Chennai
Renge has taken the initiative to donate and raise funds for the spaying of 228 street dogs and aims to sterilise and improve the lives of 500 street dogs before the end of 2019. Uppal, who graduated from London College of Fashion before moving to Delhi, uses surplus fabrics to create the outfits.
How did you get into the fashion world?
My family has been into the garment manufacturing and textile business for over 40 years, and fashion is something I’ve loved and been particular about since tender age.
What is your label all about?
Renge means lotus flower in Japanese. A lotus flower is beautiful, yet it grows through muddy waters. This is the essence of every woman I’ve ever known. We’re strong, resilient and gorgeous and that is exactly what Renge stands for. I love bringing fabrics to life, and seeing women of all shapes and sizes wearing our designs and feeling confident of them. That was one of the reasons we started made to measure orders at the beginning of this year. Every single woman should be able to buy something she loves from Renge.
Tell us about your latest collection? What inspires it?
Our Winter 2019 collection is a small collection of party outfits. In this collection, we’ve used imported fabrics and focused heavily on velvets. I love working with velvets, as they’re timeless and classic fabrics that have a long lifespan if taken care of properly. We’ve kept the focus mainly on the fabric we’re using. We’ve done a mix of romantic, feminine silhouettes that are formal and can be worn to weddings, as well as sexy little numbers for a night out with your friends!
Using surplus fabrics, how did you conceptualise it?
Our Winter 2019 collection is not made from surplus fabrics. This is the only collection in the year where we tend to use imported fabrics. In all our other collections, conceptualisation starts with first looking at fabrics, textures and colours. We work backwards. Once we have a fabric palette in mind, we start our designing process. I’d say as a designer, I work best that way! To see, touch and feel a fabric and then envision it coming to life is the most exciting part of my job.
How sustainable do you think a high end labelcan be?
I can’t speak for other brands, but one of the first things a brand needs to think about is how much they’re manufacturing and what do you do with your surplus stock? One of the most shocking practices of high end brands is the burning of surplus garments. There are however brands that have come up in the past few years in India and internationally that focus heavily on sustainability and I really admire those brands!
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