ACTIVISM AS A STYLE STATEMENT
Akash Arora (HT City)

Three women teamed up at the Lakme India Fashion Week to start a movement against shahtoosh shawls. Pop diva Usha Uthup, fashion designer Kiran Uttam Ghosh and compere Ojaswini Geetika Ganju are on a mission to save the Tibetan antelope Chiru which is an endangered species and is on the brink of extinction.

“It takes three to five Chirus to make one shahtoosh shawl,” says Ghosh. “And the innocent animal has to be slaughtered and skinned to get his second layer of hair out,” she adds.

“I am a big lover of animals, and I don’t think it’s fashionable to kill a living being to keep yourself warm,” says Uthup, who was draped in a cream tussar sari with ‘Say No To Shahtoosh’ slogans running across her border. Even Ganju and Ghosh were flaunting black and white dupattas with similar slogans.

“The reason we thought of organising a workshop during the LIFW is because not everyone who wears a shahtoosh shawl really know that several animals are being killed to make one shawl. We also wanted to tell people that there are other alternatives. For instance the hair of Mongolian goat can be used to weave these shawls. And this way one doesn’t have to kill any animal,” says Uthup.

According to Ganju, who is from Kashmir, the maximum number of killings of Chiru goes on in her own state. “I’m ashamed of the fact that people in my state are indulging in such brutal activity. If this thing goes on for a few more years, Chiru would be completely extinct and the only way we’ll remember the animal is on seeing these shawls,” says Ganju.

A shahtoosh shawl costs anything from Rs 25,000 onwards. Even though it has been declared illegal, rampant killing of the animal still continues.

Ghosh informs that once upon a time mink had caught the fancy of fashionistas in the West. “But people across the globe got together and swore not to wear mink coats or shawls. And their resolution has gone a long way in saving that endangered specie,” says Uttam who is sure that if people in India boycott shahtoosh shawl, it’ll prevent the perishing of a species from the face of the earth.