THE YOUNGPRENEURS
FASHIONABLY NEW
Akanksha Kaila Akashi, 29 Founder, REFASH, Mumbai www.refash.in
In what might well be described as turning old into gold, Akanksha Kaila Akashi took her venture of upcycled fashion and accessories, REFASH, from a start-up with an investment of Rs 2 lakh to a business with a turnover of Rs 15 lakh in less than two years. “It’s a platform where we sell products from designers and creative artisans who create new products out of old, discarded materials,” says Akashi who started in 2017. Her enterprise has built a database of over 200 upcycling brands including Vie from Chennai, Waste No More from the US and Retro Upcycle from Pakistan, and makes clothes, accessories, shoes and stationery.
An alumnus of the University of the Arts London, where she studied design and marketing, Akashi had attended a workshop on how to upgrade old garments into new, contemporary pieces of clothing in Mumbai, which prompted her to start the venture. “There was a
