When asked about “what is sustainable fashion for him?”, the speaker aptly replied, “I care about the present and am more concerned about the future, SDGs are planned for a better present and continuous efforts will make others live in the coming future. One of the main reasons for deeply caring about it. I care for nature I care for SDG.”

On 5th March 2022, a benchmark was created for the webinars of JD Institute Of Fashion Technology. The informative session on sustainable fashion saw the utmost level of participation from the Jediiians showing us their inclination towards the domain of green fashion. The session named “It’s In Your Jeans” was hosted by our Corporate Manager, Ms. Ruchi Madan. Our speaker, Mr. Padma Raj Keshri has a penchant for sustainable fashion and his in-depth presentation targetted the lesser-known question in the domain of circular or sustainable fashion, showing his dominance in the field. Mr. Keshri is a Sustainable Design Consultant and has been associated with various sustainable projects throughout the nascent stage of his career. This webinar gave the students a much-needed glimpse of the sustainable fashion industry and brought them face to face with the negative impact that fast fashion has on our planet. 

Keeping with the spirit of an interactive session. The webinar started with a question from our notable speaker. He directed a question towards the audience asking them “what are jeans and denim for them?”. As expected, the students’ answers poured in wherein they described this wardrobe as essential in their own words. Mr. Keshri started the discussion with the motto of clarifying the terms “sustainable fashion”, “recycled fashion” and “upcycled fashion” for the students. In order to do so, he asked the students for a one-word description of sustainable fashion. This was followed by the description of the Project Re-denim; an initiative was taken by the speaker to reduce the post-production waste of jeans and denim. Our speaker further explained the difference between the various kinds of waste generated in the different stages of garment production. The Jediiians gained insight into pre-production waste, post-production waste, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste. Reinforcing their belief in sustainable fashion, Mr. Keshri presented videos that showcased the scope of this new-age fashion. Further adding to the session, he discussed the projects that he has undertaken in both the fashion and interior industry for sustainable product development. 

Mr. Padma Raj Keshri is an innovative and resourceful design professional with an exceptional portfolio of achievements in the area of sustainable product development with 7+ years of working experience in Fashion. He is actively working with innovation, in export businesses including range planning, fabric development, and commercially viable products, with good presentation and collaboration skills. He is an EMBA from IIM Indore in Digital Transformation and the alumnus of NIFT Bengaluru 2013 (Bachelor of Design, Knitwear), NID Ahmedabad 2017 (Masters in Design Textiles) with an International Certificate program from STC, Swiss Textile College, Zurich (2011) for his Exchange Program. In early 2021, he attended the Youth Delegate Program at UNITE 2030 New York, an online program for the changemakers contributing to promoting Sustainable Developments Goals by the UN. Mr. Keshri was among the 75 changemakers selected for the program.

Mr. Keshri has been working towards a greener future of fashion since the early stages of his career and initiated Project Re_Denim in 2019. The “Re_Denim” project, is about the waste fabric mainly involved in the post-production of waste denim pieces. Study of textures through juxtaposition, weaving, and also random overlapping of the different pieces. Once the textures were defined, the project started shaping itself.

The informative session came to an end with an interactive discussion between the students and the speaker. While answering the questions raised by the participants, Mr. Keshri highlighted some motivational aspects of design. He talked about how budding designers should have a signature and they should stick to it while redefining it with time. There was a yes/no question and answer round as well where the speaker asked the students some close-ended questions in order to make them understand the very essence of sustainable fashion. 

This webinar was finally concluded with a vote of thanks from the host on behalf of the JD team.