Sindhi Patchwork, Artisans and Fashion Industry

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.