Outlining a bird's eye view, Mr. Vijay Kaul, Chief Marketing Officer, Birla Cellulose, said, "As global market leaders, we see the changing trends in the domestic and foreign turf and the increasing accent on natural fibres. Birla Cellulose fibres are absolutely eco-friendly fibres. To promote the existing environment friendly, nature based fibres which are comparable to the best available today in the fashion world; we have aligned with the FDCI and leading fashion designers."

The FDCI organised WIFW was the biggest fashion show in India showcasing the best of India's haute couture. It witnessed unique creations from 83 designers over 40 shows with 56 models. The event showcased rare design collections in 82 stalls. More than 300 accredited media persons, over 150 buyers and a large number of myriad stakeholders thronged the event.

Birla Cellulose promoted the cause of eco-fashion very aggressively by aligning deeper relationship with nine new generation designers at the show. World over environment-friendly clothing is in vogue and many young designers have begun to espouse the 'green' cause. As the global leader of natural fibres, Birla Cellulose delineated its larger strategy at the event to promote responsible and environment friendly fashion. It showed its commitment to provide end-to-end solutions to the world of fashion and has offered to translate their creative ideas into real products, using its infrastructural facilities at TRADC (Textile Research & Application Development Centre), Kharach, Gujarat.

It has invited all likeminded new generation designers — Amit GT, Abhijeet Khanna, Alpana and Neeraj, Ashish, Viral and Vikrant, Charu Parashar; Ekta Jaipuria and Ruchira Kandhari, Khushali Kumar, Rahul Reddy, and Shubra to visit TRADC and experience the kind of facilities that can be tapped for the sake of their new creations with newer blends, experimentation and explore possibilities. TRADC has intrinsic strength to convert designer's ideation into reality using natural and biodegradable fibres. Needless to say that these and other blends can be tweaked to perfection as per the need in small quantities, delivered quickly at their doorsteps.

Mr. Manohar Samuel, Senior Vice President, Birla Cellulose put it succinctly when he said, "World over top end designers use modal, lyocell and viscose rayon in their collections. We produce excellent products which are eco-friendly and we are eager to enable the design community to use our TRADC facilities and weave an enjoyable journey from fibre to fashion. We shall be most happy to provide a world class vendor management as well which is appropriate to the design world as a facilitator in the entire process".

Besides showcasing some of the unique fabrics made of eco-friendly fibres at the event, Birla Cellulose had organised a Knowledge Seminar to disseminate information and learning on latest trends in fashion world over. It had roped in Mr. Alexander Maclennan, an eminent Design Consultant of East Central Studios, London to share his views as a resource person on "Responsible Innovation in fashion and textiles".

The baby steps taken now at the India Fashion Week will culminate in resuscitating demand for eco-friendly fibres at different touch points with varying degree of value loads. This goes well with its plans to set up green field projects at Vilayat in Gujarat and at Alexandria in Egypt. Watch out, here comes Birla Cellulose in its new avatar!

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• Knowledge seminar at WIFI