The detrimental impact of fast fashion is not a new topic of discussion. With about 100 billion garments produced every year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills worldwide. To put this statistic into perspective, this is equivalent to a garbage truck filled with clothes ending up in landfills every second. Moreover, the fast-fashion apparel industry further perpetuates the unending global warming concern; with its global emissions set to double by 2030. To move away from these unsustainable practices, fast-fashion brand Virgio announced that it has pivoted to “sustainable clothing”.
On October 7th, Virgio’s founder and former Myntra CEO, Amar Nagaram, shared on LinkedIn that the brand has come to a ‘crossroads’; and the fast-fashion brand is ‘no longer available’. This led many to believe that the Virgio was closing just a year after its launch. Though the founder later clarified that the brand was not shutting down but instead moving towards sustainable production.
“While fast fashion is agile, trendy, caters to the growing needs of the young in India, it also promotes overproduction and overconsumption—the need to fuel the market with what will be sent to landfills. It’s a global crisis, and we are all witnessing it. That’s why we’ve made a conscious choice to move our entire efforts to build a circular fashion brand,” the founder shared on LinkedIn.
The company, supported by the $37 million it raised from investors like Prosus Ventures, Alpha Wave, and Accel last year, does not need new capital for the shift
“We’re proud to be surrounded by visionaries at Prosus, Accel, Alphawave, and all our angel investors who believe in the change we want to bring to the fashion industry and have always been our pillars of support,” shared Nagaram.
About Virgio and the necessary pivot
Founded in 2022 by former Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram, Virgio used tech to design, manufacture, and automate the purchasing process. It used its innovation to streamline the fashion industry; and bridge the gap between designers and consumers through mass-creating fashion items. Though now at its turning point, the brand strives to move away from unsustainable fabrics like polyester and rayon and towards recyclable materials like cotton.
While initially modelled after now-banned app like Shein, the brand aims to surpass even the capabilities of these fast-fashion giants. The founder revealed in an interview that Virgio will become what brands like Shein would’ve been if they were sustainable.
This aim is sure to come to fruition with enough support. Along with the list of institutional investors, Virgio is also backed by angel investors, including Cult.fit co-founder Mukesh Bansal; Cred founder Kunal Shah; Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal; Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal; Meesho co-founder Vidit Aatrey; angel investor Saif Ali Khan; and Swiggy co-founder Sriharsha Majety, among others.
Along with embracing all-natural and recyclable fabrics, the brand will also focus on circularity and innovation. In this regard, Virgio will contribute to the circular economy of fashion, where the clothes are build to last longer so one can fully utilise their value. This decision opposes the throwaway culture in fashion, where people toss away many items after wearing them only seven to ten times. That’s a decline of more than 35% in just 15 years.
“Fast fashion companies use harmful fabrics and exploit labour to cut corners on pricing and quality, resulting in throwaway culture. We at Virgio want to change that by being a more sustainable company,” Nagaram added.