from uh
00:20:51
Speaker 1: the environment whenever there are dieticians and so many youtube
00:20:54
Speaker 1: videos on diet, they say that, read the label and
00:20:57
Speaker 1: if those are English words, then you can safely eat them.
00:21:02
Speaker 1: I think probably in fashion also, probably we should move
00:21:05
Speaker 1: to that area, right? That if you understand it's a
00:21:08
Speaker 1: natural sustainable material, then you buy it and, and that
00:21:11
Speaker 1: is already screwed up, right? Uh unus that's unsustainable fashion.
00:21:16
Speaker 1: So one part is buying sustainable fashion.
00:21:20
Speaker 1: When a car is launched, it will have kind of
00:21:23
Speaker 1: multiple trims. Obviously, one of the trims would be leather,
00:21:26
Speaker 1: but they are using uh for their interior uh the
00:21:30
Speaker 1: the stuff from the landfills and converting into how probably
00:21:33
Speaker 1: we will do our bit towards the environment part. But
00:21:37
Speaker 1: other than buying sustainable fashion, I think the problem is
00:21:40
Speaker 1: two fold, right?
00:21:41
Speaker 1: So they are the most sold, it's not leather in,
00:21:44
Speaker 1: in Europe. So in a way, uh I think I
00:21:46
Speaker 1: have that is another way of reducing into the interior parts,
00:21:51
Speaker 1: you know, it can be the the the material in
00:21:53
Speaker 1: the front or the seats in themselves and the seat covers.
00:21:56
Speaker 1: So I think in English, I mean, like we mentioned
00:21:58
Speaker 1: even in our earlier eg episode, I think the couple
00:22:02
Speaker 1: of things, the heartening thing is that the next generation
00:22:04
Speaker 1: is much more conscious. I mean, they definitely they make
00:22:07
Speaker 1: a lot of decisions based on
00:22:08
Speaker 1: the sustainability yardstick. And I think there is definitely a
00:22:12
Speaker 1: shift away from non sustainable things in every aspect, you know,
00:22:17
Speaker 1: I mean, whether you talk about cars, I mean that
00:22:19
Speaker 1: the jury is still out there, whether electric is really
00:22:21
Speaker 1: the right answer or no and it is causing some
00:22:24
Speaker 1: other downstream. But the fact that people are moving away
00:22:27
Speaker 1: from something which is obviously more polluting to less polluting
00:22:30
Speaker 1: is a heartening thing. So I think
00:22:32
Speaker 1: that's kind of happening across the board. I think it's
00:22:34
Speaker 1: probably happening in the food we consume and all the
00:22:37
Speaker 1: rest of it. So I think that sustainability as a
00:22:40
Speaker 1: yardstick is becoming very, very important. And yeah, obviously, of course,
00:22:45
Speaker 1: otherwise there's my favorite theory that if things really go wrong,
00:22:48
Speaker 1: then we'll probably have to evacuate earth and go to
00:22:49
Speaker 1: Mars and live and clean up the earth. But I
00:22:52
Speaker 1: think till then we'll have to do something else.
00:22:54
Speaker 1: So tell, let's leave Elon Musk to figure that piece
00:22:58
Speaker 1: out and while he's figuring that piece out, let's move
00:23:02
Speaker 1: into our last segment, which is really on how technology
00:23:05
Speaker 1: is being used um to make things better, not just
00:23:09
Speaker 1: in uh well,
00:23:12
Speaker 1: technology is not, is not being used to make uh
00:23:15
Speaker 1: consumption go down because social media is just encouraging consumption.
00:23:18
Speaker 1: But there is a lot of technology that is being
00:23:21
Speaker 1: used today to change other aspects of the whole fashion industry.
00:23:26
Speaker 1: Um We are, we have uh an interesting guest to
00:23:30
Speaker 1: come and talk with us on the tech in the
00:23:32
Speaker 1: fashion space. Uh So we're going to bring him in
00:23:35
Speaker 1: for this last segment of this episode.
00:23:45
Speaker 1: OK. So we are back with our next and last segment.
00:23:51
Speaker 1: Uh this is the one where we talk about all
00:23:54
Speaker 1: the cool technology that's making fashion possible. And uh what,
00:23:58
Speaker 1: what we ended up doing is that I actually contacted Rajesh,
00:24:01
Speaker 1: who's my guest and I'll talk about him a little
00:24:03
Speaker 1: bit
00:24:03
Speaker 1: and I asked him, you know, Raje, why you tell
00:24:05
Speaker 1: me something about fashion and technology? So he sent me
00:24:08
Speaker 1: a little voice memo and the moment he sent it
00:24:11
Speaker 1: to me, I realized that we couldn't do this because
00:24:13
Speaker 1: that's the reason we have him here because obviously fashion
00:24:17
Speaker 1: and technology are a really, really important and they work
00:24:20
Speaker 1: very well and they work together and they need to
00:24:22
Speaker 1: work together. And that's why I thought someone like Rajesh
00:24:25
Speaker 1: should be a great addition, an asset to this episode.
