Our Diary

SUSTAINABILITY - I’ve been thinking about this word for a while now and as a maker also asking myself the question - ‘how is making more sustainable?’

Over time the meaning of the word has changed for me from a macro to micro level. The realisation that change truly starts with ourselves. It has made me question about the ways in which we function at Love the World Today. It makes me revisit our core every now and then and stick to it like nothing else matters. That also simplifies decision making.

Of course two of the most critical aspects are

• Sourcing right and the ways of making
• Reducing waste, and upcycling whatever waste is generated into something of value and function

But beyond these measures, our focus has shifted greatly to the things I’m about to mention. These have always been part of our processes but now hold a much higher value because of the contribution they make towards building a sustainable brand. 

1. Design elements - Paying attention to how a garment’s usage can be made longer, especially in the case of children since they outgrow clothes so quickly. 

Use of elastic waist bands (and ensuring they are of good quality so they last), roomy neck openings, adjustable tie up options, loose yet stylish silhouettes, layering possibilities so outfits are not bound by seasonality and versatility to ensure clothes can be used from occasion wear to casual wear with just a little tweak in styling. 

2. QUALITY! - Cannot emphasise enough on this. The chances of clothes reaching landfills or discarded easily is lower if they are made of great quality and if they are designed to love and last. Great design and quality also encourages people to hand down the clothes to another loved one. 

Quality comes from investing in durable textiles, skilful un compromised tailoring (for example - the use of french seam finishes, which is more time consuming and expensive but ensures the garment will have fewer chances of tears and rips apart from the fact that it’s these little details that make a difference in finish. Another example is something as basic as providing extra buttons to encourage people to repair and fix instead of discard. 

We’ve had customers tell us that LTWT designs have lasted them almost 2+ years (in spite of a growing child) and even after that they’ve been able to pass them on to others. 

3. Closing the loop by offering to take responsibility - Providing a solution to the busy ones, the non-creative ones. 

Sometimes people do care but may not be able to do much for whatever reasons. This is where as a brand, we step in and offer support beyond the relationship of just a purchase. 

For LTWT customers, once your child outgrows a Love the World Today garment, you can send the clothes back to us. We will donate the ones in good condition and upcycle the ones that aren’t. This is our attempt at closing the loop and finding solutions for the complex issues of the fashion industry.

We set this policy out even before we were available for purchase in October 2015. Of course it helps since we started out small and it seemed implementable and manageable at our scale. 

To be honest, in over 4 years, we’ve only had three enquiries about clothes being returned and never received any clothes. We are hopeful that this is because in India we still have a system of hand me downs. But we keep reiterating and reminding in our communications to ensure that customers know that they can reach out to us even 2-3 years after purchase. 

With this we hope we are able to give you an insight into our approach to sustainability besides our choice to work with organic cotton, handwoven cotton, natural dye, low impact dye textiles, recycled fabric packaging, upcycling waste. 

And with this we are also looking at replacing the term ‘sustainable’ clothing  brand with ‘mindful’ clothing brand because every choice we make at LTWT is one that must support our vision of creating a mindful, kind, inclusive world.

Past year has been about dresses and skirts. With this intention, we bought the tie & dye, panelled pinafore maxi dress from Love The World Today for Noor’s 5th birthday. This soon became her favourite dress. I guess it made her feel fancy yet comfortable. This dress has been extensively used to dance and prance around in throughout the day.

Earlier this year, a friend loaned us The Clever Tailor by Srividhya Venkat to read over the summers. It is the story of a thrifty tailor who uses his creativity and imagination to make something for each member of his family. He repurposes the same piece of fabric to make something for his entire family thereby creating a beautiful kahaani (story) that would never wear out. 

For me, this was a beautiful story of upcycling, of creatively reusing an item, to keep it in use indefinitely. 

A few days back, I noticed that the bib part of the pinafore dress was getting tighter. My daughter pulled the straps tightly and one of the buttons came off. My immediate thought was to retire this dress, maybe put it in the donation pile. In today's day and age, it seems easier to just go out and pick up new things.

My mother, masi and granny would often talk about how they wore each other’s clothes, borrowed baby clothes for the next child in the family. However, somewhere during our parent’s aspirational generation, the practice of repurposing (upcycling), exchanging and passing on items to others (swap or preloved) faded. Our generation grew up always wanting more, shopping for therapy and throwing away regardless of the environmental costs and concerns.

