Drishti Modi and Rashmick Bose of Lafaani, CDC runner ups, bring circularity through unrestricted shapes, kala cotton and their love for repurposing.
By Asmita Aggarwal
She is a big movie buff, so the brand name is a result of binge-watching cinema, although alternate, thus Lafaani, was picked from the dialogue of Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider, starring Shahid Kapoor, (the dialogue goes, “Rooh Lafaani”). “Lafaani is an Urdu word which means immortality—immortalizing artisans and making a product last a lifetime, transcending trends is what we hope to achieve through our brand,” says Drishti Modi. They won Rs 5 lakh as award money at the Circular Design Challenge in association with United Nations, as runner’s up.
Modi is well-educated, maybe not in design, but at Teri School of Advanced Studies, she completed masters in environmental studies and resource management, though she did a short certificate course from NIFT later in business of fashion. Drishti met her brand partner, Rashmick Bose in Teri and they both decided to launch the label in 2021.
Growing up in North India, the initiation to sustainable fashion was from childhood when she saw her mother and grandmother being judicious. “I grew up in Pune, Delhi, and Mumbai, I was always fascinated with craft and textiles. My size fluctuated, and I would often not get clothes that fit me well. I had to choose from one rack, I decided I must design clothes for women like me,” she smiles.
Drishti, started by repurposing her mother’s saris, she married her academic training with her passion. Working with craft communities, cotton farmers she understood what she really wanted to do in life during Covid. “Bose joined me, he comes from Bengal which is a treasure trove of crafts, we try to bring what sustainability means in a global context,” she adds. His first exposure to craft was a baby blanket that was made by his grandmother in Kantha, they realized they had synergy in aesthetics.
“I have no connection to fashion, don’t come from a design background, I had to build an eco-system—it was challenging,” she admits. Her mentor has been her father, who used to work with monster.com earlier, left to work in the social impact space. “He has been an angel investor and mentor for me,” she says.
For LFW X FDCI she has worked with kala cotton, hand crafted embroidery, and reached out to a company in Mumbai which recycles flowers waste from Haji Ali and Siddhivinayak temple. They combined this with eco-printing, and hand painting on ensembles which are layered, minimal everyday pieces, multifunctional and adaptable. “Reversibility gives you freedom to wear it two ways. Our aim is to fight greenwashing by many labels that persist in the fashion space, a consumer is unaware about it. Buyers do not really understand sustainability, like kala cotton does not have certification, it is important to prove it, bring value to things,” she confesses.
The move forward is strengthening their story, she says circularity is in her DNA, it’s deeply embedded, she hopes more consumers watch what they buy and are curious about who is making it and how it is made.