00:24:28
Speaker 1: So Rajesh and I go back a long way. We
00:24:30
Speaker 1: are college friends. And uh I think even if
00:24:32
Speaker 1: in those days, maybe when the rest of us were
00:24:34
Speaker 1: chasing girls and getting excited, Rajesh was excited about denim.
00:24:38
Speaker 1: So he is, he, he just loves textiles. So, and
00:24:42
Speaker 1: I think he was with Irvin for the longest time
00:24:45
Speaker 1: India internationally and co-founded a startup. He was with, he's
00:24:49
Speaker 1: done a great amount of work in product development and
00:24:52
Speaker 1: you know, very, very strong credentials in the textile as
00:24:56
Speaker 1: in the new product development, fast fashion and all of
00:24:59
Speaker 1: that So he's going to talk about all of that
00:25:01
Speaker 1: and for all of the others who thought, you know,
00:25:02
Speaker 1: that sounds very fancy just to ground him. You know,
00:25:05
Speaker 1: he actually hails from chem from a place called Gaut.
00:25:08
Speaker 1: So just to kind of give you a little bit
00:25:10
Speaker 1: of perspective, Rajesh, thank you for joining us at such
00:25:14
Speaker 1: short notice. So I think we'll just kick it off
00:25:16
Speaker 1: immediately by just getting your very, very quick take on what,
00:25:20
Speaker 1: what do you see happening in fashion with the advent
00:25:23
Speaker 1: of all this technology, you know, just come
00:25:25
Speaker 1: key points and I think then we'll just kind of
00:25:26
Speaker 1: jump in and you know, figure out how
00:25:28
Speaker 2: this goes. But you do have to give me one
00:25:29
Speaker 2: side moment because this is, this is a fan boy, right?
00:25:33
Speaker 2: So
00:25:37
Speaker 1: that, that, that that's going to go into our reals
00:25:40
Speaker 1: and stories now.
00:25:42
Speaker 2: Oh, so when you dialed me up on this one, right?
00:25:45
Speaker 2: I think uh overall technology as you see it and
00:25:49
Speaker 2: we first take it to binary code, right, start from there.
00:25:52
Speaker 2: And that's how design punch cards are still being punched
00:25:55
Speaker 2: in a certain part of our industry. And that's what
00:25:58
Speaker 2: you see as jack cards, jack cards are all these
00:26:01
Speaker 2: big carpet or even drapes designs, et cetera that you see, right?
00:26:06
Speaker 2: These are big looms and uh these auto looms and
00:26:09
Speaker 2: while automation has happened,
00:26:11
Speaker 2: the code still remains a binary punch card, right? And
00:26:14
Speaker 2: it starts from there or, and when, when you see
00:26:17
Speaker 2: something like that going in this industry traverses from there
00:26:21
Speaker 2: and goes straight into metas. And if you hit the
00:26:24
Speaker 2: right spot right now, the discussions that you guys have
00:26:26
Speaker 2: been having,
00:26:27
Speaker 2: we're now at a stage where generative E I is
00:26:30
Speaker 2: actually helping create new designs, 3D modeling software is actually
00:26:35
Speaker 2: helping create human forms for us to drape fabrics onto
00:26:39
Speaker 2: new styles, new fabrics and for us to create a
00:26:43
Speaker 2: visualization engine literally in minutes. So whilst there is craft
00:26:48
Speaker 2: and tradition and we are all trying to hold on
00:26:50
Speaker 2: to that, there are also tools which are coming up
00:26:53
Speaker 2: into the new
00:26:54
Speaker 2: and one last you know, one important point so that
00:26:57
Speaker 2: we don't miss about the craft and the artisans and handicraft,
00:27:01
Speaker 2: which is a rich one in India, right?
00:27:03
Speaker 2: So today we have actually got RF ID technology, we've
00:27:06
Speaker 2: got geo tech technology which is actually helping even identify
00:27:09
Speaker 2: looms and products on its authenticity, right? So that customers
00:27:14
Speaker 2: can actually see that this sari was woven in bananas
00:27:17
Speaker 2: or was woven by a family like this et cetera.
00:27:20
Speaker 2: And through QR codes, you could actually create engaging content
00:27:24
Speaker 2: for people to actually see and pro right. So I
00:27:27
Speaker 2: think
00:27:28
Speaker 2: journey right now is gonna be amazing. I think generative
00:27:31
Speaker 2: A I is going to help create more designs. It's
00:27:34
Speaker 2: gonna help designers a lot more the processes are becoming
00:27:37
Speaker 2: faster and uh you know, data engines, especially a lot
00:27:41
Speaker 2: of data science models are actually helping us create uh
00:27:44
Speaker 2: the color that you want or, or the color that
00:27:47
Speaker 2: you're gonna wear. And let's say the next season or
00:27:50
Speaker 2: the next month as fashion cycles have got shorter.
