Nitte School of Fashion Technology & Interior Design’s Principal, Dr. Sandhya Ravi has been awarded for her research paper on Environmental Sustainability “Eco-friendly Hand Painted Silks”. Through her paper, she has brilliantly focused on the ever-increasing need for environmental sustainability in the textile industry.

Dr. Sandhya Ravi has highlighted the importance of using eco-friendly dyes on silk fabrics. Hand painting on silks is one of the popular art forms in India. She has put significant emphasis on it which can reduce the environmental issues in the textile industry. NITTE Fashion Institute is really proud of this achievement by Dr. Sandhya Ravi.

The following is an abstract from the research paper:

The growing concerns about environmental issues are playing an increasingly important role in the textile industry. The use of eco-friendly colours as one of the means to create hand-painted silks to protect the environment and these methods of painting of silks do not cause any harm to the environment. Limitless variety of exciting designs is produced by painting techniques using eco-friendly dyes directly on silks. The diversity of techniques gives the design freedom to experiment with eco-friendly color, shade, texture and form. Hand painting emphasis free expression, through the medium of silks and eco-friendly dyes is the demand of textile and the need of the hour. Hence the study aims at painting silks with eco-friendly dyes with different solvents/buffers on silk fabric with different floral, abstract and conventional designs. The techniques used here are easy and the samples can be produced and finishing can be given at home which do not cause harm to the environment and ecology. While hand painting silks through eco-friendly dyes, care was taken to convert the dyes into paints which were not carcinogenic. The objective was to study the effects of different solvents/buffer medium with eco-friendly dyes, its visual effect on the fabric and consumer preferences and its acceptance. In this study survey method was used, the tool being questionnaire. 18 samples were painted with different techniques and colours and were tested for colour fastness to washing, rubbing (dry and wet) and sunlight. Underprivileged women were trained and it was found that the method was easy and they could earn a living to support their family. These hand painted eco-friendly products with sustainable designs have created awareness to protect the environment. This led to the exploration of different techniques based on the principle of REDUCE-REUSE-RECYCLE. ‘Eco-Fashion is not a FAD anymore’.