Jean 2.0!

Prabha Rajkumar makes fascinating fashionable denim products from old ones which are long-lasting and durable. Using few resources she makes many products, with innovative variations and new designs. She shocks the Indian fashion world with her sustainable and stylish products. From hair bands to lunch bags, from pouches for travel to vests to wear at weddings, she's got it all covered.

Denims are predominantly blue and Prabha uses them to make sure that the earth remains green. Hence the brand name Bluemadegreen. Prabha collects old jeans and other denim outfits which are sent by her customers. These clothes either doesn’t fit them or are out of fashion and the designers make whatever sustainable goods they can out of them. At times, the customers suggest ideas, and get customized finished products and the other times the designers at the boutique use their creativity and invent new fashionable attires and accessories.

 At the same time, there are others who love reusing goods but do not have time to make something useful out of old things, which is exactly when Prabha performs her magic. She focuses on making utility products which last long and are ecologically sustainable. Using her designer’s intuitive creativity, she creates upcycled elegant clothes and other goods.

“I started by making denim frocks, skirts and jackets for my daughter and niece. Then I would just display it in exhibitions and people started contacting me to rework their clothes and by word of mouth a lot of people got to know about my work” she says recalling her initial days.

When asked about how her products are eco-friendly, she says “we don’t use any glitters, stone or plastic sequences on our products. Suppose a customer gives me their jeans with a lot of buttons on it, I remove the buttons and keep it aside for future use. All the material that we use is biodegradable, except zips, magnet and fasteners to close the flaps in the bag, which are non biodegradable, but their use is unavoidable. We don’t use embellishments and unnecessary things to make our products look fancy, we just use embroidery patterns and minimal fabric paint. We also want our products to be washable in machine so we keep it as simple as we can.”

Even an inch of denim is not wasted. They make sure to stitch up all the small pieces and make colorful pencil pouches, hair bands, earrings which they sell in flee markets and exhibitions to customers who value the zero-wastage project.

“If a part of the garment is spoilt while ironing, we cannot donate it. Most of us give away such clothes to those who are less fortunate. But they are unable to use them as these garments don’t suit their lifestyle and doesn’t go with their fashion sense. Then there is no value to it and the resource is also wasted. So I’d say give things away responsibly to people who can make use of it.” Says Prabha.

She says “to make new things is what I know. I don’t have technological or scientific knowledge but I wanted to contribute towards sustainable development. I am a small scale designer but there are a lot of large scale production of such commodities these days as it is a necessity.”