00:27:53
Speaker 1: So Rajesh, the question for you is that, you know,
00:27:56
Speaker 1: we were talking about fashion cycles going shorter. We were
00:27:58
Speaker 1: talking about earlier. We used to have two seasons and
00:28:01
Speaker 1: four collections. Now we have 12 collections, right? One every month.
00:28:04
Speaker 1: But when you talk about generative A, I, do you
00:28:07
Speaker 1: think that it's going to impact us in the way
00:28:10
Speaker 1: that I see how it looks on me? And then
00:28:13
Speaker 1: I decide and then the company produces and ships or
00:28:16
Speaker 1: do you think the mass scale of production will continue
00:28:19
Speaker 1: and will we add to the problem or will we
00:28:22
Speaker 1: actually be able to solve some of this problem? Because
00:28:24
Speaker 1: I would personally think that if I can now customize
00:28:28
Speaker 1: and so a lot of us return products because they
00:28:31
Speaker 1: are not fit well, you know, it wasn't the size
00:28:34
Speaker 1: that I expected it to be blah, blah, blah or
00:28:36
Speaker 1: it lies in our cupboard wasted because I, you know,
00:28:38
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. But if we have all of this technology,
00:28:41
Speaker 1: will it allow companies to produce smaller numbers and then
00:28:46
Speaker 1: ship it out and not have returns as much, then
00:28:49
Speaker 1: we're impacting it at multiple
00:28:50
Speaker 2: levels. Oh, yeah. I, I think a lot of it
00:28:53
Speaker 2: is already in works, uh testing scale models, uh smaller
00:28:57
Speaker 2: quantities coming in. Uh If you look at uh so
00:29:00
Speaker 2: we will split it into two punch and rate we
00:29:02
Speaker 2: are right now. The way it's gonna help designers is
00:29:05
Speaker 2: actually take from concept to actual design much faster
00:29:09
Speaker 2: overall. Otherwise, the way I would spend time articulating my
00:29:13
Speaker 2: visual and then getting to a stage and then looking
00:29:17
Speaker 2: to test today, I can get that in a few
00:29:19
Speaker 2: minutes and I can get various versions of it, which
00:29:22
Speaker 2: in an e-commerce world, I can actually do a virtual product,
00:29:26
Speaker 2: test it out. And I actually see traffic flow and
00:29:28
Speaker 2: I can see, you know, it's like a bait click, right?
00:29:31
Speaker 2: I can be able to see whether this is working
00:29:33
Speaker 2: or not working. And then if the click baits are working,
00:29:36
Speaker 2: then you know that hey, we could actually produce it.
00:29:40
Speaker 2: The data science models can then build on how, how
00:29:42
Speaker 2: much do you want, but smaller runs are possible. But
00:29:45
Speaker 2: I think it's going to aid the design things a
00:29:47
Speaker 2: lot more colors, a lot more, lot more interactions and
00:29:51
Speaker 2: data coming back from consumers to actually make choices
00:29:54
Speaker 2: and within that scheme of things. Yes, the impact is
00:29:57
Speaker 2: going to be slower. I
00:29:58
Speaker 1: just wanted to know Rajesh a bit more when you
00:30:01
Speaker 1: mention meta wars in my mind, suddenly it stuck to
00:30:04
Speaker 1: me that probably it it helps in sustainable fashion. I
00:30:06
Speaker 1: may be wrong. I mean, you might and provenance and,
00:30:09
Speaker 1: and the first thing that comes to our mind is Blockchain.
00:30:11
Speaker 1: Definitely the second one is sheet your favorite, right? Which
00:30:15
Speaker 1: is Meta Wars in some way, letting
00:30:17
Speaker 1: you and your test stuff out. Probably you will be
00:30:21
Speaker 1: talking about meta wars from a brand perspective. But I
00:30:24
Speaker 1: was thinking that, you know, if meta Wars was a
00:30:27
Speaker 1: discard less stuff like that. So, so when you mentioned
00:30:30
Speaker 1: meta wars, Rajesh, what was your, you know, kind of
00:30:32
Speaker 1: thought process very
00:30:33
Speaker 2: early days? Right now, there are two parts in the metaverse, right?
00:30:36
Speaker 2: As digital outta is going in now, there is a
00:30:39
Speaker 2: lot of fashion actually happening there.
