Oshadi

Oshadi is a contemporary sustainable fashion brand that handcrafts and retails simple functional womenswear rooted in regenerative fashion and also aspire to revive and sustain India's traditional craft heritage, which is in danger of perishing due to industrialisation. Founder Nishanth Chopra believes that a regenerative system provides a better outcome for the farmers and communities along the supply chain and is integral to the future of fashion. The brand's seed-to-sow perspective astride the farming, processing, dyeing and manufacturing operation spans the entire supply chain from farm to finished fashion product. 

Oshadi is a contemporary womenswear brand seeking to revive and sustain India's traditional craft heritage, which now, is perishing due to industrialisation. 

Interestingly Oshadi means “healing plant” in Sanskrit. It began as a womenswear label founded by Nishanth Chopra in 2016. Her desire to respect and regenerate the Earth has since led the company through every process that goes into creating apparel, from printing and dyeing to weaving and spinning, and eventually back to the soil. Per the official website: "Today we are cultivating a new fashion system–one rooted in ancient Indian agricultural practices and artisan heritage, with a 250-acre regenerative cotton farm at its heart. We share what we have built with brands and designers whose values align with our simple ethos: to give back more than we take."

Founder Nishanth Chopra, based in Erode, Tamil Nadu, arrived at the idea of this sustainable fashion brand when he heard a podcast interview with Rebecca Burgess- founder of Fibershed. Per Eco-Age: "The Fibershed concept struck a clear chord with Oshadi’s own initiative thanks to its similarities with India's traditional manufacturing methods. ‘I really wanted to explore ancient Indian farming techniques because they’ve always been regenerative’ he explains. ‘Regenerative is a very new term for the fashion industry, or for all the industries. But even before the Green Revolution back in the day, India has always been about that.'

When Nishanth returned to his hometown from London he was not driven to join his family's sixty-year-old textile business. Per Vogue: "making clothes in India with technically advanced German or Swiss looms which most textile mills invest in, didn’t inspire him. This is when he decided to start Oshadi in 2015 as a handloom brand… ‘I remember finding textile experts such as Harris Tweed in London who supply tweed to Chanel and wondering why Indian textiles hadn’t gotten their due. That kind of drove me' says Chopra who maintains that he hates the charitable impression handloom work has in India."

The company's Seed-to-Sew initiative is the most efficient, low carbon regenerative cotton supply chain solution where all processes from initial farming through till final weaving, knitting and sewing of garments, take place within 100-km. A facilitator in the regenerative agriculture, Seed-to-Sew is an outcomes-based regenerative cotton production program based in South India. The company works with farmers and brands who are leading the way in giving the land a voice and working to improve soil health, water, biodiversity and ecosystem function.

The cooperative made up of farmers, weavers and artisans work with Nishanth to create a regenerative supply chain. Per Vogue: "Words like ‘seed banking’ and ‘fruit bursting’ are not terms you hear from fashion practitioners but Chopra is most definitely not cut from the same cloth. So why has a textile-first fashion house from India, which has far-reaching international collaborations with brands such as Stella McCartney, Richard Malone and Mara Hoffman on its roster, put regenerative farming at the forefront of its design manifesto? The answer is simple: to save our future we need to look back at the past."

Oshadi also helps its partners leave a positive impact on the planet. The core team grows cotton and indigo on its farm using restorative practices, putting nutrients back into the soil and increasing its ability to capture carbon–in turn improving the biodiversity of the ecosystem. 

The design team integrates powerful craftsmanship with simple, functional and architectural designs that relate to the modern lifestyle. At Oshadi the apparel is handcrafted with artisan techniques including hand weaving, natural dyeing and IKAT dyeing by local highly skilled craftspeople. Working with local artisan communities fosters employment and empowerment, develops local creativity, promotes gender equality and reduces poverty.

Every step of the production process is carried out by the collective as they employ local people on their own terms instead of navigating different suppliers and middlemen, subsequently upholding the highest ethical and environmental standards. Per the official website: "The true cost of fashion production all too often falls on those lowest down the supply chain including farmers, mill workers and artisans. At Oshadi, we are redesigning this system from the ground up. Our farmer-first format lets the farmer decide the price of the cotton, rather than the buyer. From there on, we can make sure all profit is distributed fairly."

The core team adopts sustainable, meat-free and natural fibers like organic cotton, non-violent silk, linen and wool - which minimises energy consumption and facilitates environmental preservation. So it's no wonder that Oshadi has been awarded The Butterfly Mark by Positive Luxury for our commitment to fair and sustainable work practices.

There's no looking back. Per Eco-Age: "The drive to do things differently led to Oshadi’s conception. And true to form, what started out as a small-scale contemporary clothing project set Chopra's mind running, one step at a time, through the stages of the fashion supply chain. From designing his first in-house collection with a fresh-out-of-Central-Saint-Martins Richard Malone, to today supplying seed-to-stitch textiles to the likes of Christy Dawn, Maggie Marilyn and Story MFG, Chopra’s journey saw him gradually overturn each individual process that goes into the production of a garment."

Under the umbrella of Oshadi Collective, local and rural stylists and global brands work hand in hand to cultivate regenerative fashion from the soil up. They are equipped with modern methodologies of textile production- seed banking- and flower harvesting to fortify sustainability and promote organic cotton. 

Nishanth Chopra did not feel the drive to join his family's decades-long textile business and instead envisioned using textile production as a means to build a supply chain that, from start to finish, would honour the craftsmanship and skill set of local rural farmers, artisans and weavers. Subsequently the seed-to-stitch supply chain of Oshadi Collective works with fibres from a local farm in Erode- Tamil Nadu which are further spun, naturally dyed, handwoven and sewn within a ten-kilometre radius. 

At the core of the brand philosophy is a symbiotic relationship to the Earth and at the centre of its supply chain sits the regenerative farm where the team grows its own cotton and indigo, subsequently nurturing nutrient-depleted soil, bringing back biodiversity and restoring its ability to capture carbon.

Oshadi is a contemporary sustainable fashion brand that handcrafts and retails simple, functional, architectural womenswear rooted in a respectful relationship to the land and the local community through regenerative fashion.