UNEP India and Masaba Gupta launch a clothing line to help phase out single-use plastic in the country

• UNEP India has launched a clothing line with designer Masaba Gupta that aims to reduce the use of plastic in our country.
• The collection and campaign is conceptualised by Ogilvy India and both went live on January 22.
• The House of Masaba and Ogilvy India are encouraging other designers to plagiarise their ideas and execute it themselves. To ease out this process, a few DIY videos will be launched, leveraging Masaba’s digital reach.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) India has launched a fashion line called ‘I will wear out plastic,’ which aims to phase out single use plastic in a unique way. The garments are designed by Masaba Gupta that come with built-in detachable bags.

Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, this creative collection aims to use fashion trends to reduce the use of plastic. The agency has been in partnership with UNEP for the past three years. They have worked together to develop a larger platform called #BeatPlasticPollution.

Under this initiative, each garment has as an exclusive accessory -- a detachable reusable bag, making a fashion statement. These bags are designed on clothes that can be worn for everyday use. It enables you ‘to wear out the problem,’ quite literally.

The collection will be available in The House of Masaba stores in eight metro cities and online.

To spread the word, The House of Masaba has launched a digital campaign asking a simple yet powerful question -- “Fashion brings change but can it save the world?” Masaba thinks it can.

“This range is high-fashion and you are making a fashion statement. You are wearing a piece that doesn’t look like a gimmick and actually serves a purpose, which is to try and eliminate single use plastic,” explains Gupta.

The House of Masaba and Ogilvy India are encouraging other designers to plagiarise their ideas and execute it themselves. To ease out this process, a few DIY videos will be launched, leveraging Masaba’s digital reach.

Roots of the idea

This idea of launching a fashion line appeared in one of Ogilvy’s brainstorming sessions. The team tried to identify the problem and concluded that people use plastic because they usually don’t carry a bag along to shopping marts. They later posed a question to themselves, 'what if we had a cloth bag with us everywhere we go.' They then found a dress, took its pocket, folded a bag and tugged it inside. After a few designing sessions with Gupta, ‘I will wear out plastic’ was born.

“When we presented our prototype and sketches, UNEP got really excited. They said it was simple and can be easily copied by others into a stylish garment,” shares Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy.

Expanding on what pushed them into their epiphany, Nayak adds, “When you want to bring about a behavioural change, you cannot do it in a boring way -- it has to be the most interesting. You really have to entice the person to change.”

Sharing what he liked about Ogilvy’s pitch, Atul Bagai - Country Head, UNEP India said, “Addressing environmental challenges such as plastic pollution call for behavioral changes in society and it can have a huge impact when an acclaimed fashion designer like Masaba Gupta makes an environment statement through an entire clothing line.”

After the agency conceptualised the idea, it went to Masaba Gupta — who is known for her bold and quirky designs — with a simple brief.

“The brief that Ogilvy came to me with was simple. They said UNEP aims to cut down plastic pollution and asked if can we create a range of clothes that can be turned into a bag,” recalls Gupta.

She says while the idea was exciting and she found herself tending towards it immediately, the execution and figuring out the technicalities was also a challenge. However, the bigger cause kept her going. It took nearly a year to conceptualise and bring the idea into life.

Sharing what convinced her to get on-board, Gupta said, “Pollution is one of the largest environmental threats faced globally and there’s an urgent requirement and responsibility to address it. The Fashion Industry is also known to produce the most global wastage. This time, we’re using fashion as a tool for empowerment and activism. We encourage people to understand our concept and try to recreate their own permutations and combinations to take this concept forward.”

Target Audience

Nayak says they wanted to create something that the audience would want to copy and the benchmark is so high that it would push them to act. The campaign plays on its aspirational factor and doesn’t have a voice over. It wants to walk the talk and let the audience follow.

However, the collection will be available in all The House of Masaba stores and will start from Rs 6000. This initiative is clearly targeting the metros, who can afford this price range. But both Gupta and Nayak are confident that with digital media, any idea can be copied and it won’t take much time to pick up into a trend.

Media Plan

While right now, a digital campaign has been released in the range of 15 seconders to 2:09 minutes ads, the plan is to keep launching Do it Yourself videos so that the idea is copied, multiplied and practised by different kinds of audience.

Sharing why Gupta was okay with the idea being copied, she said, “We as a brand have fought very hard for plagiarism. But I would really encourage people out there to incorporate this collection and do it their way. They can understand how we did it and make their own permutations and combinations with it. This isn’t about plagiarism but about giving back to our environment.”

As the word spreads, Nayak says the organisation also plans to use TV and Outdoor to keep the buzz going.