I was no different. I decided to donate the dress. I washed it and put it out to dry and started browsing for new dresses. However, little miss sunshine wasn't ready to part ways with her dress. She picked it up from the clothesline and tied the loose straps into a knot at the back, and happily got busy playing in her halter dress. I noticed that she wore her shirt on top of the dress to keep warm. The earthy mama angel took over my thought process and I started browsing Pinterest on ideas to upcycle the pinafore maxi dress into a skirt.

Originally, I thought that I could DIY myself around this upcycling project. But, I don't know how to mend, never bothered to learn it. In fact, mending as a skill isn't taught anymore in homes and schools. Repurposing, Repairing and Refashioning are becoming a lost art. 

The greater challenge that I faced was that this dress came with invisible pockets, and like me, my daughter likes her dresses with pockets. Usable pockets to sneak in her pretend house keys, her handkerchief or few coins, crayons and chalks. I wasn't about to lose these pretty pockets while trying to refashion the dress myself. So, crippled by my own lack of sewing and mending skills, I went to my local tailor. I explained to him my intentions with urgent passion. He smiled and said, "Madamji, yeh toh hamare roz ka kaam hai. Aap tension mat lo!" (Madam, we do this repair work on a daily basis. You don’t stress, we will take care of it)… And voila, in 10 minutes a totally rad skirt was refashioned with pockets and all. I call it the Super Speedy Skirt! 

 My daughter was over the moon with this dress to skirt refashion. She twirled around in her skirt for a long time, pairing it with different colors. This basic transformation came with a personal parental realization that being happy with what we have is an important lesson that we as parents need to imbibe and transfer onto our children.

Half year later, the dress that became a skirt and the skirt that had been worn way too many times, got a rip. My daughter still wanted to keep wearing her skirt. You know how well-worn clothes are softer and comfortable. They feel nice and warm against the skin. The same was the case with this skirt. We retired the skirt from outdoor box and made a space for it in the home wear box. However, months later she had completely worn this skirt out. So, taking clues from the book ‘The Clever Tailor’, I decided to get the skirt repurposed into a doll dress and some handkerchiefs. 

The best part about upcycling is that you are always giving a new use or value adding to an old item. It is essentially giving something old a new meaning! That’s exciting for sure.

Also, there is an indescribable feeling of reverence towards the workmanship of the tailor who helps one in making something broken, whole again. This time too, our local tailor stitched the doll dress with same patience, as he would do for any human garment. This time, Noor sat at his shop observing while he sewed Velcro patches onto her doll dress.

I have seen the LTWT dress go through these transformations, thereby extending the lifecycle of the clothing. I would like to think that we too were weaving a beautiful kahaani (story) with each upcycling idea with this dress. I have seen firsthand the joy that it brought to my daughter. I am documenting this so that when she grows up she can read this and relive the story and also in the hopes that it inspires readers to start and share their upcycling ideas and initiatives with their favorite LTWT clothes.

[believes that people around the world have an innate desire to dream, share and express. She is an earthy mama storyteller and lifestyle blogger at  Jugniology and a Birth Photographer & Filmmaker at Storiously. She is a prenatal and babywearing dance teacher at GroovaRoo with Jugni , it is her passion to spread the joyful energy of rhythm and movement to babies and their families in India.]

What does inclusion mean?

'It is the action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure.'

Now I wonder who decides what the group or structure is?

Who decides what can be in or out?

Who decides there is a border separating the in and out?

Who decides what is normal and what is not?

Who decides what is special and what is not?

Ideally, we are all made up of the same compostion of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. We are all equals in death no matter how old, preferred sexuality, how big or small, how rich or poor. The same thing happens to all of us, and it can happen when we least expect it. And then we will be wormfood. And that goes on to say something about our journeys.

We are all the same yet so unique. What makes us same is our start and end point and what makes us unique is the journey we take from start to end. We will all have different needs at different points in time and unique ways of being and meeting our needs. So then how can we define what’s special here and what isn’t. 

Today is Autism Awareness Day and I’m sure that you’re going to come across a lot of material about what is autism, how do you identity symptoms, how do you help, etc. And even if you don’t come across any of that, hopefully you should be curious enough to go find out for yourself. What I want to share with you today, is a question -

For someone who detested routines for years and years, I’m finally finding the value in routines. Except I like calling them rituals. Suddenly shifts the focus from monotony to something of value.

I find that rituals help in instilling a sense of discipline, they help in looking at the little details in life, they help mark progress and they help in centering. These for me have been the most valuable effects of creating rituals.

