Sindhi Patchwork, Artisans and Fashion Industry

Abstract

Food, apparel and shelter are the basic human needs. The apparel industry is massive since it satisfies the second basic human need. At present, it is worth 480 billion dollars and is projected to hit 700 billion dollars in a couple of years eventually. The reason explained behind this is that everyone is getting conscious of the way they look. Clothing has become a mean of creating an impression and people want to wear the latest fashionable clothes to portray their personality. However, the matter of concern is that due to the human desire to wear beautiful and fashionable clothes, 'fast fashion' industry has come into existence, causing the destruction to the world's resources and environment. Fashion Industry is among the top three polluters on the earth and produces almost 92 million tons of waste every year. In addition, 20 percent of the world's freshwater pollution is due to fabric treatment and dyeing. The clothing industry needs to play an important role in sustainable development, and researchers need to introduce more new and innovative ideas regarding sustainability to help the industry. There is a debate that patchwork design can be one of those steps that can lead the fashion industry towards sustainability and slow fashion. Patchwork has diverse forms across different countries and cultures. Few studies are available in other languages exploring Chinese, Korean and American patchworks, but no in-depth researches are available regarding the patchwork art of Indian Subcontinent. Thus, this study aims to explore Sindhi patchwork to highlight another delicate kind of patchwork, so the designers can take inspiration for their fashion collections from this artwork and help the fashion industry take baby steps towards sustainability.This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License JTSFT.MS.ID.000672. Literature ReviewThe inexpensive and easily available fast-fashion products have changed people's behavior towards buying and disposing of clothing [1]. Fast-fashion has evolved as a powerful business paradigm and consumers are buying clothes more than ever now. Fast-fashion products are cheap, widely available and trendy, and thus people prefer them regardless of the impact on the environment [2]. There are several reasons for the rapid growth of the fast-fashion industry.The emergence of social media has played a vital role in this growth of this business model [3,4].Debatably, the fast fashion model is a good idea for millions of people all around the planet. People demand new, trendy, and reasonably priced, garments available in stores every week.The fast-fashion industry has played a vital role in the world economy [5,6]. Over 300 million people are working in this industry at the moment. It has created millions of jobs and offered employment to workers from developing countries. However, the cost our planet is paying is higher than that. The fast-fashion industry has a disastrous impact on the environment of our planet. This industry is responsible for nearly two billion tons of car...