Thaindian News

By Shilpa Raina
New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) Designers are doing their bit to save wild life and animals at the ongoing Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) by basing their collection on endangered tigers and encouraging people to say no to leather.

Designer duo Hemant-Nandita have joined hands with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India and come up with a collection that focuses on finding alternative ways to avoid using leather. They focus on faux digital animal prints that look chic and stylish as well.

“We have used a lot of graphic prints that look very much like animal skins - normally people buy leather to have a feel of the animal skin, so we have tried to give our clothes and bags the feel with faux designs,” Nandita told IANS.

“I personally don’t like the smell of leather and I wonder why people are mad about buying pure leather especially when it means killing animals that will go extinct in another few years. It’s time for us to stand up before we mess with the eco-system,” she added.

Hemant-Nandita’s collection has a lot of free flowing gowns, kaftans, shirts, dresses and stylish bags with faux snake prints.

Designer Neeta Bhargava has titled her collection - Call for the wild - and it focuses on the “Save the Tiger” project.

“As a designer, I feel it was my responsibility to do my bit. Hence I thought of coming out with a line that has tiger paintings on it to make people understand there is more to fashion. We should contribute in our own way to the projects you feel close to,” said designer Bhargava.

Bhargava’s line has kaftan’s draped dresses, tunics, and kurtis with hand-painted tiger images on it.