At Jiwya, clothing is designed to return to the earth

There’s a calming stillness to Nashik that feels almost alien to a city girl like me. I noticed it in the way the air feels lighter, the way conversations stretch a little longer without feeling like they do, and how time doesn’t quite move at the same pace it does in Mumbai. It’s here, tucked away from the predictable churn of fashion’s big-city circuits, that Jiwya is building something that feels radically intuitive.

When I visited their atelier, what struck me first was how open, transparent, and carefully considered the floor plan felt. Every detail served a purpose—to prevent waste and allow for an easy flow of function. It not only keeps the business' logistics in check but also allows the workforce to operate at its best.

There’s no excess. No racks bursting with overproduction. Just a reflection of curiosity in methods that feel instinctively aligned with the natural world.

The Jiwya way

The idea of “soil-to-soil” might sound poetic—and not entirely practical—but at Jiwya, it’s both literal and entirely possible. Founders Aishwarya Lahariya and Adhiraj Shinde, textile chemists who also happen to have found love in each other, built the brand out of a clear, urgent desire to change the way we approach fashion.

Every fibre, every dye, every button traces its origin back to plants, and eventually returns to the earth. This is made possible by minds that have previously worked on material innovation for some of the world’s largest fashion brands and Fortune 500 companies. Here, that expertise is redirected toward something far more intentional. Jiwya moves in rhythm with nature, with artisans, and with time itself.

What’s perhaps most compelling is that this isn’t the work of outsiders romanticising craft. Lahariya and Shinde understand the industry at its most technical, most chemical, and most extractive. And yet, what they’ve come to build feels disarmingly human.

That duality—science and sensitivity, precision and intuition—runs through everything Jiwya does.

Below, Aishwarya Lahariya (co-founder and designer at Jiwya) and Adhiraj Shinde (co-founder at Jiwya) talk about walking away from conventional careers, building a fully plant-based supply chain, collaborating with artisans across the country, and why slowing down might be the most radical thing fashion can do today.

Harper’s Bazaar: You both built your individual careers as textile chemists abroad. What made you walk away and start Jiwya together?

Jiwya: It really came from a place of growing frustration. As textile industry insiders, we found ourselves constantly asking why we weren’t able to meaningfully clean up a system we understood so well. In our respective roles and through ongoing research, we were consistently trying to introduce safer chemistry and more planet-friendly solutions, yet it never felt enough.

This disconnect became even sharper when you consider the scale of the problem. Something as basic as clothing is the third-largest global polluter. Conventional fashion still relies heavily on synthetic fibres (read plastics) alongside animal-derived materials, highly polluting dyes and chemicals, and a system that discards the equivalent of a truckload of textile waste every single second.

At some point, these stopped being abstract statistics for us. As textile scientists, we felt a responsibility to apply our technical expertise more directly; to not just improve parts of the system, but to fundamentally rethink and find a solution for issues that are, quite literally, swallowing the planet.

HB: Jiwya began with a 19,000 km road trip across India’s artisan clusters. How did that journey shape the brand you set out to build?

J: It had a profound impact on how we value handmade fabrics. We deliberately set out to explore textile traditions across the length and breadth of India, seeking out the art forms that truly sustain its cultural fabric. In the process, meeting master artisans, who have been custodians of these crafts for generations, was incredibly humbling and rewarding at the same time..

Those experiences deeply shifted our perspective. When you witness the level of skill, detail, and effort that goes into weaving and printing each piece of fabric, it becomes almost instinctive to ensure that nothing is wasted. In many ways, our commitment to zero-waste production is a direct outcome of those journeys, and Jiwya reflects this philosophy at the core of its DNA.

HB: Jiwya positions itself as entirely plant-based, from fibre to dyes to even buttons. What were the biggest technical or creative challenges in making that claim? 

J: One of our biggest challenges wasn’t building the supply chain…it was finding sewing thread that didn’t contain polyester. In many ways, that set the tone for how detail-oriented the entire process had to be. Encouraging weaving artisans to experiment with our plant-dyed yarns was another big challenge, as it meant moving away from their conventional practices.

HB: The idea of a “soil-to-soil” lifecycle is central to Jiwya. How do you translate that concept so it emotionally resonates with the consumer? 

J: Honestly, it’s not easy. We’ve even been asked at times whether our garments would “melt
away in the rain,” which really reflects how deeply conditioned consumers have become by
synthetic materials and their marketing.

Having said that, when we talk about our soil-to-soil philosophy, we focus on bringing people closer to the journey of each piece. We share how it’s made, the stories of the crafts involved, and the thoughtfulness behind every stitch and silhouette. What we’ve seen is that once this meaning comes through, there’s a noticeable shift, interest deepens, and a sense of reverence begins to build.

HB: You’ve spoken about the distinction between an 'artisan' and a 'karigar'. How does Jiwya recognise and empower that difference in its work?

J: We refer to them as 'artisans' and 'skilled workers'. Or, more traditionally, as kalakars and karigars. The world often views artisans (kalakars) through a very narrow lens, either as part of an underprivileged, ageing community or as workers in small, overcrowded workshops. But, there’s an important distinction to be made.

