Old gym towels, seaweed sequins, and spliced football jerseys at the Circular Design Challenge

What do discarded towels from fancy hotels and gyms, last-season football jerseys, and leather scraps from the automobile industry have in common? Not much, until you put them in the hands of a fashion designer. Last evening, on the eve of Lakmé Fashion Week, at the Embassy of France in New Delhi, these unlikely materials made their way onto the runway as seven finalists presented their collections at the eighth edition of the R|Elan Circular Design Challenge.

The annual competition, organised by Reliance Industries Limited’s R|Elan in partnership with the United Nations in India and Lakmé Fashion Week, focuses on finding creative solutions to fashion’s waste problem. And this year’s finalists—selected from a pool of over 220 applicants across 15 countries—had plenty of ideas.

Opening the show was EU finalist Yoshita 1967 by Anil Padia, fresh off winning the LVMH Savoir-Faire Prize just last month. His hand-crocheted dresses, headgear, bags, and stockings, made from biodegradable cotton thread and embellished with silver-plated ghungroos and recycled mirrors, were a meeting of craft traditions from three continents. Women artisans in Nairobi, Kenya, used traditional crochet techniques to knit, the embellishments came from Gujarat, while Padia infused French couture techniques he learned while at school at École de la Chambre Syndicale in the pieces. The label eventually took home the runner-up prize.

Next up was Duja by Ustat Kharbanda, which gave discarded sportswear a second life. Old football jerseys were cut up and reworked into sporty tops and skirts, while deflated basketballs and footballs were spliced and stitched into statement bags.

Meanwhile, UK finalist Rwrk Studio made a case for wearing towels beyond the bathroom or the beach. Founded in London in 2023 by Farouk Braimoh, the label began with creating one-off pieces using dustbags from luxury brands before refocusing its lens to another unlikely material: discarded towels from high-end hotels and gyms. On the runway, these were transformed into everything from hoodies and joggers to tote bags and dresses, creating an entire holiday wardrobe from what might have otherwise ended up in a landfill.

Ahmedabad-based clothes maker Saloni Jhaveri approached the problem from another angle: her collection of garments repurposed unused, defective or deadstock textiles as well as offcuts from the cutting-room floor. Using traditional kantha embroidery to add texture and detail, it showed even how the smallest scraps of fabric can be put to work.

The experiments weren’t just limited to clothing. Nitya Amarnath’s Botto Labs, which creates bio-based sequins from second-generation cellulose from textile or agriwaste and renewable sources such as seaweed, showed her Bequin embellishments in different colours, shapes, and sizes scattered across simple garments. APAC finalist Byo, an Indonesian experimental accessories label founded by industrial designer Tommy Tedji, is known for bags made with leather offcuts from car manufacturers and recycled plastics. But his presentation wasn’t just about arm candy. The label also showcased a series of colourful, textural garments, proving that its material has plenty of applications beyond the handbag.

The evening’s biggest moment belonged to Margn by Saurabh Maurya, the six-year-old Delhi-based menswear label known for its knitwear, who walked away with the top prize. His collection combined reclaimed materials with Himalayan craft practices. The designer accepted the award with tears in his eyes, his parents cheering and clapping in the audience, bringing an emotional close to an evening of inventive fashion.