Salt of the soil

Mona

She calls herself a business mind, with a heart in the service of ‘green’. Meet Pooja Monga, who finds freedom in simplicity. Her designs are minimal, silhouettes non-restrictive; built by using sustainable practices. No wonder, within a year of stepping into the fashion scene, her capsule collection made it to prestigious Lakme Fashion Week, while winning at the ‘Fashion for Earth’ initiative. 

Less is more

An MBA, she had a fair stint of consumer market, having worked on sustainable lifestyle and product design. Knowing well that it’s the economics that makes the world go ground, she stepped into the fashion industry to offer a simpler, natural alternative to the crazy consumerism that mars the fashion craze today.

Prep up

A business mind, Pooja trained herself to get ready for the fashion industry. Starting with the basics, she learnt weaving at a Weaver Service Centre at Mumbai. Next was the art of dyeing from colourful Gujarat, followed by trading her business acumen with a designer for the art of garment-making.

Saltpetre born

Ready to roll — Saltpetre was born! Since Pooja’s parents call Chandigarh home, she’s connected to the city and her company is registered here. Saltpetre refers to ‘salt of the Earth’. “We were made to blend with the Earth, not to dominate it,” says Pooja. Right from the raw material to technique used to transportation and packaging, this brand goes all green, all ethical.   

Lakme call

Saltpetre won Circular Design Challenge at Lakme Fashion Week Summer/ Resort 2019. Pooja Monga was one of the eight winners selected out of the 900 entries. Her black and white capsule collection is inspired by Japan’s Zen monochrome paintings, “The design — all in white, black and grey - have been produced using scientifically validated sustainable processes.” 

Reuse & recycle 

Rather than the clothes ending at landfill, the company arranges pick up at the customer’s doorsteps to reuse, repurpose and recycle, in that order. “We facilitate loop-back of used Saltpetre clothes into the system through donation to Goonj.”

Backed by a team of artists, designers, storytellers, scientists, engineers and strategists from around the globe, with belief in same ideology, Pooja is a happy taking further steps in the shared pursuit of simplicity and sustainability. “We enjoy blurring the lines between art, science and commerce to create products that simplify lives,” she signs off.