ECO - WARRIORS of STYLE

NAUSHAD ALI, NAUSHAD ALI

For designer Naushad Ali, his home base Puducherry is part of the brand’s story. “The land and the air are clean here. The more I spend time there, the more I realise how much the rest of India is suffering,” says the NIFT Chennai graduate who started his eponymous label in 2014. Like the town, with its quiet mix of French colonial and Indian influences, Ali has mastered a design language that fuses local textiles and techniques with a global appeal. SUSTAINAIBILITY FACTOR With a recent capsule collection of five pieces, Ali demonstrated new ways to work towards zero waste: A jacket made of sari borders, a coat made of scrap material off the production floor, and a pullover made from leftover thread. “Design is a problem-solving tool and if everyone is looking at the same problem then we will naturally come up with a solution,” says Ali. ; Ogaan, Delhi;