A discussion about eco-friendly fashion & what it takes to respect labourers and honour Earth
Cover Image — Diana Linda at her appartment in India
Diana Linda is an Italian expat residing in Mumbai, India for almost two decades. Humanitarian service guided her overseas, as a selfless and long term volunteer of international NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontiers). Today, she is fully devoted to a life of fashion activism, defending sustainability, LGBTQ justice and gender fluidity.
She was the writer, researcher and curator of a recent exhibition titled Transgender Voices at Sakshi Art Gallery in collaboration with photographer Domenico Pugliese and Consulate of Italy to Mumbai chaired by dynamic Consul General Stefania Costanza. It was a successful show rocking with experts, diplomats, media personnel, LGBTQ activists and a sharp crew of young adults. She can be found strolling around the city’s famous Chor Bazaar, Crawford market or marching across August Kranti Maidan during the iconic Mumbai Pride.
I visited her home, meticulously decorated with a Bohemian outlook. Her gypsy soul-infused apartment is defined with rugged floors, vintage lamps, offbeat art, and European style wooden furniture complemented by antique Indian motifs. The walls are spilt with bright shades of green and orange — a temptation for one’s latent creativity to manifest on its own, the true inherent magic.
Here is a glance into Diana Linda’s candid reflections about equality, sexuality, globality, sustainability, heterogeneity and other verities wandering human universe.
Diana Linda (1) — Diana & Me
Sustainable Fashion
Sustainability is not isolated. Sustainable fashion is a huge term and encompasses a broad volume of concepts like Upcycling, Reducing the Pre-Waste Before Conception, Secular Economy, Recyclability, Less Packaging and Zero Waste Pattern-making. Sustainability is also about involving the consumer in the process. I believe that a buyer is less a consumer and more like a wearer, user; a mindful being and not a complacent entity. I am basing my opinion on the philosophy of Existentialism — that an individual is a subject capable of conscious thought and not a numb object. Accordingly, this binary relation between the all-knowing designer and an uninformed consumer who is not bothered about expanding his awareness should end. I urge the fellow cohort of designers to go an extra mile to create a sustainable relationship with your consumer by raising awareness, putting forth slogans and even doing collaborative activities. Maybe you will not become the richest person, but if you want to save the planet from the existing unhealthy production and consumption practices in the fashion industry, you must not hesitate to be the changemaker that our society has grown to notice and appreciate. We can also try to use our residual cloth pieces from previous collections to match with the subsequent creations. When we speak about sustainability we need to understand that it is also attached to the behaviour of the purchaser. In the era of fast fashion where practically any item you want is cheap & less expensive, you can buy something for 100 rupees, unaware, that for selling at that price , somebody is being exploited. It is not written over the price tag. People basically have to buy less and produce less that is the only way to be sustainable. I keep my fashion venture sustainable by simply producing less. Currently, I am not a fan of collections, that you have to release two-three times a year. I feel the concept of ‘collection’ is not sustainable. In fact, the fashion industry as a collective should take a call as this kind of trend has to be revised and eventually revoked. Fashion shows create an extra ‘need’ into our system and lead to numerous people buying, selling and throwing clothes again and again. It is a vicious cycle.
Further on, I feel that sustainability is connected with gender and empowerment. I am doing an extensive research linking women empowerment and sustainability. Accordingly, as soon as the user is empowered, he or she will adopt sustainable behaviour. An empowered personality feels that one can take up action and decide what she or he does or doesn’t want to do with her or his clothes. The individual realises that one’s confidence or identity doesn’t revolve around the trends, or upon a glossy image spread over the magazine. An unrealistically beautiful, flashy and in fact, photoshopped picture leads to the spectator never being able to reach that beauty standard. Because it is ultimately a photoshopped image, it is not even a real creature. Even if it is a real body, this ‘trying to reach that image’ requires clothes, accessories, makeup and that is ultimately pushing the person to consume. But when the person starts to understand this carefully maneuvred mechanism, she feels empowered and realises that she can style, transform and customise her clothing. She can take care of her clothes. The sunny side is that in this day and age you are not a victim of one uniform trend. It is no longer like the 60s. You don’t have to wear a mini skirt because everybody else wears a miniskirt. You have the freedom to style yourself with creativity; you don’t need to follow one trend. Because so many trends are co-existing at once! This phenomenal realisation can steadily stimulate a sustainable lifestyle. Ultimately, sustainability values are about respecting and empathising with the people you work with and their indispensable investment into the product right from the start until the end.
