Apparel April 2019 Apparel May 2019 issue | Page 80

BRAND PROFILE
ETHICAL FASHION
With its roots going deep in ethical and sustainable practices, farm-to-fashion
label Ethicus creates stylish designer cotton saris for today’s women. Brinda
Gill profiles the brand.
“We all wear clothes, but how many of us are
aware of what happens behind the label?” asks
Vijayalakshmi Nachiar, Co-founder and Creative
Director, Ethicus, one of India’s first sustainable
fashion brands. “More than 50 per cent of the
pesticides produced in India are used only in the
production of cotton. Growing cotton is a huge
pollutant for the environment.” It was this fact that
led her and her husband Mani Chinnaswamy,
who was sourcing Ecologic Cotton from contract
farmers in Kabini, Karnataka, to establish Ethicus,
a sustainable and ethical fashion brand based
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May 2019
in Pollachi, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu.
Ecologic Cotton is branded cotton from Appachi
Eco-Logic Cotton Private Limited. It is grown
using sustainable and organic farming principles
to be eco-friendly.
As Mani, a third generation cotton ginner
involved with the growing of long staple cotton,
was collaborating with farmers to grow Ecologic
Cotton, the couple thought of launching
an initiative that would be sustainable and
local. “The cotton that we were growing was
traditionally used in handloom all across the