00:30:41
Speaker 2: You could very well see in Nike's digital uh sneakers
00:30:44
Speaker 2: are selling a lot more older and at higher prices
00:30:48
Speaker 2: as well because now we are creating ourselves as an
00:30:50
Speaker 2: out there, right? Especially from people who are more digitally
00:30:54
Speaker 2: inclined
00:30:55
Speaker 2: from a product perspective. I think it helps as well
00:30:58
Speaker 2: in terms of creating authenticity, right? Creating that content, creating
00:31:02
Speaker 2: a whole amount of technology signals that can actually help drive,
00:31:07
Speaker 2: you know, demand signals to people to say, should I
00:31:10
Speaker 2: produce this or not? This has been the weakest part
00:31:13
Speaker 2: even you spoke about inventory, right? It is the biggest
00:31:15
Speaker 2: part today. The world literally is sitting with big
00:31:19
Speaker 2: millions of dollars of unsold inventory and they're sitting in warehouses,
00:31:24
Speaker 2: it's sitting in other countries, it's being shipped out, it's
00:31:26
Speaker 2: in land flares it's all over the place. So the
00:31:29
Speaker 2: most signals that you get because humans at the end
00:31:31
Speaker 2: of the day will always want something new, they will
00:31:34
Speaker 2: want something to wear. It's much more closer. It's about
00:31:37
Speaker 2: how they express and fashion is always about individualistic expression, right?
00:31:41
Speaker 2: So metaverse is gonna help in a,
00:31:44
Speaker 2: a certain way but not solve it completely, but it
00:31:47
Speaker 2: will go a long way, especially in terms of getting signals.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: And Rajesh, I just want to understand a little more,
00:31:53
Speaker 1: you know, you spoke about color and you spoke about
00:31:56
Speaker 1: uh choice and things like that. But one of the
00:31:59
Speaker 1: things that I've been reading about is the whole the dies, right?
00:32:03
Speaker 1: The dyes themselves, the color dyes, et cetera because those
00:32:06
Speaker 1: were very polluting uh at one point in time
00:32:09
Speaker 1: and with this whole shift of more colors coming in,
00:32:13
Speaker 1: et cetera, are you seeing a shift that is likely
00:32:15
Speaker 1: to come in even when it comes to sustainable dyes
00:32:18
Speaker 1: or uh inputs which go into? So the raw material
00:32:23
Speaker 1: of dyes changing and therefore colors becoming uh by themselves
00:32:28
Speaker 1: also more
00:32:28
Speaker 2: sustainable by by and large. There are two parts to it.
00:32:32
Speaker 2: One
00:32:33
Speaker 2: on the technology side of dying itself. Overall, there's a
00:32:37
Speaker 2: lot of work which has happened. A lot of uh
00:32:39
Speaker 2: many companies now, textile leaders in India and abroad have
00:32:44
Speaker 2: very highly compliant to dye stuffs uh or on natural
00:32:48
Speaker 2: dye is also being a bigger part of it. Certain
00:32:50
Speaker 2: colors which are largely pastels as we call it are
00:32:53
Speaker 2: much easier to do it with natural colors than others.
00:32:56
Speaker 2: The demand signals will keep going on as consumers start
00:32:59
Speaker 2: looking at it. I think overall cost needs to keep
00:33:01
Speaker 2: coming down.
00:33:03
Speaker 2: The act finally is going to be about how much
00:33:05
Speaker 2: are we going to produce. Because water is a still
00:33:07
Speaker 2: a big component in this and many plants that I
00:33:10
Speaker 2: see now in India also have their own recycling parts, right?
00:33:14
Speaker 2: And they are bringing in a lot more water in.
00:33:17
Speaker 2: There is also a lot of new technologies which have
00:33:19
Speaker 2: come in from many, many things which are using less
00:33:22
Speaker 2: water
00:33:23
Speaker 2: and that will help. Uh so for sure, loads of
00:33:26
Speaker 2: stuff happening there, how do you get to the consumer?
00:33:28
Speaker 2: I think for all of us in this field, what
00:33:31
Speaker 2: we're trying to figure out is the consumer wants something
00:33:34
Speaker 2: new almost every day, you know, wants to express now
00:33:37
Speaker 2: because of social and everything else. Those fashion cycles have crunched. Now,
00:33:42
Speaker 2: how do I ensure I produce? Right. And how do
00:33:44
Speaker 2: I ensure I produce what my consumers actually want? I
00:33:47
Speaker 2: think for every brand that that's where they are actually
00:33:50
Speaker 2: going at and there are loads of solutions available.
00:33:54
Speaker 1: So I just the thing then is uh while on
00:33:56
Speaker 1: the one hand, we're talking about individualism and customization and
00:34:00
Speaker 1: giving one person there is uh there's this whole other
00:34:03
Speaker 1: side of popularly called fast fashion, right? I mean, which
00:34:06
Speaker 1: is kind of you're producing to a trend or to
00:34:09
Speaker 1: a projected predicted style and you produce a lot of
00:34:13
Speaker 1: it and you send it out in shorter, shorter cycles
00:34:15
Speaker 1: and for, and, and I'm sure it made great economic
00:34:18
Speaker 1: sense and people did well, but it's obviously getting a
00:34:21
Speaker 1: bad name because of the polluting after effects or in
00:34:26
Speaker 1: process effects of it, whether it be water, whether it
00:34:29
Speaker 1: be landfills, whether it be everything else. So, I mean,
00:34:32
Speaker 1: I mean, while we are not trying to now go
00:34:34
Speaker 1: back and resurrect and say that why you did it,
00:34:37
Speaker 1: but Jenny, so what is the industry's thinking on this?
