In a major win for Indian luxury fashion, popular resort wear and swimwear brand Verandah has joined the ranks of luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Tom Ford Beauty to bag the Butterfly Mark certification for ‘contributing to the future of the planet’. An initiative by UK-based Positive Luxury, sustainability experts for the global luxury industry, the certification is awarded to brands ‘meeting higher and higher standards for people and Nature’.
Anjali Patel Mehra, founder of Verandah — known for its hand illustrated prints, fine embroideries and sustainable fabrics — says it was in 2017 that Positive Luxury approached her to consider undergoing the assessment to be considered for the certification. “I didn’t even have a website then, but I wanted to know what it was all about and where the brand stood in terms of global standards of sustainability.”
After paying a nominal fee and signing up for the assessment, Anjali explains how the assessment broadly covers the categories of environmental, social, governance, and innovation and “is an extensive data backed assessment of what each brand does across all these categories”. “This includes labour policies, fair trade, what we are doing to align with the UNSGDs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) we commit to, sustainable sourcing, waste management, energy usage, CSR with our Baagh Pari project (an initiative to encourage the education of Moghiya tribal girls in Ranthambore) with NGO TigerWatch in Ranthambhore in addition to our partnership with Sankalptaru.”
Anjali, who started work on getting their scores up two years ago, explains, “The data backing is real, and monthly, and down to our fabric testing certificates for biodegradability and proof of sustainable yarn usage, supplier, and vendor sustainability claims and their last mile reporting, carbon-neutral shipping offsets, monthly water, energy, and municipal garbage collection bills. Not to mention photographic evidence and physical certifications for any claims made by us for what we do and don’t do yet,” says the designer, whose apparel stocks at the likes of premium retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, and Intermix.
On receiving the certification, this assessment is done every two years. “Our next focus is to improve our scores across all the categories and aim to be better each year, learning best practices along the way,” says Anjali, who is launching her Spring-Summer collections this month, Anjuna and Parra. “The lines are named after two villages in Goa where I spent part of the lockdown. Goa, known commercially for its beaches and the music trail, has a tropical and architectural beauty that I wanted to share through these collections,” she concludes.
