Mumbai, March 27, 2025 — At the intersection of fashion and sustainability, rkive city captivated audiences at Lakmé Fashion Week x FDCI 2025 with its groundbreaking showcase, “Reclaim The City.” As the winner of the R|Elan™ Circular Design Challenge (CDC) 2024, the brand presented a 36-look runway collection that redefined circular fashion through innovation, storytelling, and waste transformation.
Held at The Atelier, Jio World Convention Centre, the event was powered by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) through its next-gen sustainable fabric brand R|Elan™, in partnership with the United Nations in India. The presentation was not only a celebration of design but also a statement on reclaiming space, identity, and discarded materials within urban landscapes.
A New Vision for Circular Fashion
“Reclaim The City” was built entirely using salvaged textiles, reconstructed denim, repurposed leather, and discarded fabrics, turning them into expressive, high-fashion silhouettes. With creative use of block printing, patchwork, and waste management techniques, rkive city gave old garments — including flawed office shirts — a new life filled with bold patterns, textures, and eco-conscious dyeing methods.
The collection paid homage to the forgotten layers of city life, incorporating reconstructed sleeves resembling uniforms, and pockets inspired by market vendors’ jackets — grounding each design in cultural memory and everyday resilience.
A Platform Driving Sustainable Change
Mr. Hemant D. Sharma, President – Polyester, Reliance Industries Limited, emphasized the significance of the initiative:
“The R|Elan™ Circular Design Challenge reflects our commitment to sustainability and circularity. rkive city’s work is a remarkable example of how innovation and conscious creativity can turn waste into wearable art. We aim to scale such efforts to truly transform the fashion industry’s environmental impact.”
Launched in 2018, CDC has become India’s premier sustainable fashion platform, mentoring emerging designers and enabling scalable, circular innovations. With global expansion into the UK, EU, and Asia-Pacific in 2023, the initiative aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and supports India’s Mission LiFE for lifestyle-based environmental awareness.
A Movement, Not Just a Moment
The debut of rkive city’s collection at Lakmé Fashion Week x FDCI 2025 was a bold reminder that fashion can be both transformative and restorative. By reclaiming discarded materials and reimagining them as couture, the brand showcased the infinite possibilities of circular design — not just as a trend, but as the future of fashion.
Bhupendra Singh Chundawat is a seasoned technology journalist with over 22 years of experience in the media industry. He specializes in covering the global technology landscape, with a deep focus on manufacturing trends and the geopolitical impact on tech companies. Currently serving as the Editor at Udaipur Kiran, his insights are shaped by decades of hands-on reporting and editorial leadership in the fast-evolving world of technology.