00:34:39
Speaker 1: You know, what are people doing and thinking from the
00:34:42
Speaker 1: industry side
00:34:43
Speaker 1: and, and maybe you have a deeper insight of something
00:34:46
Speaker 1: happening in India, you know what I mean? Like, you know,
00:34:48
Speaker 1: are Indians doing it differently because, you know, we just
00:34:50
Speaker 1: had this conversation that Indians are sustainability crazy. You know,
00:34:53
Speaker 1: we don't throw away anything. Everybody is wearing grandfather, father
00:34:57
Speaker 1: son to this driver, then their Children were. So how
00:35:02
Speaker 1: is it kind of working out in India? You know,
00:35:04
Speaker 1: this whole fast fashion thing.
00:35:05
Speaker 2: It's a very, very pertinent question right now, the industry
00:35:08
Speaker 2: keeps asking this the growth of sheen growth of other models,
00:35:13
Speaker 2: et cetera, right? Um Billions of units being produced very,
00:35:16
Speaker 2: very fast, I think two parts. Um One, let's start
00:35:20
Speaker 2: with India.
00:35:21
Speaker 2: I've always felt that even during my international days in India,
00:35:24
Speaker 2: sustainability score is much higher than anybody else to keep cutting,
00:35:31
Speaker 2: cutting and keep making it something clothes normally do not
00:35:35
Speaker 2: go to. Right. So M might be driving now in
00:35:39
Speaker 2: a little while and going to the council land tip
00:35:42
Speaker 2: that he has to drop it in because that's what
00:35:44
Speaker 2: I used to do with the UK as well.
00:35:45
Speaker 2: But here you give it to a community, that community
00:35:49
Speaker 2: gives it further, then they give it further and then
00:35:52
Speaker 2: sends rags purses but they could. Right. India, man, it's
00:35:57
Speaker 2: the challenge of clothes actually going to landfill is very low.
00:36:02
Speaker 2: The second part of it is that
00:36:04
Speaker 2: could the market as in demand of consumer cycles. It's
00:36:08
Speaker 2: not the other way around. So new business models emerged
00:36:11
Speaker 2: because of consumption patterns, changing people wanting something new and
00:36:15
Speaker 2: cycles no longer being, you know, saying that I'd wait
00:36:18
Speaker 2: six months for something else to come in. It's our
00:36:21
Speaker 2: social lives. So consumption, all of this will need to
00:36:25
Speaker 2: actually come in from consumers themselves. Thirdly, in India, we
00:36:30
Speaker 2: are the largest producer of organic cotton,
00:36:33
Speaker 2: you know, but we actually don't have much access to
00:36:35
Speaker 2: it because uh all the M and SSCNAS gaps of
00:36:38
Speaker 2: the world keep blocking it and picking it up. I
00:36:42
Speaker 2: think overall India is far ahead and I think India
00:36:46
Speaker 2: will be the change as we call it. I have
00:36:48
Speaker 2: a huge amount of a on India manufacturing in India
00:36:51
Speaker 2: is going to be the change that you would see.
00:36:53
Speaker 2: The next 10, 15 years. India will be driving a
00:36:55
Speaker 2: lot more on uh fashion and in terms of discussions,
00:37:00
Speaker 2: investments which are actually going on uh in recycling yarn
00:37:04
Speaker 2: coming out uh uh urban and now a plant where
00:37:07
Speaker 2: they're recycling garments and jeans into yarn and then remaking it,
00:37:12
Speaker 2: they have a program with Gap. Somebody else is just
00:37:15
Speaker 2: recycling now, polyester pet bottles and creating that yarn and
00:37:18
Speaker 2: doing that.
00:37:19
Speaker 2: And traditionally, when you look at our handicrafts, et cetera, right?
00:37:23
Speaker 2: We don't throw any um bits out, the guy continues
00:37:26
Speaker 2: to make another design, etcetera, right? So a large part
00:37:30
Speaker 2: of the authenticity, the large part of uh you know,
00:37:34
Speaker 2: no carbon footprint kind of manufacturing which has been existent
00:37:38
Speaker 2: in India is going to come to the fore. I
00:37:40
Speaker 2: think the world is going to vote thankfully, hopefully with
00:37:44
Speaker 2: the dollars in hand
00:37:45
Speaker 2: and the way we see consumption and fast fashion models,
00:37:48
Speaker 2: they're changing quite a bit. But what fast fashion is
00:37:51
Speaker 2: actually taught everybody else, which is good is that
00:37:55
Speaker 2: you no longer need to actually make uh at the
00:37:58
Speaker 2: lowest cost possible because earlier that was the big point, right?
