On April 1st-6th, Myntra had their second Fashion Upgrade that encouraged people to discard their old clothes that they haven’t worn in a year. The discarded clothes amounted to Myntra points that could then be redeemed on their app to buy new clothing. The more people donated, the more Myntra points they received. During the first edition of the donation call, Myntra-Jabong CEO said they expected 2 million articles of clothing from over 1 million people. So, where did all these clothes go?
The donated clothes were handed over to a Delhi-based NGO called GOONJ, which utilizes these clothes for rural village development initiatives. The NGO is one of the first organizations in India that encouraged individuals to give back through discarded fabrics and deals with 3,000 tonnes of material each year. The organization has over 2,500 initiatives across 22 states in India and includes everything from building railways, bridges and even making sanitary pads out of scrap clothing. GOONJ prides itself on using “trash, not cash” and the founder Anshu Gupta was the true visionary who started the organization back in 1998. The need for appropriate clothing was definitely highlighted by GOONJ’s efforts and their work is a great inspiration for us at Seams For Dreams.
The first collaboration between Goonj and Myntra happened in November of 2017 and this current donation call yielded a 40% increase from the first edition. It is truly inspiring to see big companies like Myntra do their part to use fashion to give back. Myntra, a company that is very much considered to be a fast fashion platform, is now taking corporate social responsibility as a serious part of their business practice. Last month, SFD Founder Evelyn Sharma spoke at the o2h Innovation Conference and during a panel discussion, mentioned that spotlighting the work of other non-profits is a great step in making sure more people are helped, which is very different from the way for-profit businesses are handled.
Seams For Dreams is proud to see the impact that corporate-social partnerships have and that companies like Myntra are now required by law to give back. It also goes to show that India now has a conscience and big fast fashion companies have to re-evaluate the way they do business and engage with their consumers. SFD Founder Evelyn Sharma also spoke about the need to look at new methods like upcycling, recycling, and reusing, as these hold the key to innovation for the future of fashion.
Seams For Dreams continues to move forward on their mission to clothe 100,000 people across India and hopes to highlight the work of more organizations like GOONJ, and partnerships with large conglomerates like Myntra, that are doing their great part in using pre-loved clothing to make a difference in the lives of those in need.
Keep Giving in Style!
Team SFD
