T[h]inkering Thursday

The Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata, in collaboration with Thoughts and Bolts and cultural mediation and -management curator Laura Cardio, is pleased to announce a series of monthly sessions focusing on sustainable practices.

The virtual sessions, which are intended to serve as platforms for the exchange of thoughts and ideas as well as concrete actions on sustainability, will take place on the first Thursday of every month. Experts from South Asia and Germany will be invited to share their insights and expertise on sustainable lifestyles, with each session focusing on a specific aspect of the topic. Throughout the series of events, our host Gaurav Juyal will meet people who are committed to truly sustainable policies and activities. Together with them, he will facilitate discussions on the topic and find ideas and answers to existing practices. Gathering tips and tricks on how each and every one of us can make conscious choices in our daily lives that will not only have a positive impact on our society, but also on the future of our planet.

The second episode of T(h)inkering Thursday gives insights into zero-waste fashion.
Fashion fundamentally inspires innovation and change. However, progress towards zero-waste fashion and the development of more sustainable forms of production in the sector is still limited.

There is a clear need to move away from fast fashion and develop a more sustainable and positive fashion landscape. In practice, however, the path to sustainable fashion remains unclear and difficult to follow. We all know that the fashion industry generates large amounts of waste that have a negative impact on the environment. Being responsible for 10% of humanity's carbon dioxide emissions, the fashion industry is also the second largest consumer of water in the world. From textile waste to fabric scraps to excess yarn and paper waste, there is much that could be reduced, reused and recycled in the production of garments.

This is where zero-waste fashion comes in. Zero-waste fashion is a new way of thinking - a philosophy that forces designers to question existing techniques. Wasted fabric means wasted money and a wasted planet, and some smart designers are doing their best to not only reduce waste in their production cycle, but also recycle any scraps they may have.

In this episode of T)h)inkering Thursday, our  moderator Gaurav Juyal meets two such inspiring people from the fashion industry, Bhaavya Goenka from India and Thekla Wilkening from Germany.

Bhaavya Goeka is the founder of https://iroirozerowaste.com/. She works in the field of circular design and specialises in the reuse and upcycling of industrial textile waste through indigenous craft practices in India. She builds replicable systems that enable decentralised development while creating fun products through waste-free practices.  Bhaavya loves designing fashion and textiles that are environmentally, socially and culturally responsible while conveying unique stories that are important to me in an emotionally engaging aesthetic.

Thekla Wilkening is the co-founder of Kleiderei, Germany's first fashion rental model, an expert on the circular economy and author of the book "The Organic Pizza Dilemma". A book that shows that joie de vivre and sustainability can definitely be reconciled.

Together with these experts, Gaurav will explore different aspects of zero-waste fashion and ways in which we can integrate it into our everyday lives. He will also reflect on how we can rethink our own buying behaviour and what we need to consider when buying clothes in order to take care of the environment.

To find out more, tune in on Thursday, 5 May.
The programme will be streamed live on the Goethe-Institut Facebook page at 6 pm.