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Khadi, jute, bamboo, straw. These eco-friendly fibers are guaranteed to strike terror in the heart of any fashion expert, irrespective of how politically brave a face she puts on. And all this recent talk of eco-friendly fashion is not helping any. Until now. A brave, intrepid lot of designers have taken it upon themselves to do their clothes — achkans to hot pants — without offending nature. The definition of what makes a collection friendly to nature varies from designer to retailer and every other agent in between. “My collection is inspired by nature”. That line is no longer working and designers are being forced to confront other words — organic, bio-degradable, vegetable dyes. “An eco-friendly fabric is quite simply defined as one where the fiber is bio-degradable,” explains designer Deepika Govind, who has been regularly showcasing collections made of natural material. “Cotton is a natural fabric, but normally cotton is grown with the use of a number of pesticides. In the case of eco-friendly fabrics, no harmful chemicals or pesticides have been used in the growth or manufacturing process. Further, you have the usage of eco-friendly dyes, such as vegetable dyes, etc.” For designer Payal Jain, “the entire process of weaving, printing and dyeing and embellishing the garment must be environment friendly”. So the yarn used to weave the fabric must not have any synthetic dyes or animal products added, while the looms must not waste yarn, but rather reuse and recycle them, she says. “The dyes used must be made from natural and organic elements with no acidic and synthetic additions. The colors used for printing should be natural and the printing techniques be as environment friendly as possible.” She even stresses that the working conditions of a factory where the stitching or embroidery is done must be of a certain standard and the recycling of wastes, generated from production, a must. This is a process which Companies like Birla Cellulose are eager to promote with the introduction of new technologies. “We want to promote the existing environment friendly, nature based fibers which are comparable to the best in the world,” says Manohar Samuel, Senior Vice President, Birla Cellulose. “Our effort is to make the entire process of going from fiber to fashion eco-friendly,” he explains. The company, to promote the cause of eco-fashion, aligned with nine new generation designers at the recently concluded Wills India Fashion Week. “The whole procedure has to be non-metallic, non-toxic and definitely bio-degradable, underlines designer Charu Parashar, one of the designers who worked with Birla Cellulose. There are a lot of steps involved in getting to the fabric, she explains. To begin, specially designed ‘hybrids of wood’ are grown, which are transformed into ‘wood pulp’ and further to ‘pulp sheets’. Then it is treated with alkaline solution, which transforms it into a powder form called ‘Alk Cell’. Then it is treated with Carbon disulphide (CS2) by which the pulp is transformed into ‘cellulose’ or liquid form. This, treated with alkaline, makes it ‘viscose’ which under high pressure transforms to filament. This can be transformed to fiber, yarn and finally fabric, where the designer steps in.