Page 185 - Vogue - India (January 2020)

India’s biggest fashion house is
also its most eco-conscious. Rujuta
Vaidya follows Anita Dongre into
her revolutionary headquarters,
where plastic is compostable and
small ideas drive big changes
Photographed by DOLLY DEVI
or a long time, the idea of sustainable fash-
ion, or pretty much anything that rallied to
preserve Mother Nature, was met with an
eye-roll—the environment wasn’t some-
thing that warranted much thought. After
all, in an age of excess, where everything
could be delivered to your doorstep, who
cared? Until a few years ago, when something snapped. Cli-
mate change was no longer a doomsday theory, but a real
progression towards the apocalypse. Children started skip-
ping school to remind adults of the damage. Investment man-
agement companies cared about supporting businesses with
environmental, social and corporate governance impacts.
Sunday brunches were replaced by beach clean-ups. People
gave up meat. Eco-anxiety became real.
I ask Anita Dongre, the force behind India’s largest fash-
ion house, a woman committed to building a sustainable
brand from day one, if she thinks we’ll emerge alive in ten
years’ time. Sitting in her hair and makeup chair, jet-
lagged, in a shirt dress she designed four years ago, she
sighs in the affirmative.
If we had to define the 2010s, we would call it the decade
of the good girl. Fashion cleaned up its act and, despite many
wrongs, the shift towards making the industry a greener one
became urgent. Though nearly every brand now adheres to
it, back when Dongre started her journey, the term ‘sustain-
able’ didn’t exist. However, a strong sense of conscientious-
ness always powered her actions: “I put my personal phi-
losophy into my work.”
But not everyone thought the same. “When I started out
as a designer working in export houses, nearly 30 years ago,
I hated the conditions of the factories I visited. I vowed that
when I had one of my own, it wouldn’t be anything like that.
Everyone does beautiful stores, but no one wants a beautiful
back-end. I did.” Neither sentimental, nor dramatising her
past, Dongre is the kind of businesswoman who sees what’s
ahead. Way ahead. Going from an export house designer to
starting her own label and becoming India’s largest success
story did not happen overnight.
HOME BASE
The headquarters of the House of Anita Dongre (HOAD) is
situated in Rabale, Navi Mumbai, and it stands apart from
the many grey buildings surrounding it. For starters, there
are window boxes involved. The workforce is divided into
four Game Of Thrones-themed houses that compete with
each other in various activities. There’s a book club, a run-
ning club, a cricket championship and a gola cart. A compost
pit fuels a biogas plant that is used to cook meals for 650
employees. Each floor of the headquarters has an outdoor
working area. “Nearly every new employee wants to work >
185