2-day meet on textile industry's sustainability begins Nov 28

New Delhi, Nov 26 (UNI) A two-day international conference on 'Sustainability of Textile Fashion Industry Chain: Crop to Shop' will begin here from November 28 to draw attention to the critical issue of sustainability of the sector.

The event is being jointly organised by Pearl Academy of Fashion, the country's leading fashion institute with North India Section of the Textile Institute (NISTI), Manchester, UK at Gurgaon.

According to the organisers, the initiative aims to address issues pertaining to the textile sector and to raise awareness about the understanding of the importance of sustainability in India.

"Sustainability has emerged as a basic concern in India in recent times. The textile industry is generating more than a trillion dollars revenue per annum globally, with the consumption being concentrated in the developed countries and the production concentrated in the developing countries," Australian Wool Innovation Director S K Chaudhuri said, adding, "the environmental impacts are globally distributed." He said markets were thinking green as the green fashion industry in textiles globally stood at six billion dollars and was accelerating at a fast pace.

Noting the time was opportune, Dr Vinod Shanbag, academic advisor, PAF and head of Pearl Centre for Advanced Research and Development, told reporters that "as a developing country with an aspiring consumption drive and vast untapped markets, the Indian scenario appears largely divorced from these new sensitivity to practise".

He hoped the conference would provoke thought to align with this new trend elsewhere in the world for the betterment of the industry.

Dr Dorothy Maxwell from the UK, a speaker at the meet, noted that in the European Union is increasing focus on products that have an impact on environment, be it food, clothes or lifestyle.

About 300 organisations had grouped together to explore sustainable living there as it was found to have a competitive edge over other manufacturers. Their members included Tesco, Walmart and other retail giants and was growing in numbers.

"The UK imports 90 per cent of its clothes and we are establishing linkages and partnerships such as the one we have with India," she said.

The event provides a forum for professionals from research and industry to interact closely with experts and exchange ideas and information.

Participants will get an overview of design interventions and sustainability, sustainable production processes, technologies and ethical issues, sustainable consumption and retail policies about the environment.

More than 20 eminent national and international speakers from the textile industry will address the gathering.

On the occasion, Pearl Academy of Fashion students will present a fashion show "Intermezzo" based on the theme of sustainability and circus. Using waste or raw material -- wood shavings, newspapers, paper mache, paper windmills, bamboo and agricultural waste -- innovatively, the brief glimpse of the fashion show at the press conference promised to be an avant-garde and futuristic interpretation of available materials by the students.

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