Sustainability in Indian Fashion, A Systematic Review

This study explores sustainable fashion in the Indian cultural context. Sustainability is a Eurocentric concept and superimposing it on the Indian context results in an incorrect interpretation of the Make in India paradigm, associating it with low wages, exploitative labour conditions. Hence the western world's inability to recognise sustainable practices in the Indian fashion industry. The study used a systematic approach to literature analysis and reviewed 161 papers to understand sustainable fashion in India. Twenty-five years after the Triple Bottom Line model was first proposed (Elkington 1994) Elkington notes significant advancements have occurred in the area and there is a need for a recall in the model (Elkington 2018). Sustainability is interchangeably used with sustainable development, socio-ecological principles, green-ethical production (Chu & Rahman 2012); environmental activism (Kutsenkova 2017); durability of a product (Hill & Lee 2012). There is no consensus on sustainability (Watson & Yan 2013). The term does not have an exact synonym in Hindi; hence, the Indian textile and fashion industry is not integrative of the concept (Sandhu 2020). Handmade is synonymous with sustainability in India (The Voice of Fashion 2020), evidence that sustainability is interwoven with the craft economy, making cultural sustainability the overarching narrative. Wood (2012) draws attention to its culturally rooted meaning, emphasising that in India cultural concerns take precedence. Sustainability in fashion suffers because practices established by the west have become the benchmark against which practices in all other cultures are evaluated. Indian sartorial traditions have been strongly influenced by Muslim, Greek, Arab, Roman cultures. Geoclimatic, ethnoreligious diversity contributes to versatility in silhouettes, styles, fabrics. Draped and wrapped garments have always been popular and minimise waste due to cutting (Cheema 2021). Craftsmanship is associated with sustainable design practices and aligns with circular fashion models (Sandhu 2020). Historically Indian clothing practices and associated craft systems have been inherently sustainable (Vasudev 2019). These old practices in the current fashion industry are augmented by new material processes to reduce environmental impact.