Designer Jasna Moidu’s clothing label, Tree, is an ode to sustainable practices

Designer Jasna Moidu’s clothing label, Tree, is an ode to sustainable practices

As a teen, Jasna Moidu would buy clothes that were a couple of sizes bigger. “Those always felt comfortable,” says Moidu, founder of Tree, a clothing label. Founded in 2016, the label which makes wearable designs, has, at its core, been working with handwoven cotton. In 2024, the 34-year-old founder-designer moved the label’s base to Bengaluru. The young label, however, did not start out with handloom textiles.

“It has been a learning curve,” says Jasna, who has always tweaked ready-to-wear clothes to make them ‘her own’. “Nearly all the women in my family have been fashion forward. We would always get our clothes stitched. Then, there would always be a yearly trip to Khadi Gram Udyog Bhavan,” says Jasna, who launched the brand in her hometown, Kozhikode. The brand was launched as a passion project. Over the years, the brand has delved more into using weaves and craft from different states for its collection. Their Kanmani collection comprising all black outfits, used jamdani fabric, while the Begumpura collection features Rabari hand-embroidery of Kutch, Gujarat.

This was not the case when the brand started out. After a lot of research, in 2019, the label started working with handlooms and crafts for a collection called HOPE. She used jamdani fabric for separates featuring prints on white. ‘There was never a night that could defeat sunrise of hope,’ was the emotion behind the collection,’ says Moidu. The young brand has dressed celebrities including actors Tillotama Shome, Kani Kusruti, Anna Ben, Rima Kallingal and Aparna Balamurali apart from director Anand Gandhi.

While promoting art and craft is at the heart of the label, it also wants to represent an inclusive society. “Style is personal and everything personal, tends to become political at some point,” Jasna says. The ‘Knots of Liberation,’ collection, for example, consists of unisex shirts featuring work and quotes by social critic, author and educator, Bell Hooks.

The collection was a collaboration with textile designer Anuradha Bhaumick. When the label was launched, they did not have standardised sizes — they aimed to be size inclusive or rather, did not want their customers to be defined by sizes. “For practical reasons, we worked on it. Most of our clothing falls in the anti-fit category, it aims for comfort,” Jasna says, adding that the label has strived to be responsible and inclusive.

“We have so many beautiful textiles and crafts and there are crafts that are dying— with so few families doing a certain craft— and there are brands like Eka and Injiri, that are doing such amazing work using the varied rich crafts. I was inspired,” she says. And while there have been opportunities, Moidu is not keen on showcasing on platforms such as Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) or India Couture Week (ICW), just yet. “That is definitely not the direction we are looking at. A store, however, is definitely in the cards.”

”The store will not feature just Tree. It will feature other brands that share the same ethos of sustainable fashion,” Jasna says. For Jasna, who did a one-year course in Fashion & Clothing Technology at NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology), Bengaluru in 2019, the label started as a passion project. “The time had come for me to learn the technical nuances of design,” she says. She credits her mother for the unusual, whimsical name, ‘Tree’. “My mother loves nature. Not in the a-few-plants-in-your-yard-way but really loves being one with it.”

Tree’s last collection was Madras, which drew inspiration from the Madras checks, kuppivalas (glass bangles) and pattu pavadais (silk skirt). The colours used in the collection are bright— blues, purples, pinks and greens, to reflect Chennai’s colourful culture. The checks reflected patterns on the colourful lungis worn by peasants. The collection uses the plaid pattern embellished with Kantha stitch.

Sitara, another collection, mostly features midnight blue and printed separates with blue roses on them. The collection speaks of the beauty of flowers that bloom under the night sky. The collection uses handwoven cotton with custom block prints. The thought behind the collection, as shared on Tree’s Instagram handle, is about going places; whether it is to meet someone or learn something!

“We at Tree hope to grow and evolve into a sustainable and responsible label; work more with clusters of weavers and craftsmen, tap into the varied and rich craftsmanship India offers in terms of textile and grow along with it.”

The label is available at a multi-brand store Malar, at Kormangala, Bengaluru.