00:38:02
Speaker 2: I would make it in Bangladesh or China. Six months
00:38:05
Speaker 2: ahead
00:38:06
Speaker 2: since consumer cycles have changed, people are now very clear
00:38:09
Speaker 2: that we need smaller lots. So that bit of an
00:38:12
Speaker 2: impact is going to come in overall capacities overall businesses
00:38:16
Speaker 2: a lot more. So brands will be challenged by that
00:38:19
Speaker 2: and brands which will actually engage with consumers on that
00:38:22
Speaker 2: part will
00:38:23
Speaker 1: succeed. And Rajesh tell me in terms of because we're
00:38:26
Speaker 1: talking about this whole focus of India. I know India
00:38:29
Speaker 1: is also focusing on a whole bunch of new fabrics,
00:38:32
Speaker 1: right, or sources for uh fabric, which is hemp, uh
00:38:36
Speaker 1: banana fiber and all of the other stuff. And we're
00:38:40
Speaker 1: already seeing some brands which have done significant amount of
00:38:44
Speaker 1: work as far as hemp is concerned and banana fiber
00:38:47
Speaker 1: is concerned
00:38:47
Speaker 1: and things like that. But how do you see that
00:38:51
Speaker 1: going global? Because very often we do a lot of
00:38:55
Speaker 1: things and then we are unable to take that to
00:38:58
Speaker 1: a global level. Where do you see that happening from
00:39:01
Speaker 1: a tech point of view? Yeah, I
00:39:03
Speaker 2: think two parts there before I come to the tech
00:39:06
Speaker 2: part of it, right? I think the world
00:39:08
Speaker 2: is now actually watching it with much more interest. The
00:39:12
Speaker 2: latest Christian Dior Collection actually going in there and you're
00:39:16
Speaker 2: actually talking handicrafts, you're talking block prints, you're talking this
00:39:19
Speaker 2: which is traditionally ours, right? For all of us buying
00:39:22
Speaker 2: Jaipur Corti or hand blocked shirts which are there. But
00:39:25
Speaker 2: suddenly when you have the Christian de Creative Director actually
00:39:28
Speaker 2: putting on a show completely here, you know,
00:39:31
Speaker 2: design developed in India, so much so more, right? And
00:39:35
Speaker 2: then when you see contemporary design with old traditional crafts
00:39:40
Speaker 2: or something new that you make. It, it's completely amazing
00:39:43
Speaker 2: and you know, with the team at China and everything else,
00:39:46
Speaker 2: amazing stuff that they've actually done uh there. And that
00:39:51
Speaker 2: is the world watching us when a luxury brand actually
00:39:55
Speaker 2: has its main stake in Bombay, that is basically, that's
00:39:59
Speaker 2: one language. So people are curious,
00:40:01
Speaker 2: the second part of it is that tech is actually
00:40:04
Speaker 2: helping us create the authenticity goals, right? More and more
00:40:08
Speaker 2: about this from an RF ID perspective. QR codes, you know,
00:40:12
Speaker 2: geo tag et cetera will actually help
00:40:15
Speaker 2: that dollar actually reached to that last year, right? Payments.
00:40:18
Speaker 2: Also you guys are experts on up a that and
00:40:22
Speaker 2: a lot of these payments now actually happen in clusters brands.
00:40:26
Speaker 2: I know even at where they've been working with smaller
00:40:28
Speaker 2: clusters payments directly go to the overall and that actually helps.
00:40:33
Speaker 2: So technology is enabling a huge amount of change. But
00:40:36
Speaker 2: I think the change is one of
00:40:37
Speaker 2: coming in from content consumption and authenticity. Les in fact,
00:40:41
Speaker 1: one of the things that you talked about was I
00:40:43
Speaker 1: think we were discussing this about technology being a performance
00:40:49
Speaker 1: enhancer in the in the fabric, the garment or the
00:40:53
Speaker 1: finished product itself. I think you you you were talking
00:40:56
Speaker 1: about very, very specialized products being developed for niche professions
00:41:02
Speaker 1: or you know, athletes and others.
00:41:05
Speaker 1: So I mean, what's really happening there and you know
00:41:08
Speaker 1: what's driving it that
00:41:09
Speaker 2: I find the most interesting because uh that's why II
00:41:12
Speaker 2: I call it's all about haptic senses. So your cloth
00:41:16
Speaker 2: actually is woven differently, right? So haptic sensors have two
00:41:20
Speaker 2: parts and one part is the kinesthetic interactions, you know,
00:41:23
Speaker 2: especially muscle nudges that now imagine sportswear fabric is being made.
00:41:28
Speaker 2: So you wore in yoga pants and you are actually,
00:41:32
Speaker 2: and you will see a large part of it right now,
00:41:34
Speaker 2: a lot of software is now new coming in our
00:41:36
Speaker 2: new apps which have come in which actually help you
00:41:39
Speaker 2: with posture, help you with position, the yoga arsenal, et cetera, right?
