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Shop for green at a lifestyle store near you

Mini, who was previously head designer with popular brand Weekender, decided to start off on her own.

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Mini Shibu, a post graduate in apparel design from NID, and her husband Cdr (Rtd) Kochery C Shibu launched MINC, an eco-friendly fashion store for women in 2007.

Mini, who was previously head designer with popular brand Weekender, decided to start off on her own.

“She’d always been fond of khadi,” says her husband and co-owner Cdr Shibhu. And with pollution levels soaring, providing and popularising eco-friendly clothing options became a mission for the couple.

The concept “was to promote eco-friendly fashion, working with khadi fabrics, organic cotton and vegetable-dyed fabrics, while supporting a social chain of tribal cotton farmers, weavers and dyers community, therefore, trying to facilitate a healthier environment.”

If you didn’t know, “cotton farming in our country is highly reliant on chemicals that are actually used in warfare,” says the ex-army man.

Though only 4-5% of land in the country is used for cotton cultivation, says Shibu, it consumes 30% of fertilisers. “A manufactured cotton garment carries traces of chemicals — when washed it leaves behind residuals in the water and thereby contributes towards water contamination,” he explains. So, the first challenge was to source organic cotton. After much scouting, they identified the tribal farmers of Sittilingi in Tamil Nadu. Cotton was also ginned at Salem and then sent to Gandhi Gramam in Tamil Nadu.

Further, in India we largely tend to use chemical dyes, which again pollute our resources and also affect an individual’s health in the long run. Most countries in the West have banned these dyes. So, while the exporters have switched to azo dyes (which are eco-friendly), they still use chemical-based dyes for the domestic market owing to cost considerations. So, the Shibus made a conscious decision to use only vegetable/organic dyes, with an intention to lower pollution levels.

Taking these aspects into consideration and integrating them with F3I, a term coined by Mini that denotes fit, function, fashion and integration (adhering to fashion forecasts of the season), MINC makes for an appealing option for those who seek a greener way of life.

“Generally, there is a growing green consciousness in urban India, more so in a city like Bangalore,” says Cdr Shibu. And that refers to making a lifestyle change in many aspects of their lives, one being clothing. “That’s the market we intend to capture,” he says.

For the Shibus, while the environment is on the agenda, empowering organic farmers, reviving the khadi weavers’ community and vegetable-dyers is also a priority. With stores in Sigma Mall, Cunningham Road and more recently one at Mantri Mall in Malleswaram, the couple intends to make green clothing the in thing.

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