4 minutes of readingPuneFebruary 2, 2026 08:47 pm IST
In the darkest part of well-furnished homes, offices and hotels lies a growing mountain of interior textile waste. Tons of scraps, patches and other waste from fabrics used for furniture are an invisible and ignored threat on the path to sustainability. Unlike the landfills created by fast fashion, the textile waste inside is rarely talked about, although it is built to last, sometimes for up to a century.
An exhibition at the Raja Ravi Varma Gallery, from February 3 to 8, represents an artistic response to the problem. It is not known exactly how much waste the interior textile industry generates, but the home furnishings market in India was Rs 56,330 crore in 2024, according to market research company IMARC, and is estimated to reach Rs 1,03,880.10 crore in 2033.
The exhibition, Fabric of Our Lives, is by ReFAB Studio India, which designs personalized lifestyle products, and Creative Club, an art, ceramics and clay sculpture studio. ReFAB founder Rewati Prabhu, an architect and urban designer, says she was moved to act after many of her friends, who are interior designers, including one in London, called her to talk about fabric samples being sent by premium brands.
“My friend said she was throwing away these samples but they were too pretty and asked if she could do something with them. I went there and nothing prepared me for the scale and beauty of these fabrics going into the trash,” says Prabhu.
The main brands release three or four collections a year, each sample represents the work of art of textile designers who innovate with patterns, fabrics and colors to create pieces of impressive beauty. “However, when one collection ends, the focus is on trying to make the next one. There is no incentive to do anything with the remains of the previous collection,” says Prabhu.
ReFAB is an initiative of Kartik Memorial Foundation that is dedicated to uplifting the youth and underprivileged communities. ReFAB’s endeavor is to create lifestyle products from luxury fabrics destined for landfills.
For this project, ReFAB worked with Sujata Dharap of Creative Club. A dozen artists, including Dharap, worked with 300kg of unused interior textile material to create a mind-blowing array of artworks. “The artists were invited to choose their fabric. There was velvet, jute, handloom and sheers. There were thick fluffy materials, prints, checks, lines and bold colors. The fabric came in large bags, boxes and burlap bags filled with small, medium and slightly larger pieces. Some of the artists had never worked with textiles, but with two-dimensional acrylic. Suddenly, they started using this completely new material, so it was an exploration for them,” he says Dharap.
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The exhibition emphasizes quality and fine sensitivity. Most of the works are mixed media, using fabric with metal, wood, ceramics, thread and found objects. The intricate embroidery and embellishments have highlighted the character of the material.
“I think people should care because we need to review the way we consume anything. Artists’ works show the beauty that comes from waste. This is not just beauty in itself, but it is trying to take a stand and say, in the broadest sense, that we need to wake up a little,” says Rewati.
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