00:41:43
Speaker 2: And they sort of give you a visual deal. Now,
00:41:45
Speaker 2: imagine that visual signal is actually triggering my back, you know,
00:41:49
Speaker 2: or my shoulder or my hand and actually giving me
00:41:52
Speaker 2: a signal deer saying this needs to get corrected
00:41:55
Speaker 2: and that's what's actually happening. Now, new developments which are
00:41:58
Speaker 2: coming in, especially over swimwear where data is also going
00:42:02
Speaker 2: in as the swimmer comments with the whole idea is
00:42:05
Speaker 2: the next, uh, you know, flips, how, where are we
00:42:07
Speaker 2: going to get him from? And that's gonna be about
00:42:10
Speaker 2: how we gonna marathon runner, right? And this is huge
00:42:13
Speaker 2: discussion
00:42:14
Speaker 2: now on, is it right? Is it not right? Because,
00:42:18
Speaker 2: you know, but I think what's actually happening with the
00:42:20
Speaker 2: Arctic technology is it's gonna help athletes perform better, it's
00:42:24
Speaker 2: going to help track, you know, lactic acid formation, especially
00:42:29
Speaker 2: in uh marathon runners, right? Where is muscle crunches gonna happen?
00:42:33
Speaker 2: And can signals actually be transferred back versus only looking
00:42:37
Speaker 2: at biosensors all over.
00:42:39
Speaker 2: So the cloth itself becoming a biosensor and lots of
00:42:43
Speaker 2: work going on in that area. A lot of other
00:42:46
Speaker 2: areas which is happening is in advanced tech, uh textiles fire, right?
00:42:51
Speaker 2: So you have fabrics now in which you actually have
00:42:53
Speaker 2: heat sensors, right? So the moment he's entering into a fire,
00:42:57
Speaker 2: we there is an alarm which goes off. So whilst
00:42:59
Speaker 2: he may be under, you know, a cloud or in smoke,
00:43:02
Speaker 2: but he can't sense that heat, but a signal will
00:43:05
Speaker 2: be given to him by,
00:43:07
Speaker 2: you know, a muscle nudge or anything else versus the saying,
00:43:11
Speaker 2: get out, it's an alarm, right? So loads of textiles
00:43:14
Speaker 2: going in, especially the advanced text, uh technical textiles area. Very,
00:43:19
Speaker 2: very interesting.
00:43:20
Speaker 1: Rajesh, this reminds me of an episode I saw on NCIS, right?
00:43:24
Speaker 1: So they're talking about taking um garments worn by athletes
00:43:29
Speaker 1: to understand DNA and then it went into genetic modification. So,
00:43:33
Speaker 1: you know, while I'm very super excited about what I'm hearing,
00:43:37
Speaker 1: I'm also very worried about how it could easily get
00:43:40
Speaker 1: abused in the future. Um It's always a flip side
00:43:44
Speaker 1: of technology, right? Every time you hear something positive, you
00:43:47
Speaker 1: kind of step back and say
00:43:49
Speaker 1: all that data, what is, what's going to happen with
00:43:52
Speaker 1: that from a negative side of uh point of view.
00:43:55
Speaker 1: But yeah, super exciting to hear that you're right because
00:43:58
Speaker 1: I know uni has these thermal, um you know, wear
00:44:02
Speaker 1: and things like that, which has already started. You don't
00:44:05
Speaker 1: have to wear those bulky things. You don't have to
00:44:07
Speaker 1: wear the horrible woolen fiber that you used to wear
00:44:09
Speaker 1: earlier as the inner wear and all of that, that
00:44:12
Speaker 1: has been radical change for sure. Uh As far as technology,
00:44:15
Speaker 1: the cheese concern. So from variable tech, we're coming to
00:44:18
Speaker 1: wearable clothes, uh tech clothes, I mean, in that sense,
00:44:22
Speaker 1: a lot
00:44:22
Speaker 2: of brands are going ahead, there's a lot happening in
00:44:25
Speaker 2: the consumer side, right? And I think I'm spending a
00:44:28
Speaker 2: lot of time only looking at consumers right now about
00:44:31
Speaker 2: how the next generation brands are going to be built,
00:44:33
Speaker 2: you know, overall looking at what is gonna happen because
00:44:36
Speaker 2: it's not only about the new trends, things just to
00:44:40
Speaker 2: mention about what mentioned,
00:44:42
Speaker 2: you now could have a dress which could also change
00:44:44
Speaker 2: its print and color depending on what your mood is.
00:44:47
Speaker 2: So that could be the last one. But then we
00:44:49
Speaker 2: sell less number of
00:44:50
Speaker 1: units, you know, it's so interesting because I I sometimes
00:44:54
Speaker 1: think that this whole balance of value volume, right, that
00:44:58
Speaker 1: the world of retail is constantly doing. Uh and we're
00:45:02
Speaker 1: always thinking about high production, low cost things like that,
00:45:06
Speaker 1: especially if you're talking about not stuff but everyday
00:45:10
Speaker 1: stuff. But I truly think that if some parts of
00:45:14
Speaker 1: Europe actually are geared like that, right? They don't buy
00:45:18
Speaker 1: as much while a lot of Europe does buy a
00:45:21
Speaker 1: lot more fabric. But there are parts of Europe, there
00:45:23
Speaker 1: are parts of the world where they buy expensive clothes,
00:45:28
Speaker 1: have fewer clothes in their wardrobes. But actually, you know, they,
00:45:33
Speaker 1: they either better fashion or they're better products, their quality
00:45:37
Speaker 1: et cetera.
