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Everybody has a burning desire to build something of their own, to bring an idea to life which hasn’t been achieved by many, rather be the 1st ones to do it. Passion and detailed understanding of their respective field are two ladders that have taken all the 1st timers to reach where they are. And so is in our TFP Profile for the day, ‘Kriti Tula’, Creative Director & co-owner at Doodlage.
Doodlage is a fashion label, commenced in April 2012 with a basic idea of upcycling and recycling of waste material to form fresh piece of wearable fabric.
About The Founder
Born in the year 1988, studied at London School of Fashion, our very own Indian artist has an interest in doodling, yoga, travelling, regular workouts, swimming, working towards reducing her waste every day while living a city life. Lack of awareness and inclination towards design as a field is what lead her to pursue fashion. “But I am glad I found my way”, says Kriti.
She has been featured in Forbes India among selective individuals recognized for working towards United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and has since gained at a spot at OMG, Yeh Mera India, a talent platform for Indians and their crazy ideas telecasted on History TV18.
Kriti, being an environmentalist, is high on sustainable fashion owing to huge wastage of natural resources and damage to environment in the process of creating more clothes.
In Sept 2018, Kriti appeared as one of the guests on a show organized by CNBC TV 18 titled “Changing India” and recently also appeared in a podcast aired in July 2020 by the “Turban Thinker”.
Kriti sites, their work has been recognized by various global and national publications and they have been extremely grateful to each of them to help reach a larger global audience. This has always encouraged them to do more.
In an attempt to dig this and on a request made by us, we are glad to get Ms. Tula to answer few questions and help us know more about this quirky fashion idea.
When asked about her inspiration to start doodlage,
Kriti Tula said: “As a designer, I was always inclined to find solutions and Doodlage started exactly with that agenda. Our aim was to start a conversation around ways to bring circularity in fashion and raise awareness around the impact of a linear fashion model. As a bootstrapped firm, we worked with one problem at a time with very limited funds and carefully curated our small supply chain.
We started collecting fabric waste from factories around Delhi which were generally rejected for minor defects and post reducing waste, where panels that are big enough, are stitched back together to cut more pieces. This allowed us to create short well-finished limited-edition collections, saving tonnes of fabric from landfills and down-cycling.
As we grew to understand various issues, scale and impact of the fashion industry, we found ourselves more committed to building a social enterprise making season-less clothes working to provide better living wages for our artisans and low impact raw material.”
So, Why the name?
KT: It is a play on the word ‘Doodle’ or the art of doodling. Each piece designed at Doodlage, comes with additional doodles created by the artisan during the process of creation in order to fix a problem unique to his/ her piece. These are a set of doodles that are designed at the sampling stage, its placement and suitability is left to each artisan to decide, making doodling a part of our design process.
Doodlage – Tailoring Waste into Fashion
Fashion is a costly affair; one fabric takes up a lot of the environmental value. Hence, as Ms Tula explains, which sector’s power consumption can be reduced due to the recycling of waste material?
KT: The Fashion industry is a massive problem as it creates waste across industries and is not as disposable as we have been made to believe. 1 kg of cotton production which is cultivated as part of the agricultural industry in India uses more than 10,000 litres of freshwater. Cotton production uses 24% of the insecticides and 11% of the pesticides produced globally. Every time we consume fresh conventional cotton, we use large quantities of water along-with adding insecticides and pesticides which eventually seeps into groundwater and our waterways.
As far as deforestation is concerned, 70 million trees are cut every year to produce plant-based fibre for our clothes. Fashion uses 342 million oil barrels to make plastic-based fabrics like polyester and nylon for our clothes. 23% of all chemicals produced worldwide are used for the textile industry. Recycling or upcycling allows us to use what already exists instead of using more natural resources to create fresh material. Working locally also reduces the carbon footprint of each product that travels back and forth between production, packaging, warehousing, quality checking before it reaches the store shelf or consumer.
Can you brief me about the process of manufacturing?
KT: Our fabric suppliers for post-production waste are several exporters and manufacturing units; since the waste is available in millions of tonnes just around Delhi we are sadly spoilt for choice and source from suppliers based on the collection we would like to create.
