Woven is a unique sustainable womenswear collection that uses traditional Indian handloomed fabrics in modern shapes, sophisticated colours and natural fibres.
The brand was conceived in London by Woven textile designer Laura Miles and is produced in rural India by collectives supporting local women. Woven creates contemporary clothing in a considerate and caring way. The brand supports fair trade and sustainable production practices making in small batches with minimal waste and using only natural biodegradable fastenings and plastic free labelling and packing. The collection is then shipped from India with a carbon positive freight company.
Sustainable Fabrics
Wovens’ beautiful sustainable fabrics use only organic natural fibres such as cotton, silk and linen. They are created using traditional handloom weaving techniques by Womenweave, a charity supporting the most vulnerable women in Indian society and Karghewale, a collective working with the new generation of handweavers in throughout India..
Supports Women in Rural Areas
The collection is stitched at a sewing unit close to where the fabric is made in rural India by Kumbaya SPS. This is a well established social initiative that supports women in rural areas to teach them skills such as pattern cutting, sewing and business management as an alternative to farm work and in turn gives them financial independence if they chose not to marry or become widowed.
Throughout my career as a woven textile designer I have travelled the world working with indigenous weaving groups. It was a long-held dream of mine to create a collection of clothing made using these highly specialised weaving techniques and was kinder to the planet and the artisans that made it than more mainstream fashion brands. This quote from one of our weavers encapsulates this sentiment, weaver Sunita Arande explains: “We weave to pay for our children’s educations or to feed our families. It’s work we love because we’re all together facing the same challenges and sharing the same successes. We don’t know all the places our weaves go in this world, but we know that people everywhere like them very much.”
