Weaving Wellness

Feeling good is the new looking good as designers imbue their collections with healing powers and medicinal properties

- Divya Bala

ANYONE WHO HAS FELT THEIR CONFIDENCE SOAR after walking effortlessly in a pair of stilettos or carrying off a fabulous new dress understands the power of fashion to improve one’s disposition. But what about well-being? Beyond eco and ethical fashion that protects the environment and empowers communities, there is a growing number of designers employing conscious practices that turn the ritual of daily dressing into a spiritual, and, in some cases, medicinal practice. Australian designer Kit Willow, known as much for her expert draping abilities and precision tailoring as for her airy, glamorous-nomad aesthetic, has long been an advocate for responsible fashion. For the last two years, Willow has been working in her home country with local Indian initiatives that put ethics at the forefront of their work. “We started working with The Colours of Nature, who use a 5,000-year-old authentic tradition of natural dyeing with Ayurvedic recipes made from plants and flowers that are healing and are almost extinct,” explains Willow about her brand KitX. “Some of the pieces in Collection No 10 use zari metal, a 500-year-old technique in which pure silver is wrapped around cotton and then handwoven. That silver works as an antiseptic.”