Tiny textile scraps turn into luxury fashion

Tiny fabric scraps, escape waste management systems and often end up in landfills, where they take decades to decompose and release harmful greenhouse gases.
Indian fashion designers are now gathering these textile remnants called katran and are creating luxury garments and home collections.
However, textile waste is not a sound business model and promoting responsible fashion requires a change in mindset too, say experts.

While passing by tailoring shops in pockets of Delhi, one can see colourful mosaics of fabric remnants strewn on their floors and in the by-lanes, lying in near disgrace. Generally, these vibrant fabric shards, known as katran, pile up through the day and are tossed carelessly out onto the roads, dustbins or drains, and are forgotten.

Now, instead of discarding these remnant fabric bits, some fashion designers in India are gathering the scraps carefully in their factories, arranging them like puzzle pieces, crafting intricate patterns, unique textures and creating responsible luxury collections as proof that fashion’s sustainable future can be stitched from its own past. Some designers are even collecting scraps from tailors upon understanding the value of these tiny cloth remnants, their cost effectiveness and how they can contribute to reducing textile waste.

“I am simply fascinated by katran. As soon as I look at it, patterns and designs intuitively start forming in my mind. During a recent leisure trip to Dharamshala, I collected katran from a local tailoring shop and brought it back to my workshop,” says Ahmedabad-based designer Kavisha Parikh. Creating clothes from such tiny fabrics is both time- and labour-intensive. Unlike normal fabric bolts, katran comes in random designs, shapes, hues, textures and sizes. Repurposing these fabrics needs innovation and creativity. Since luxury products are bespoke, production at scale may not be required.

Katran, or fabric scraps, being stitched to make a pattern. Scraps that were once disposed of carelessly in landfills are now increasingly being collected by some designers in an effort to create unique, sustainable designs. Image by Kavisha Parikh.

To create and adorn her collection, Parikh meticulously stitches together katran. The outcome is unique outfits, which celebrate creativity and beauty of imperfection.

Before starting her designer venture Patch Over Patch in 2018, she worked with clothing firms where, “I found myself naturally gravitating and working in sections where waste fabric was collected and upcycled. What others saw as waste, I saw as raw material for creativity and conscious design.”

Parikh is not alone in finding a creative use for waste fabric bits. Noida-based fashion designer Payal Jain preserves every miscut lace trim, stray ribbon, solo button, lone shell, knit, wood, or irregular fragment of kora fabric (the raw, undyed, unbleached, untreated fabric often with a natural off-white or grey colour) and uses them to create her collections of garments and accessories. “What appears waste or insignificant has the potential to redefine luxury. The transformative potential of creativity depends on one’s vision,” she says.

To drive the message even stronger, the couturier Jain recently crafted 30 garment sculptures made solely with textile remnants to mark her 30-years in the Indian fashion industry.

“It was clear from the start that I would never buy new material when, what I had could be transformed,” Jain said in an exclusive interaction at her factory-office. She said it’s her father who inculcated an eco-conscious sensibility from early days.

Home furnishings (left) and a table runner (right) crafted using katran. Creating products from tiny scraps is a time- and labour-intensive process that requires creativity. Unlike normal fabric bolts, katran comes in random designs, shapes, and textures. Images by Vaishali S.

Katran, a part of textile circularity

An estimated 15% of all fabric used for textiles and garment production is wasted during the cutting process. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced every year, globally. Production doubled from 2000 to 2015, while the duration of garment use decreased by 36%. About 11% of plastic waste comes from clothing and textiles, with only 8% of textiles fibres in 2023 made from recycled sources.

“Unsustainable fashion is aggravating the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature, land and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “We need to focus on a circular economy approach that values sustainable production, reuse and repair. By working together, consumers, industry and governments can support genuinely durable fashion and help reduce our fashion footprint,” Andersen said in a press statement released ahead of the International Day of Zero Waste last month.

