Solutions-driven environmental not-for-profit Canopy, in partnership with Lakmé Fashion Week, will present an exclusive panel discussion called Next Gen Blueprint: Rethinking Materials in Fashion, on March 27, 2025. The panel will explore the crucial role that Indian fashion designers and brands have to play in advancing materials innovation and circular fashion across the sector and how these advances can both protect forests and future-proof fashion’s supply chains.

The panel, taking place at Lakmé Fashion Week in collaboration with FDCI, will be moderated by Namrata Zakaria, and features Canopy’s Executive Director Nicole Rycroft, iconic Indian fashion designer Amit Aggarwal, and sustainable fashion star Urvashi Kaur, as well as Sara Sozzani Maino, Creative Director at Fondazione Sozzani. These brands are at the forefront of driving innovation and sustainability in the fashion industry.

India is uniquely positioned to be an early global leader in the production and adoption of Next Gen Solutions — low-carbon alternatives to conventional forest-based paper, paper packaging, and textiles. Next Gen alternatives are sourced from materials that would otherwise be landfilled (discarded textiles) or burned (agricultural residues). With an estimated 500 million tonnes of agricultural residues, like wheat and rice straw, burned annually, India’s waste problem contributes to 3.5% of global warming and severe in-country air pollution.
 
The panel will outline how by transforming these residues into textiles and packaging, India can scale production of Next Gen materials by up to 10 million tonnes annually. Doing so would position India competitively as an early global leader in low-carbon, circular materials, helping India hit ambitious export targets whilst also reducing environmental harm and creating sustainable economic opportunities for both farming and urban communities.

Canopy x Lakmé Fashion Week 2025
Next Gen Blueprint: Rethinking Materials in Fashion