Diana Linda (2) — Diana’s designer jacket signed with I Kiss A Man, I Kiss A Woman
Kitsch
I use leftover cloths from my previous products and this unique assimilation of varied fabrics results into a Kitsch Effect. What I like about kitsch is that it exhibits a kind of quirky humour. It teaches you to not take your clothes too seriously. Your clothes are not the ultimate issue in a world that has much more serious things going on. Extravagant labels like Moschino play with this material. Kitch, however, does not represent luxury given that it is lighter. Kitsch doesn’t call on you to put it on a pedestal and praise it. It teaches you to develop a personal relationship with your clothes and treat them with love and joy. Kitsch line of clothing realises that our dresses are not a showpiece. Our clothes are just a normal part of life or simply a way to express yourself. Like some people like to write and express with words.
Gender Fluidity
I believe gender-fluid clothes are a medium to de-stereotype all sexualities and promote a broader sense that particular clothes need not be applied to a particular gender. Fluid fashion decreases the stereotyping, especially towards the people who are non-binaries. Everybody should just be free to wear what they want and not be judged for it. For me, it is of utmost importance that all human beings are included in society and nobody is discriminated because of gender or sexuality (which are two separate concepts). To fluidify clothing is one of the small things that will push the larger society in the direction of change.
Diana Linda (3) — Embrace Experience Before It Becomes Familiar To You
SPRECO
My fling with fashion world began with Spreco — my debut collection made of purely upcycled creations. It launched me not only as a creative designer but also an environmentalist. The idea was to display useful and trendy accessories made solely from waste material. I focussed on a set of home decor items, boxes, bottles, jewellery and bags. I collaborated with the handicraft shop from Versova called Tribal Route. Spreco was a turning point in my life because, after the success of this collection, I decided to stay back and live in India.
Designing Process
My designing process isn’t linear or straightforward. I don’t adhere to a formalised system taught in fashion schools. I don’t keep drawing sketches all the time. I prefer to be flexible in my creative approach and tend to draw inspiration from something that attracts me, catches my eye. Accordingly, my aesthetic expressions are a natural result of my experiences in Mumbai and the pictures I click over the colourful by-lanes of India. I have a huge collection of street photographs. I start by using raw photos but the resulting image is completely different from the original. For example, I took a picture of the Seagulls over the ferry ride at the Gateway of India. I felt spontaneously inspired and printed it on a hippy style T-Shirt. On another instance, I saw the Bollywood posters stuck on a wall. From that, I created a digital collage graphic over photoshop. I basically, love to play with images.
Diana Linda (4)
Fabric Sourcing
My last collection featured upcycled men’s suits. For that, I asked people over WhatsApp groups if they wanted to donate their old suits which were not in use anymore. Many contributors were friends or friends of friends. And just like that through WhatsApp Groups, I formed my collection. Then there are times when I travel, and I spontaneously find a fabric that I like and source that. When I go to Rajasthan, Benares, Delhi, I will source Khadi material from there. But I don’t necessarily source from one particular place. All depends on what I want to do and what is my focus at that point.
Bohemian Influence
I have an affinity to a bohemian lifestyle because personally, I don’t associate my identity to a specific place. My citizenship is Italian. My parents are Italian but I grew up in Belgium. In Brussel, I had friends of all nationalities. My identity is not with a country or with a place. I think I am a citizen of the world. I feel a strong sense of belonging to the world and my being is not limited to a small place. I feel good here, in India, like I feel good in Italy or France.
