100% Organic, No Chemicals, Zero Waste: Dress up Your Baby in a Green & Happy Way!

With the birth of a new child, one concern that rises to the top of many parents’ lists is making sure their baby is eating organic food that’s safe and nutritious for them. Organic clothing, however, is just beginning to receive the same attention.

An accounts-major-turned-textile-designer, Shweta Dhariwal could feel this shift in the air. To make sustainably-produced, organic baby ware available to new Indian parents, she quit her job in the mainstream textile industry to launch Whitewater Kids in 2017.

She was joined by her sister, Ankita Dhariwal, a graphic designer, and a former colleague-turned-friend, Avani Desai, a visual merchandiser.

Turning entrepreneur was, for Shweta, a way to reduce the gap between her design and the product that finally made it to market. In this process, she says, design, fabric, and stitching were compromised.

Her venture also allowed her to put her training in natural dyes and organic fibres to create products that did right by human health and reduced the cost to the planet.

‘Whitewater’ – a composite of shwet, Sanskrit for ‘white’ or ‘pure’, and water – an essential element of the foundation of life – perfectly captures the brand’s ethos.

“We have ethical production, sustainability, and preservation of India’s textile and craft heritage at our core,” she says.

This dictates their choice of fabric and colours, as well as the processes of design and production. The Whitewater collection features three categories—wear, sleep and play—for infants. All products are in nature-inspired designs, in a range of colours from muted, earthy tones to vibrant and cheerful ones.

Each piece, made of 100 per cent GOTS-certified organic cotton and chemical-free herbal dyes is guaranteed safe for your baby and the environment.

From procuring just the right quantity of textile to meticulously planning the layout of a garment and designing it to be simple and making maximum use of fabric, the brand is committed to respecting organic cotton and cutting down on textile waste.

Shop the whole range of Whitewater Kids products on The Better India Shop here.

“New products—like the toys and teethers—were designed as a way of utilising the fabric scraps left over from our bedding and clothing line,” she says.

This zero-waste philosophy also finds a place in the packaging which is kept simple and functional, yet gift-worthy. From the cloth bags that use production waste from other brands to the tags that double as games, every item is free of plastic and designed with reusability in mind.

Whitewater has given Shweta a place where she can bring together all the traditional crafts she treasures. Her design process is a curious one, heavily influenced by Indian folklore and mythology.

Each collection starts as a poem that she adapts from a folk story and uses as inspiration to develop the brand’s signature designs.

Finally, the fabric becomes the canvas that brings the narrative to life in the form of hand embroidery, screen prints and block prints.

The brand works chiefly with women artisans—Lambadi women from Tamil Nadu, and applique and traditional Ajrakh artisans from Gujarat.

The garments are stitched in independent tailoring units, and the toys and swaddles are embroidered and stuffed by hand by women artisans in the respective states.

Small batch production allows us to partner with independent artisans and organisations that share our values, she says.

It also gives the brand greater control over the process—from crop to garment.

“We want to reach a stage where all our raw material can be traced to its source. For now, we know where each product is made and the different hands it passes through,” she says.

Today, Whitewater retails exclusively online and is finding favour with new parents wanting to make safer choices for their newborns.

Quitting their corporate jobs to start up in a niche segment was a daring choice, Shweta says, and, with the three co-founders dispersed across different parts of the globe, building and running a woman-owned business wasn’t easy.

“Being women entrepreneurs, however, has helped us gain a newfound appreciation of what it means to be empowered and the responsibility that comes with it,” she says.

She adds, “We make a conscious effort to support rural women artisans across the country—who often keep their skills alive against great social odds—and make it viable for them to continue their craft in settings which blend with their family lives and prevent economic migration.”

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Alongside efforts to promote responsibly made products that support local social enterprises and promote native arts, Whitewater is on a mission to explain why organic textile isn’t just a bunch of bosh. It’s something that more parents, and others, should educate themselves about.

Shop the whole range of Whitewater Kids products on The Better India Shop here.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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