Life took a turn for the better from seeing his grandfather’s dyeing unit polluting, to now only dealing with second hand garments, reconstructing them into new shapes, Ritwik Khanna, 25, of Rkive City is a force to reckon with.
By Asmita Aggarwal
This generation is something else—they really know what they want to do, and one thing is certain, they want to work for themselves. Thus, talking to the Amritsar-born Ritwik Khanna of Rkive City, only 25, was refreshing. He won the Circular Design Challenge in partnership with the United Nations and Rs 15 lakhs fund at the LFW x FDCI show
His grandfather had a textile mill, the dyeing house, he noticed, no one ever really cared about the environment, the water was contaminated due to the chemicals dumped in it. At that time, he was not aware of its toxicity, it was not treated. The business shut down, his parents began weaving cashmere scarves, his earliest memory is of sitting on the shop floor packaging, as there were not enough employees for an SOS order.
His mom used to run a children’s boutique, often dressed Ritwik in boys’ and girls’ clothes to show customers how it would look on their kids, his trips to Sadar Bazar to buy material were a lesson. As serendipity would have it —life took a 360 degree turn when he left to study fashion business management at FIT, New York. Though Mayo School, had exposed him to seven different types of uniforms he would change in a day to keep up with the strict regimen —in a way it was universalizing design.
“Whatever I had grown up seeing, New York was different. I remember having a conversation with my roomie about fashion, when he suddenly stopped, and started talking to a random stranger on the road about his Supreme t-shirt. He knew the price, which year it was launched, graphics, its entire history. This took me by surprise, it was not my culture,” he laughs. He giggles and reveals his fashion was “USPA chinos”.
At FIT everyone looked “cool”, they really dressed the part, and trying to keep up, all Khanna could afford was second-hand designer jeans. “In India we don’t like wearing ‘worn before’ stuff, in America it’s a classic trend. I saw the quality was good and began running a small business,” he shares.
He would flip Comme des Garcons, Rick Owens second-hand stuff he would buy for almost nothing, and make a 300 percent profit selling it on eBay. He began rolling in moolah, accidently, he did not need the business degree he was already adept at. But he did come back, without completing his course. Covid hit, and education through a computer did not make sense, spending US $25,000.
On his return, he visited second hand clothes collection centres in Panipat and Kandla Gujarat, and wondered what happens to torn, damaged clothes, discarded clothes—they are shipped to India. Panipat is known as the world’s “cast off capital”, tonnes of clothes come from UK, US, and other countries, from the port town of Kandla, Gujarat they are popularly known as “mutilated” clothing. Ritwik was alarmed at the kind of “stink that emerges from the factories”.
“Only ten per cent of this is recycled, I decided to work with discarded waste, consumer textile, we were able to use old garments, and create something brand new,” he says. Though he does admit unlike in fashion where you get to choose the finest silks and dupions here you work with limitations, as there is no roll of fabric, or colours or any frills–just your imagination. He is happy in the last 22 months he has managed to make a small impact on the environment.
His label questions existing supply chains, he is remanufacturing garments, he sorts out the garments at his factory—white shirts, camouflage, old jeans, then the processes begin—sanitising, reconstructing, it is an end-to-end solution, as a brand.
“The hardest thing in garment upcycling is consistency, each piece is different, now two pieces are alike,” he says, adding, he elevates the androgynous ensembles with touches of hand embroidery, patchwork, applique, his power lies in the way he crafts them; they do not seem upcycled– he lets the natural fading persist.
His brother, 21, has joined his business, he is the operations manager, a “Genius”, he calls him, both sons now don’t work with family business, and they hope to progress, even though they are bootstrapped. He says one day his dad will be proud of the work he is doing. “I know my North star, I know who I want to be,” he smiles, adding he is not a sustainability activist, and neither is he interested in putting anyone else down, to show what “good work is” but he is certainly in a league of his own.
Why Rkive City because he will one day have a city that understands how important upcycling and recycling is, also why RKive as it is archival fashion that he is serenading—perfect moniker!