00:45:38
Speaker 1: I think that realization and we've spoken about this in
00:45:42
Speaker 1: one of our previous episodes. If you remember, I think
00:45:44
Speaker 1: that's really where we need to take the world to that.
00:45:47
Speaker 1: It's not about the fear of missing out and having that.
00:45:51
Speaker 1: We were just talking about the outfit of the day
00:45:54
Speaker 1: where I once I wear the outfit of the day,
00:45:56
Speaker 1: I cannot be seen again in that outfit because you know,
00:45:59
Speaker 1: somebody's going to say, oh, but I've already commented on
00:46:02
Speaker 1: this that needs to shift to now becoming not the
00:46:06
Speaker 1: trend but
00:46:07
Speaker 1: something that you own and say I am sustainable, I
00:46:10
Speaker 1: am a believer of sustainable and therefore I'm willing to
00:46:13
Speaker 1: pay more, own less and therefore make the climate far more,
00:46:18
Speaker 1: leave the climate behind better for the next generation. I
00:46:22
Speaker 1: think if that switches what we can bring about in
00:46:25
Speaker 1: communication and in mindset and in behavior that would be
00:46:28
Speaker 1: game
00:46:29
Speaker 2: changing the two parts which have actually happened. If you
00:46:32
Speaker 2: see last year's financials, overall luxury has grown,
00:46:36
Speaker 2: right? BM and Chanel, everyone, billions of dollars and everything,
00:46:41
Speaker 2: fashion as such or just remained at a certain position,
00:46:45
Speaker 2: didn't grow as much or shows that people are starting
00:46:48
Speaker 2: to upgrade. Even in India, I start seeing that right
00:46:51
Speaker 2: now value
00:46:52
Speaker 2: passion is meant which was earlier about a certain segment
00:46:56
Speaker 2: of society as well. Everyone's upgrading and that's where I
00:47:00
Speaker 2: see the potential to create it today. And I think
00:47:03
Speaker 2: it comes in traditionally for us, right. I'm sorry, at
00:47:07
Speaker 2: least at home
00:47:09
Speaker 2: she doesn't go and buy a polyester sari, right? So she,
00:47:13
Speaker 2: you go to a store, you spend four hours, you
00:47:15
Speaker 2: indulge in the whole story telling the guy will tell
00:47:18
Speaker 2: you this from your so Indians have this whole part
00:47:23
Speaker 2: about value and textiles, about what it is, right? And
00:47:27
Speaker 2: whether it goes to our to our et cetera, we
00:47:32
Speaker 2: are far more involved in our fashion.
00:47:34
Speaker 2: And that's why I believe that whilst fast fashion, you
00:47:37
Speaker 2: may continue to do its rounds in the younger age
00:47:41
Speaker 2: group value segment globally. In India, it will still be
00:47:44
Speaker 2: a challenge because at the end of the day, we,
00:47:46
Speaker 2: you know, love our handicrafts. We love what we actually
00:47:50
Speaker 2: see in our quotas with our embroideries, chicken work loads
00:47:53
Speaker 2: of kind of stuff that is there because it's a
00:47:55
Speaker 2: part of our culture, right?
00:47:57
Speaker 2: I think that's not going to go away. Even with
00:47:58
Speaker 2: the younger generation. I see it more stronger now in
00:48:01
Speaker 2: the 18 to 20 where I I'm actually looking at
00:48:05
Speaker 2: a new India consumer actually coming up, they are much
00:48:08
Speaker 2: more proud, they are much more stronger, they're not averse
00:48:11
Speaker 2: to Indian brands, which is giving the whole focus on
00:48:14
Speaker 2: new brands coming up with these stories, uh being able
00:48:17
Speaker 2: to tell about their product aesthetics. Right.
00:48:20
Speaker 2: Oh, that couldn't survive during our time when and me
00:48:23
Speaker 2: were going to college. This is no way. Even 10
00:48:25
Speaker 2: years ago, you would still have global brands coming in
00:48:28
Speaker 2: and now the younger generation, thank goodness for them. They
00:48:31
Speaker 2: are actually going to drive this change. She, you'll see that.
00:48:35
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you. Every time I meet the
00:48:37
Speaker 1: younger generation, I think we're getting in a better space
00:48:40
Speaker 1: with them. Uh which is, which, which is very, very
00:48:42
Speaker 1: heartening for sure. On that note of positivity, we're gonna
00:48:47
Speaker 1: end this section and we're going to close this episode. Rajesh,
00:48:52
Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us. It's been really,
00:48:55
Speaker 1: really fun having this conversation with you and I'm sure
00:48:58
Speaker 1: we'll see you more often on our show uh in
00:49:01
Speaker 1: the future.