CB BureauThe 16th edition of Myntra’s biannual sale – which they call end-of-reason sale (EORS) – in June this year apparently had about 21 million products purchased by 5 million shoppers across the country. The event provided a sale window to about 5,000 brands. Among the most popular categories during the sale were women’s westernwear, men’s casualwear, and sportswear. As to what percentage of the total comprised sustainably made clothing, your guess is as good as anyone else’s.
Come September, and the e-commerce brand announces the addition of a sustainable clothing line – made out of responsibly sourced cotton from Fairtrade-certified supply chain – to its trend-driven casualwear brand Here & Now. As per the company’s statement, this line is being launched with 100+ styles across the men’s t-shirts category, with plans to scale to over 250 styles and expand into women’s t-shirts and athleisure categories.
Merely a trickle compared to the regular stuff, dominated by fast-fashion products known for their short turnaround cycles and short shelf time both at the shop and the customer’s wardrobe. A beginning nevertheless, for sustainably made clothes to be finding space in mainstream retailers’ shelves.
Meanwhile, the exhortation to customers to buy, buy, and buy some more continues relentlessly. (It’s almost always raining discounts, offers, sales, and what have you.)
The new collection mentioned above will be a part of Myntra for Earth, a theme store dedicated to ‘sustainable fashion’ alternatives, claiming to offer 5,500+ eco-friendly styles from 100+ brands. Here, it must be mentioned that when CauseBecause browsed through the products randomly, it was not clear how at least some of the products were sustainable.
Two links here:
The team contacted Myntra’s PR team to understand the criteria being applied to brands/products being featured on Myntra for Earth, but did not receive any response.
On the association with Myntra, Fairtrade India Project’s CEO Abhishek Jani believes that ‘it would not only create positive impact for cotton farmers, their communities and the environment but also help mainstream Fairtrade and sustainable fashion choices for the Indian consumers.’
Fairtrade works with more than 1.9 million farmers and agricultural workers across the world, and over 125,000 smallholder farmers and workers who are a part of 109 certified producer organisations, across 15 states and one union territory in India. With the vision of a world in which all producers can enjoy secure and sustainable livelihoods, Fairtrade helps farmers adopt socially, environmentally and economically sustainable practices as per the standards set by the organisation. The products that are made through a Fairtrade-certified supply chain and follow Fairtrade terms of trade come with the FAIRTRADE mark, allowing conscious consumers to identify the products made from responsible farming methods.