Designer Vaishali Shadangule based in Mumbai, says reusing and repurposing makes both economic and environmental sense. Her decision to collect scraps was driven by a mix of economic, ecological and emotional reasons. “I work closely with weavers, spend months with them creating weaves. I can’t bring myself to throw the scraps – it feels as if I am discarding my artisans’ hard work. Everyone thought I had gone crazy when I refused to throw away katran but taking care of weavers, valuing what they create, is a crucial part of circularity. Isn’t it?” Shadangule asks.

Shadangule uses katran to make intricate textures on her garments and home collections. Over the years it has become one of the defining elements of her design identity. She has recently added a home décor collection where she extensively uses katran. While making one bespoke garment, up to 40% of textile scrap can be generated and it makes perfect business sense for fashion labels to aspire for a zero-waste strategy, she says.

“The fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters. It is high time we realise that not just the end product but the process is equally important,” she adds.

Garments made out of katran. As the market for Indian textiles is projected to reach $350 billion by 2030, innovating for textile waste is crucial as it often ends up in landfills, where it takes decades to decompose and releases harmful greenhouse gases. Image by Payal Jain. — Garment sculptures made out of katran. As the market for Indian textiles is projected to reach $350 billion by 2030, innovating for textile waste is crucial as it often ends up in landfills, where it takes decades to decompose and releases harmful greenhouse gases. Image by Payal Jain.

The challenge of working with micro scraps

Textile and apparel sector is massive in India, and any attempt to curb waste generation and encourage repurposing is crucial for the circular economy and ecology.

The market for Indian textiles and apparel is projected to grow at a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $350 billion by 2030. Moreover, India is the world’s third largest exporter of textiles and apparel. It ranks among the top five global exporters in several textile categories, with exports expected to reach $100 billion. The textiles and apparel industry contributes 2.3% to the country’s GDP, 13% to industrial production and 12% to exports. The textile industry in India is predicted to double its contribution to the GDP, rising from 2.3% to approximately 5% by the end of this decade.

Therefore, the waste from textile and fashion in cities often ends up in landfills, where it takes decades to decompose and releases harmful greenhouse gases. A zero-waste approach is key to the required transition to more circular approaches. Tiny fabric scraps, especially those made of synthetic fibers, often escape waste management systems due to their minuscule size. During garment cutting and processing, these fragments mix with dust and wastewater in factories. When improperly discarded, they get swept into open drains or nallahs, carried by wind, rain, and urban runoff.

Unlike larger textile waste, these micro scraps evade filtration systems and enter rivers, lakes, and eventually the sea. Over time, synthetic fibres break down into microplastics, contaminating water sources, harming aquatic life, and even making their way into the food chain. “Their size makes them nearly impossible to retrieve, turning them into a persistent environmental hazard,” says Akshay Gunteti, Co-founder, Green Worms that works in the space of recycling of textile, plastic and footwear.

Promoting responsible fashion requires a mindset change and it also needs to nurture from early days. Design educational institutions can play a key role here. “We believe sustainability is a necessity and must be part of students’ mindset. We have been sending our design students to villages near our university to work with the crafts people, understand the grassroot realities and understand why circularity is important,” said Sanjay Gupta, founding vice chancellor of World University of Design in Sonipat, Haryana.

Paras Arora, co-founder of fashion label Doodlage suggests that other than a mindset change, incentives from the government will be helpful in increasing adoption of waste management. Some also argue that circularity and reuse need much more focus from brands, authorities and consumers.

“We need to make an urgent shift. Yet, textiles don’t seem to be a priority because the textile waste business is not a sound business model. There are limited technologies (for recycling), and fashion brands are not investing in building capacities, infrastructure, or recycling targets. Simply put, there is no accountability and no regulatory pressure,” says Gunteti. He shares that collecting and repurposing these tiny scraps is a resource-intensive exercise and every stakeholder should play their part.

Banner image: Employees in designer Payal Jain’s factory make garments out of katran, or fabric scraps. Image by Payal Jain.