Though I work extensively with children and see great value in repetition (especially with preschoolers), I’ve always wondered how do you inculcate a sense of discipline in them that’s self led. And imagine if we could actually get them to develop habits like pursuing a hobby for the joy of it, engaging in physical activity every single day, meditating, etc, we could truly be contributing towards a better world. The more I think about this, I feel the only way to get them to do it, is by not telling them to do it but instead getting ourselves to form daily habits. Because then you’re allowing your experience to touch them in ways that could help shape their day to day practice. Because the way we do anything is the way we do everything.

Here are 5 rituals that I’ve started inculcating in my life -

1. Start my day with a 2 minute headstand - Inversions are a great way to get more oxygen and nutrients flowing to the brain. I love that I start my day by feeding my brains and finding my balance (literally!)
2. Warm water and lime - I have no memory of when this became a habit but it’s something I cannot do without anymore. A lot of people think this helps in weight loss. But I can tell you one thing for sure, it helps in hydrating your body after 7-9 hours of no water intake. Also, it forces you to sit down and do that one thing quietly.
3. BREAKFAST - This by far is the happiest meal of the day for me. It could be an egg or some fruits or an elaborate muesli bowl or even leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. But knowing that I’ve fed my body helps me function better. And days when I get to make that elaborate bowl loaded with fresh seasonal fruits - the only thing I feel is gratitude! Gratitude for the sheer joy of flavours and freshness and nature and food!
4. My water bottle - I haven’t purchased water in very very long and I cannot move without my steel bottle. It’s something that I feel absolutely incomplete without.
5. Flossing - As a child, I had insane number of cavities. As an adult, I still can’t do without chocolates after every meal and even in between. I picked up flossing somewhere in between being a child and an adult because I was petrified of dental treatments and it’s one of the best habits I might have developed for myself. I get a ‘good job’ from my dentist every single visit. And even for a 32 year old, that sort of appreciation feels awesome. It’s just like that star sticker for a 3 year old! The only hitch here is that dental floss is not sustainable. So if any of you know of floss that is eco friendly yet works like the good old waxed nylon floss, do let me know. Also, guilty, but have to admit, for the longest time I used to just flush floss after use in the toilet. 

I’m also wondering if I should make a list of things not to flush down the toilet since I’m pretty sure that we all have or still end up flushing down a lot of things that don’t actually belong there.

So here’s my list of 5 daily habits.

I find it interesting that sometimes we may not know why we do certain things or how are they helping us, except that they contribute to some sense of peace. And that part about humans fascinates me. The habits that make people who they are.  And I cannot wait to read about some of your daily habits!

Do share in comments what habits are you choosing to turn into daily rituals?

WAtaday to be alive?!

I mean that in a happppyyy sad way.

There’s just so much going on in the world and it’s hard to decide which battle to pick. Everyone’s picking battles and here I am, just chilling on my bum because that’s my way of battling. Yep! Chilling on my bum!

But I can afford to do that because my makers put a lot of thought behind me and they say I’m ever changing since I’m an upcycled doll!

I know! I know! It does look like they didn’t put any thought behind me because I don’t have any features or hair or you can’t even tell my gender.

But that’s exactly where they put so much thought behind me. They think it’s amazing to have a doll like me who doesn’t fit a certain idea of what one should look like. The children I go to are free to decide my gender, my face, my expression, my mood. These children are  pretty creative I’ve been told! I’m quite excited to meet them. I hear they are like adults but with better imagination, mind and heart. Is that true? Would you know?

I think what the children are going to love the most about me is how much I love to talk. Oh! And my bendy limbs. Yep! Told you! My makers did put a lot of thought behind me. They made my limbs all bendy because they know how much I love to dance after Gerald the giraffe told me, ‘We all can dance, when we find music that we love.’

By the way, have I told you about my clothes? They are all made from leftover fabrics and production scraps. Isn’t that amazing? That means I save these scraps from going to the landfills and I also help support a sweet old lady who uses her skillful hands to put me together.

This makes me realise WAtaday it is to say hello!

For those of you who didn’t meet me on Instagram Stories a couple of Sundays ago, my name is WA. the good people at Love the World Today have given me life using some of their yummy leftover fabrics and their brains! My name means ‘harmony’ in Japanese culture. Quite apt, ain’t it? I love whiling away time amidst nature, dancing and cake!! I’ll be popping by every now and then and giving you a taste of my life and my mnd! Follow #WAtaday and stay tuned!

And in case anyone of you wants to meet me, just drop a line on instagram message or write to hello@ltwt.in saying you’d like to purchase a WA doll :)

Love and WArmth!

Tadaa!