You can now shop items from Bhumi Pednekar’s wardrobe. And no, this is not clickbait. Pre-loved platform Saritoria has teamed up with the climate warrior as she’s a passionate advocate for protecting the planet. The trailblazer has opened up her closet for like-minded individuals to encourage re-wearing and champion the co-existence of luxury and sustainability.
Created by Shelina Soomro, the platform sells pre-owned couture and much more, to lend the clothes a longer lifespan. We had a chance to catch up with our ELLE Sustainability Champion of the Year 2023 Bhumi Pednekar as well as the founder to discuss their collaboration and mutual love for eco-consciousness.
ELLE: How did your journey towards sustainability in fashion begin, and what inspired your advocacy for environmentally conscious choices?
Bhumi Pednekar: My journey towards sustainability in fashion only happened recently. Through the years that I worked in the space of sustainability I realised that fashion plays a very, very big factor in global pollution, and I thought to myself – how can I change my personal consumption habits? So that’s where I adopted sustainable practices in my everyday life. It honestly just came from the fact that every garment takes many, many resources to be made, literally at times hundreds of thousands of litres of water per garment. The carbon footprint of the garment industry is extremely high and whatever we can do in our way to be a part of the solution must be done.
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ELLE: What motivated you to collaborate with Saritoria to promote pre-loved items?
Bhumi Pednekar: I feel in the West there are many platforms that give you the opportunity to buy vintage, thrifted pieces, in India we don’t have many. Saritoria is one of the first and I really like their aesthetic and what they were trying to do. Saritoria was born from a need for sustainable fashion. I really am a big advocate for pre-loved fashion. I, myself, have shopped from many websites like Saritoria in the past.
Thus when this opportunity came I jumped to it and realised that there’s so much within my wardrobe that I don’t wear right now for various reasons but there might be somebody else out there who might love this piece or who might love wearing it and it might bring more joy in their life, so we did this collaboration, of which all proceeds go to charity and I really hope we can do many more of these.
ELLE: Can you share any personal anecdotes or challenges you’ve faced in adopting a sustainable lifestyle, particularly in the context of your wardrobe choices?
Bhumi Pednekar: You know once you get on to this sustainable life, before you adopt one you feel like oh it’s going to be very difficult but honestly, it’s not it. It actually has helped me save a lot of money and I truly live a guilt free life. I truly wish there were more platforms from which you could buy pre-loved items, I think we still lack a lot of that in India.
I feel like a mindset shift is also required, like there would be so many times stylists that I’ve worked with would be like – you’ve already worn this, and I would be like that’s okay, it doesn’t matter. In fact, there are pieces in my wardrobe – a couture piece in my wardrobe that I have worn four times and I’ve styled it in different ways and that’s the fun of enjoying fashion. Fashion is about putting your true personality out there and a big part of my personality is being sustainable.
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ELLE: Can you share a bit about the sentimental value of a piece you’re giving to Saritoria and why this collaboration felt like the right choice?
Bhumi Pednekar: So in this collaboration there are items that I have hand-picked so you can see and these are beautiful outfits, in fact one dress that I completely love is a Jacquemus nude dress, it’s actually very new I think it’s from the previous collection but it doesn’t fit me anymore, I had picked it up from a beach holiday but I never got a chance to wear it. There are some beautiful House of CB dresses as well, the corseted kind. I feel like the silhouettes are so feminine and the colours are so pretty, those are the pieces that I have worn.
There are some bags as well. There’s also another piece that I really love. The David Koma piece that I’ve had for over three years now, but I’ve never had the chance to wear it, again it is something that doesn’t fit me anymore, it’s so beautiful, its sheer, its corseted, it’s a classic black dress and it’s actually one of those pieces that I was like should I part ways with it? But I was like it is time that somebody else deserves to enjoy this.
ELLE: How do you navigate re-wearing clothes as an influential figure in the limelight?
Bhumi Pednekar: When it comes to re-wearing clothes in public – I love vintage shopping – I have an entire collection of Vintage Mugler, Thierry Mugler was a genius. Something that I love doing is collecting pieces from what he created back in the day. I wear these very often on the red carpet or for events. I feel like just restyling a particular piece can really come in handy. I love wearing my mum’s sarees.
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ELLE: In comparison to its western counterpart, do you believe that the South Asian market has a greater bias towards owning pre-owned clothing?
Bhumi Pednekar: I absolutely feel that in the South Asian market – there’s a little stigma around wearing pre-owned fashion and the funny thing is that our culture is all about handing down our personal items to the next generation, that’s the beauty of India. So, we’ve always been very sustainable. It is just the western way of thinking that this generation of people feel is the modern way of thinking, so I feel like there has to be a shift in the narrative and with people in place of influence.
If all of us kind of get together and speak strongly about it and become examples I feel like that change would come and if we have more platforms like Saritoria and more collaborations like Saritoria and I have done I feel like people would be excited. Also, a lot of pre-loved fashion comes at a great discount, the prices are great so you can actually own a luxury piece at a marginal price. If it was me, I would definitely do it in fact I actually do it even now and I really hope that a lot of people make this switch.
Shehline Soomro also spoke to ELLE about the collaboration, bringing in the business perspective.
ELLE: Take us through Saritoria’s collaborative cleanse with Bhumi Pednekar and how she, as an influential figure in the eco-conscious realm compliments the core of your offering.
Shehlina Soomro: As a business whose essence is sustainability, it’s essential for us to partner with likeminded individuals. Bhumi Pednekar has been an amazing advocate for protecting our planet and we love her passion for the cause. She has been brilliant to work with throughout and gives 200% to support Saritoria’s mission to make preloved everybody’s first choice.
Her wardrobe listed on Saritoria is perfect for the modern millennial or Gen Z with a range of brands from ultra high end Jacquemus to more accessible House of CB. We feel that Bhumi Pednekar is someone that our community can easily associate with given she is a true representation of the modern working woman.
ELLE: In what ways can the common man incorporate sustainable practices when it comes to their wardrobes?
Shehlina Soomro: The most sustainable piece of clothing is the one already in your wardrobe. Rewearing what you already have and restyling pieces for different occasions is the best option. After that, should you really need to add to your wardrobe, then buying secondhand is the way forward. Even when buying secondhand, it’s important to be mindful about the usability of the piece.
Think about how many times this piece can be reworn. If the piece is really not going to be repeated that often then make sure it’s kept in a condition to be easily resold. We’ve enabled the resale feature on our platform precisely to enable our community to keep circulating pieces within our ecosystem.
ELLE: What are your scaling plans for Saritoria in the upcoming 5 years?
Shehlina Soomro: I’m excited about our future at Saritoria. We already surpassed 10,000 users this year. Ultimately in the next 5 years we would like to have hubs across India and continue to grow our beautiful community of buyers and sellers, all while continuing our collaborations with the first hand fashion industry such as our recent work with Anju Modi. We truly believe that the whole industry needs to work together to create meaningful impact.
Also Read: Sustainable Saritoria: Shehlina Soomro Takes Us On A Journey Of Pre-Loving Fashion