A skilled worker is someone who has mastered a particular skill within a defined field. An artisan, on the other hand, carries forward a generational art. This is something they have absorbed, practised, and refined over years of legacy-learning and deep, almost instinctive memory. That depth is truly unparalleled.

At Jiwya, this distinction informs how we work. Our artisans don’t make garments. Rather, they create the foundation. They weave fabrics, spin yarns, develop natural prints using resist mediums like soil and wax, and embroider with a level of precision no machine can replicate. Our skilled workers then take these elements and translate our designs into finished garments through pattern-making, stitching, and finishing processes.

HB: How do you balance innovation and purely plant-based materials with heritage arts, especially when working with over 150 artisan clusters? 

J: The balance essentially comes down to managing a complex supply chain built on human connection. On the technical side, as chemists and scientists, we handle everything in-house, so maintaining a 100% plant-based approach is always within our control, especially since we’re mostly vertically integrated.

Where it becomes more nuanced is in working with artisan clusters. We work closely with their natural and seasonal rhythms. For instance, many of our master weavers are also farmers, so we consciously avoid placing orders during sowing or harvest seasons. Similarly, hand-block printers often can’t produce plant-based prints during the monsoon, so we plan around that. Generational embroiderers require both time and precision when working with our motifs, so we begin working with them up to six months in advance to accommodate their process.

Ultimately, it’s about understanding the people behind the craft, not just the business. Even something as simple as language can be a barrier, so over time we’ve developed a system that combines sketches with written instructions to ensure clarity and avoid miscommunication.

HB: Are there any stories from artisans that have stayed with you and deepened your connection to the work?

J: It’s hard to single out just one. We created an entire series for our social platforms, called ‘19,000 Kilometres in 19 Stories', where each episode captures a different craft, community, and narrative. Every story carries its own sense of love, culture, and identity, and honestly, we could spend an entire day sharing them and still not run out.

That said, one anecdote that has stayed with us comes from a small artisan community in rural West Bengal. They create paintings that depict mythological stories, almost like visual poetry. What makes this even more unique is that they sing the stories as they paint them. The most striking aspect, though, is that the entire community is Muslim, yet they predominantly illustrate stories from Hindu mythology, often exploring nuances that even practising Hindus may not be familiar with.

For us, experiences like these really underscore the importance of understanding the lived realities of India. They remind us that art and storytelling have a powerful way of bringing people together, especially in a world that can often feel increasingly divided.

HB: What are some of the innovative materials that set Jiwya’s collections apart from conventional fashion?

J: A big part of our focus is on hyperlocal materials, sourced as much as possible from Indian farms. Interestingly, a large portion of cotton and hemp used in India is actually imported from China, so we’ve been intentional about working with indigenous cotton varieties, as well as hand-spun, handwoven hemp. We’re also reimagining fibres like jute, moving beyond its conventional identity as a coarse, purely functional material.

Parallelly, plant-based dyes are central to our process. We’ve developed proprietary formulations to ensure that these colours are not only natural but also long-lasting, and on par with, or even surpassing, conventional fashion standards.
 
This is very much an ongoing journey. We’re constantly exploring new native fibres, researching plant-based finishes, and experimenting with colour formulations. In many ways, the chemists in us are always at work.

HB: Is there a particular moment or piece from Jiwya’s journey that feels especially personal or memorable to you both?

J: Our travels across India hold a particularly meaningful place for us. We spent months on the road, driving through vastly different landscapes and experiences. From getting stuck in the sands of Rajasthan, to navigating a cyclone in Odisha, to even crossing a river while sitting in our car on a makeshift motorised wooden plank. All of it was as unpredictable as it was enriching. Along the way, we celebrated local festivals, ate regional food, and immersed ourselves in the everyday rhythms of different communities. What stayed with us most, though, was the warmth and generosity of the artisans we met. Those interactions, along with the materials we discovered—whether on farms, in forests, or through indigenous knowledge systems—have become some of our most valued treasures.

HB: Sustainability comes with strong ethical commitments, such as fair wages, traceability, and zero waste. How do you make that viable as a business? 

J: We genuinely believe that paying fair wages, being transparent about materials, and ensuring you’re not creating unnecessary waste should be the baseline for any business. It’s quite unsettling that these fundamentals are sometimes viewed as non-viable or idealistic, and it begs the question: if this is considered unconventional, what does that say about the current system? Is “business as usual” inherently extractive or exploitative, and if so, why have we come to accept that?

At Jiwya, we’re very aware that we’re operating against a tide that often prioritises profit above everything else. But the reason we exist is precisely that the model has pushed us to the edge of the planetary boundaries of pollution, global warming, climate change and societal decay. For us, it’s a conscious choice. We’d rather grow slowly and responsibly than move fast at the cost of the planet. 

HB: What needs to change within the industry for brands like Jiwya to not be the exception but the norm? 

J: It really comes back to the basics and asking some fundamental questions. Why are we still okay with unfair wages? Why do we continue to use materials that can cause harm? And, why is there still such a reliance on animal-derived products?

At a larger level, the industry needs to become far more conscious about the lifecycle of where materials come from and where they go after use. Beginning to address these types of questions would mark a meaningful and necessary shift in the way we approach fashion today.

Lead image: Jiwya, Sqube PR

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