Jhilam Dutta
Piyali Mukherjee
Goa Institute of Management
Divya Singhal
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According to Sujata, "Twirl encourages everyone to bring out the unwanted clothes from their wardrobes and send them to Twirl. In fact, Twirl.store even provides a free home-pickup from your home or office. Twirl rewards them with points which they can redeem to buy new products. And with all the old clothing that Twirl receives, Twirl either donates it to the needy or upcycles it as a fabric to make new wonders. This process of upcycling which is basically reusing a good part of an unwanted product, is done by women- predominantly rural women- thus giving them a source of livelihood.
"Upcycled products are by their very nature, more environment-friendly too as natural resources like water are significantly conserved. These upcycled products are in the range of bags, home decor, clothing, office essentials and travel accessories. All these products get sold on e-commerce site www.twirl.store and through other retail modes.
"Twirl.store also works in collaboration with organisations/institutions for their bulk requirements, thereby ensuring more demand for upcycled products and more work for women manufacturers.
"The Twirl initiative benefits both society and environment and can change the way India looks at retail."
Twirl has provided an innovative solution to a very big socio-environmental issue and is the first of its kind platform that is acting as a bridge between the two ends of the societal pyramid and trying to meet the aspirations on both sides. By converting “waste into wealth”, it tries to support the UN goals for society/environment and will continue to do so through various projects.
In the words of Sujata, "We are living in an age of a retail boom and constant purchase through online-offline sources throughout the year kept filling my wardrobe to the brim. Looking around me, I knew that my family and friends all had a similar problem – full wardrobes, wanted to shop more but not sure what to do with existing unwanted clothes lying there. At the same time in India, there are so many people in need of basic clothing and so many women who need a source of livelihood.
"To solve the problems on both sides of the societal pyramid, the idea of Twirl.store was born. To minimise clothing wastage, ensure women empowerment, conserve natural resources like water and meet the clothing needs of the poor - the www.twirl.store was set up.
"Customers are incentivised for sending their old clothes to us so that they may continue shopping new products while Twirl either donates the old clothes (through monthly donation drives) or upcycles the fabrics thereby benefiting both society and environment."
According to Sujata, "Through Twirl.store donation drives, we have reached out with clothing to over 2000 needy people, especially elderly and children. We also constantly strive to empower women. Twirl is an all-girls team of motivated ladies who want to break stereotypes. The entire team is formed of women from various backgrounds who are determined to earn a livelihood for themselves and make a change in society. To understand the journey or reach of Twirl.store – you must look at the impact that is already created."
In less than 2 years, Twirl.store has conducted numerous donation drives across urban slums, villages & shelters of West Bengal and basic clothing has been provided to nearly 2000 needy people including the differently-abled, the elderly, children and many more. At the same time, conserving resources like water through each product, thousands of fabrics have been upcycled to date. Twirl has worked with at least 6 self-help groups/NGOs for extensive skill development and has ensured sustenance for women from lower economic strata by selling over 10,000 upcycled products handcrafted by them.
Overflowing wardrobes is a very common issue among modern consumers, specially Gen Y and Gen Z. Modern, urban consumers are looking at convenient, easy ways to solve their wardrobe worries and be “socially responsible”. At the same time there is increasing demand for unique, handcrafted eco-friendly products that help individuals stand out in the crowd. Organisations are also now developing environment-friendly policies and want to be associated with women empowerment initiatives. Also, Twirl upcycled fabric products are the cost-effective alternative to many plastic products like shopping bags etc. Both these B2C and B2B customers are interested in Twirl.store products.
One of main objectives of Twirl.store is to empower local women especially talented ladies who desperately need a decent source of livelihood. Hence, Twirl is an all-girls team headed by Sujata Chatterjee. The Twirl team is a symbol of women empowerment, with ladies from various backgrounds handling every role from operations to sales to manufacturing. The core team is all local motivated ladies, from various backgrounds, who want to break stereotypes and have a passion to make a change in society. Twirl also works with only women manufacturers, located in villages and slums around Kolkata, and engages with them directly or through Self-Help groups and NGOs.
Twirl plans is to serve more customers across the country. Its operations enables customers across India to conveniently send their unwanted clothes and receive delivery of upcycled products. In the next few years, Twirl aims to get many lakhs of people to join in the Twirl circle of upcycling. Also Twirl products will be made available at retail outlets across the country as well as being sold at www.twirl.store, Better India etc. Twirl aims to collaborate with many more organisations across the country to help them reduce their fabric wastage as well as offer upcycled products for their regular use or gifting needs. Twirl believes along the with consumer retail, corporate gifting of upcycled products will grow as a market.
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Sujata Chatterjee, Fashion Innovator
