She won a grant of $25000 in 2018 at the James McGuire Business Plan Competition by Laureate International Universities USA, to support Paiwand. The textile studio upcycles textile waste and turns it into high quality fabrics for apparel and home furnishing through handloom weaving, patchwork and embroidery.

The studio was founded with a grant from James McGuire Business Plan Competition (2018) for a project Ashita submitted during her post-graduation in Fashion Design at Pearl Academy, New Delhi. The submission was a textile woven with textile waste, and her proposal detailed setting up a studio where textile waste would be repurposed into artistic garments.

An ethos of upcycling and repurposing textile waste anchors Paiwand, founded by Delhi-based fashion designer Ashita Singhal in 2018. A finalist at the Circular Design Awards at this year’s FDCI x Lakmé Fashion Week, Singhal collaborates with design houses to sort and repurpose their textile waste, in a circular B2B (business to business) model—past collaborators include labels like Anomaly, Amrich, Lovebirds and more.

This week, as part of our Five Minutes with a Friend series where we interview textile makers, designers, enthusiast, historians and writers, we speak to Ashita Singhal of Paiwand Studio. "Paiwand Lagana” is a local common phrase used in India which means to patch or repair. It is inspired by the same ideology and is an ode to the bygone culture.

Homegrown footwear label Oceedee has unveiled a new capsule collection, upcycling its leather offcuts. Titled ‘Nakshi,’ the line of leather shoes is created in collaboration with the textile upcycling studio Paiwand. A statement from the brands highlights that they upcycled almost 80kg leather waste, using a proprietary Re-leather technique, into creating the design. ‘Nakshi’ draw from topography and artist Shalina Vichitra’s work “Where on Earth” inspires the patterns which also employ handwoven threads.

Fashion collaborations have taken a revolutionary turn, uniting creative forces to push boundaries, redefine norms, and spark sustainable change. While some bring forth innovative designs and embrace diversity, some bring a fresh take to conscious style, finding solutions to fashion’s overproduction and waste problem. One such collaboration is the latest footwear collection by Oceedee, a homegrown footwear brand and Paiwand, a recycling studio.

Indian shoe brand Oceedee has collaborated with upcycling textile studio ‘Paiwand’ for its Nakshi collection. The brand claims that the collection is made by up-cycling Oceedee’s leather offcuts using innovative techniques like re-leather to reduce and reuse wastage.

When we think of fashion, we think of catwalks, models, designer clothing, the latest styles and renowned fashion designers. But did you know that the same fashion industry that produces such glamour, also produces an enormous amount of environmental degradation? So much so, that it is the second most polluting industry in the whole world.

“In the last two years, we have collected over 2,000 kg of waste from fashion brands, design studios and hotels, and produced approximately 6,000 metres of fabric,” says Ashita Singhal, founder of Paiwand, a Noida based textile upcycling studio that she set up in 2018.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

The 2018 Global James McGuire Business Plan Competition Award has been bagged by Indian fashion design student Ashita Singhal. Her business concept, ‘Paiwand’, that aims for sustainable fashion waste management via upcycling textile waste from fashion designers and turning it into designer fabrics and clothing, paved her way to the victory.

An increasing number of Indian brands are using design as a tool to stop industrial waste, especially textile, from reaching landfills. Where fashion labels are breaking down discarded textiles to create new ones, and using cutting waste as ornamentation and for packaging, product designers are weaving plastic wrapers and turning rubber tyres into totes and tool kits. A mix of zero-waste practices and circular design approaches is leveraging the power of design in favour of the planet- and its people.

Eco India: How a Delhi-based design studio is breathing life back into the dying handloom sector At Paiwand Studio, customers are encouraged to return old products to close the loop on the circular economy model.

Ashita Singhal is proof that observation and creativity go hand in hand. While pursuing her post-graduation in fashion design from Pearl Academy, Delhi, the Noida resident observed firsthand the bulk of waste that was being generated in a single classroom of design students.