Diana Linda (5)
Being Fashionable
This word ‘fashionable,’ I am not sure if I like so much because it is totally frivolous. Trying to be fashionable achieves no significant consequence. Your principal focus should be to express yourself authentically in the way you want and not to copy other people.
India & Mumbai
I love the vibrant culture of Mumbai city. I am just out there attending film festivals, plays, speeches, conferences, museums, exhibitions, concerts and clubs. I love the MAMI festival. If I need to source for my designs, I go to Dharavi or Nagpada or Crawford Market or to Chor Bazaar. In fact, I go to Chor Bazaar just for the pleasure of going Chor Bazaar, a lot of nice objects to see there. I don’t out every day but I make sure that I go a little bit everywhere. In or out, no single day in Mumbai feels boring to me.
Living in India influenced me a lot. In fact, I was not into fashion before. I was into Communication, Media & Philosophy. I started designing only in India. India is culturally a very rich country. Even after nearly 20 years, everything inspires me. I meet somebody, and we instantly connect because there is immense heterogeneity in the culture, unlike the US, which is relatively more homogenous. Here you have a lot of diversity, a wide range of cultures that compose a spectacular population. You have various communities within the metropolitan cities like Mumbai — Sindhi, Marwari, Marathi, Gujarati & East Indian. There are numerous opinions and stories stemming from a multitude of castes and economic classes. In India, the streets are inspiring you. You casually turn your eyes around and in an instance, catch something interesting. As you walk by, you realise that Indian people are super artistic. I admire that people have intricately decorated their rickshaw, truck, and even the open street walls. Moreover the temples and colourful clothes are also fascinating. Here art is not restricted to the museums or galleries. People from all classes are artists in some way. I see no distinction between the common people and artists here. For anyone, that can be mindblowing.
Diana Linda (6)
Italy
Italy is beautiful and aesthetically rich. Italian fashion is deemed to be the finest in the world after the French fashion. Italian craftsmanship and quality of products are exceptional. We have set an excellent example with an attractive variety of high-end apparels, exquisite leather bags and branded shoes, that is continuously on display. As an Italian citizen, I feel that Italy is remarkably elegant and a wonderful place on earth. The North as well as the South is replete with early history traced back to 3000 years. Italian landscapes are seasoned with ancient monuments and world-renowned art. Italy is the birthplace to exceedingly talented artists and a host to to an incredibly vibrant culture of people. It’s the same thing we can find in India, as the culture here is vast too. Italian food is obviously a global luxury. You can find Pizza on every alley and table.
Books, Bollywood, Music & Indian Food
Bollywood movies — More than mainstream Bollywood movies I am inclined to the parallel cinema and Bengali films. My favourites are ‘Masaan’ and ‘Choka Baali’ by Rituparna Ghosh. I also like Anurag Kashyap’s ‘DevD’, ‘Girl With Yellow Boots’ starring Kalki Koechlin, Deepa Mehta’s ‘Fire’, ‘Water’. ‘Queen’ is a quintessential movie, especially because of Kangana Ranaut’s participation. I also like ‘Parama’ by Aparna Sen, ‘Dhobi Ghaat’ & ‘Mr and Mrs Iyer’.
Indian Food — Dosa, Kebabs & Tandoor
Indian Songs — Hindustani Indian Classical melodies are a delight. I am not that much into Bollywood songs but ‘Sheila Ki Jawaani’ is a great music number.
Indian Writers — I love ‘God Of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy and ‘Sacred Games’ by Vikram Chandra. Others are Fine Balance & Maximum City. Arundhati Roy’s narrative resonated with my inner being and ambitions as a woman. She has powerful ideas and belongs to the future.
To check out Diana Linda’s handmade designs visit https://www.dianalinda.com/
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