Festive Fashion in the Green Era: How to Buy Festival Wear for Ladies with a Conscience

It is 2026, and more shoppers are aware of fashion brands engaging in ‘greenwashing’ – than ever before. They know that attaching a recyclable hang-tag to a piece of clothing doesn’t automatically make it ‘sustainable.’ They know that major brands like H&M and Zara aren’t doing much to transform their high carbon footprint fast fashion business models.

That’s why, they’re switching to brands that engage in radical ethics. They want to buy festival wear for ladies from brands that actually do what the industry giants claim to do. 

What is Radical Ethics in Fashion?

‘Sustainability’ is a nothing-burger of a word in fashion today. It is used by fashion brands who promise to do ‘less harm’ to the environment every year. 

Pollution caused by this industry is set to increase by 50% by 2030. So, it’s fair to say that most fashion brands are actually doing the opposite of ‘less harm.’

Radical ethics is is not about doing ‘less harm’- it is about doing more good.

Brands that engage in radical ethics offer total transparency. They treat garment workers as partners, not costs. They design clothes for the soil, not just the shelf.

Consumers that engage in radical ethics are also quite different from their fast fashion-loving peers. They ask hard questions before they buy anything:

• Where did this cotton grow?
• Was the weaver paid a living wage?
• Will this dress exist in 50 years?
• How soon will it be in a landfill?

This radically ethical approach is especially important when shoppers want to buy festival wear for ladies.

Radical Ethics vs Greenwashing for Festive Shopping  

Festive shopping for ladies is often the worst offender when it comes to fashion wear damaging the environment. When shoppers buy festival wear for ladies they’re often subconsciously trained to buy ‘heavy’ outfits with sequins, glitter, and polyester blends.

They wear them once for Diwali or a wedding and then, they sit in the back of the closet. 

Greenwashing brands exploit this consumer behaviour. They launch faux ‘conscious collections’ made of ‘recycled polyester.’ But recycled plastic is still plastic. It still sheds microfibers into our water systems, it still traps heat against your skin. 

Radically ethical fashion bands outright reject the idea of ‘disposable,’ ‘one-time-wear’ festive outfits. How can you spot a brand that’s engaged in greenwashing vs radical ethics? 

Just assess their ads.  A green-washer will say something like ‘these kurtis are made with 20% organic cotton’ in their ad – without mentioning that the rest of the garment is synthetic, non-biodegradable, and destined for the landfill. 

A genuinely ethical brand’s ad will say something like – ‘kurtis made from 100% upcycled surplus fabric - no new resources were extracted to make it.’ That’s what we do at Chetna Bagga - we are extremely serious about authentically supporting conscious shoppers. 

Most brands create a dress starting with a sketch. Then they order thousands of meters of new fabric to match that sketch. We work backward. We start with what already exists. 

We hunt for surplus fabrics. These are high-quality, artisanal textiles that big manufacturers discarded. Maybe the color was slightly ‘off,’ maybe they ordered too much. 

These fabrics are usually destined for the landfill. So, we rescue them and design our collections around them. This requires more work, more creativity, and more costs. 

But, it does two things: 

• It ensures that our carbon footprint is genuinely near zero
• It creates exclusivity because surplus stock is limited; so, our collections are inherently ‘limited edition’

While our peers are churning out thousands of identical pieces, we get to create limited runs. When you buy a piece from us, you likely won't see anyone else wearing it during the festive season. You get the exclusivity of couture with the ethics of upcycling.

Non-Dyed Fabrics

Synthetic dyes are the 2nd largest water polluter.

Radically ethical brands, like ours, prioritize using organic and non-dyed textiles. We embrace the natural colours of the natural fibers we use to make our clothes.

We love the natural creamy colour of Kora cotton or the grounded, earthy colour of hemp. When we do use color, we use only Azo-free, eco-friendly dyes. 

Conclusion

The next time you need to buy festival wear for ladies, pause. 

Look at the tag, look at the fabric, and ask the hard questions. And if you want to be radically ethical without having to do deep investigative work - visit our studio. 

We answer all the hard questions long before our customers raise them.