Here’s How Alia Bhatt’s ‘Sustainable’ Mehendi Outfit Paves the Way for Gradual Shift Away from Fast Fashion

"Alia Bhatt opts for an upcycled lehenga for her Mehendi," the post reads. Curiosity sufficiently aroused, you read the description below the picture and go through the appreciative comments, and dread coils in your belly.

‘Is that merely a dress you ordered or did you just increase your carbon footprint?’ you ask yourself.

Recently, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor tied the knot, and tabloids have been overflowing with pictures and the minutest of details about the happy couple. Incidentally, not all of it is mindless jabber.

One particular morsel of news that has raised eyebrows is that Gangubai Kathiawadi fame, Alia Bhatt, decided to personalise her Mehendi ensemble and make it sustainable. Apparently, Bhatt's lehenga was made with approximately 180 textile patches from all over India — Kashmir, Benaras, Gujarat and Kanchipuram — sewn together under the supervision of Manish Malhotra, the popular Bollywood fashion designer.

In a world where ultra-fast fashion is slowly but surely becoming the norm, it is certainly refreshing to see someone people look up to caring about the environment.

Now, in case you're wondering what's so bad about fast fashion and why sustainable options are superior: About 40 million tons of textile are incinerated each year, and we won't leave the numbers to your imagination — the industry is responsible for 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

With water consumption of over 3,000 litres used to make a single cotton t-shirt and 3,781 litres to make a pair of jeans, fast fashion isn't helping the world's water woes. And to make matters worse, 150 million trees are chopped every year just for the textile industry.

All of this is just the damage caused to the environment. There's also immeasurable exploitation of labour that goes on in the background. Over 40 million people have lives of modern slavery as they toil away at garment factories, receiving little recompense for their efforts.

While buying clothing from fast fashion brands is convenient and cheap, we must remember that this comfort comes at a heavy price.

On the other hand, sustainable fashion promotes using high-quality, durable fabrics to create a long-lasting ensemble that promotes reusability. Durable clothing and design, as opposed to fast fashion, encourage long-term use and fashion circularity, which reduces your wardrobe's carbon footprint.

Fortunately, many Indian designers have acknowledged the many perils of fast fashion and are embracing the sustainable approach. As devout allies of the environment, we hope Alia's decision to take the sustainable route inspires more people to say no to fast fashion.

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