For post-consumer waste, we develop fabrics using certified recycled yarns on handloom and power loom.
Our fabrics use no added chemicals or water for manufacturing. It uses no virgin fibre/yarn/fabric reducing the pressure on our resources by using what already exists.
Once collected, this fabric is checked, fixed, patched, panelled, embroidered whatever is the demand of the fabric before it is sent out for production to various vendors. What is wasted in cutting processes is used to make up as our accessories and stationery products. Our pieces are made to order and have additional margins for 3 inches for consumers to alter as and when required encouraging longevity of each garment.
Kriti’s whole motto behind doodlage is, “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last”
She follows her motto with such a strong pining that even the waste material left out from her production filters out in dark-colored waste to create bags and light-colored waste to form a stationery line items.
Have you patented this idea?
KT: Upcycling wasn’t invented by us. It is a concept that is deeply rooted in India. I still remember the time when clothes were deeply cherished, repaired, upcycled into new garments or other products before they become rugs or rags. But that culture has changed over time, our consumption has increased massively with the increase in population and a better standard of living. Garment lost importance, became cheap and re-wearing or repeating became frowned upon through systematic long-term advertising. We need to find alternative solutions to clean this industry and we need as many people as possible to drive this change so patenting has never been on the agenda.
At such point of her career, the thoughts of not patenting this brilliant idea and keeping it open to more people show a different side to Ms Tula’s efforts and desire to keep in check the morality towards the environment.
Any business creates an opportunity for wealth to the investor, a present to the society and mainly employment to people. Right from the production team to marketing, people are needed.
So, what is the employee strength as of today?
KT: We are a small team of 15-20 people. Most of our work is outsourced for production, content and website management with like-minded partners. All designing and after sales services are managed in-house.
Also, it creates wealth for the nation when a product has overseas demand which brings us to our next question.
Do you export your products? If yes, can you share how much % of your total turnover is from exports.
KT: Yes, we do. 16-20% of our sales are contributed through international sales.
I read you studied from the London college of Fashion, what inspired you to come back to India and start a business here?
KT: The year I registered my brand, was also the year I got a scholarship to be in London college of fashion. My plan was always to come back to India. Being in London for 4 years allowed me to gain a global perspective on the fashion industry. I got a chance to work with like-minded organisations internationally which helped me gain more experience in the field.
Tula has previously worked as a country manager for Shopcade India, and in advertisement & promotion for Fashion Forward Trends. She also wrote for The Fashion Model Directory along with serving as a lecturer at Pearl Academy of Fashion.
Give your thoughts about the MakeInIndia campaign!
KT: For decades, global markets have determined how much our local artisans are paid as a part of their supply chains. When we support local brands aiming to sustain better wages for their artisans as they scale, we together reduce our carbon footprint and help bring long term changes in our communities and improve our overall standard of living. That’s an aim worth working towards.
What is your 10-year plan for doodlage?
KT: We are working to raise funds to scale the impact of our brand. We want to be able to offer a wider product range to allow consumers to make a switch to sustainable alternatives. increase our direct to consumer reach in physical spaces mostly with the right collaborations. And work to expand our B2B solutions for corporates and organizations looking to make small impactful changes in their system.
Some High's and low's for doodlage.
KT: Every business comes with its own set of challenges. When we registered the brand in 2012, we only had a vision for what we wanted to create, it took us a while to figure out the supply chain, vendors, sellers and steps to scale and raise awareness around the need for sustainable fashion. We started operations in 2014. As a founder, I continued to work till 2018 to gain more experience in the industry before I joined our bootstrapped brand full-time. Even after being profitable post the first year of operations, every year came with a new set of challenges which is a part of every entrepreneur’s life and every new business.
Fashion is an art and imagines the level of good it will bring along with a thoughtful measure to save the resources. Let’s hope to follow the path of sustainable fashion and support the cause by being a part of this campaign and sign up for saving the planet with style.
You can shop for doodlage products at https://doodlage.in/collections
To find more about Ms Tula & Doodlage, you can check out her other interviews on the link below:
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