Feature with Sass Brown: The IOU Project

In this episode, part of our monthly brand feature series, we learn about The IOU Project, founded by Kevita Parmar, whose focus is on craft and heritage, finding ways to stay true to the past but scale for the future.

Joshua Williams: Each month on NewsBytes, we feature a fashion brand that approaches business differently and innovatively or operates outside of the main fashion systems and capitals. I'm with Sass Brown, an expert in ethical fashion, sustainability and craftsmanship. She is the former Dean of Art and Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the founding Dean at Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation.

Hello, Sass, welcome back. And who are we going to feature this month? 

Sass Brown: The IOU Project. 

Joshua Williams: Ah, the IOU Project. I know they're based in Madrid. Spain. Can you tell us a little bit about them and their founder? 

Sass Brown: Absolutely. The founder is Kevita Parmar. She works predominantly with hand loomed madras cotton out of India. If you're familiar with the madras cotton, it's quite distinct, they're often candy colored checks and they're quite different from weaver to weaver. Each one is quite unique. And so what she does, she works with locally grown cotton from that region that is then hand-woven. So we're talking about a fabric that has literally no carbon footprint to begin with. But moreover, he really honors the makers, whether it's the maker of the garment or the weaver of the fabric as a truly vital component of her value chain of the garment. And as equal in terms of standing as the designer or the customer.

So it's a very flat, democratic program or company, if you like. It's not hierarchical, where the designers at the top and the makers at the bottom. And so the website is fabulous. First of all, it's beautiful. It's very visually presented. And it features each of the garments, the makers of the garment. So you can dig into each garment and see who the weaver was. You can read a little bit about them. You can see who the maker was, the producer of the garment, the garment manufacturer, maybe watch a video. She specializes in small, little workshops in Portugal and Spain. And the fabric, as I said in India.

So it's very much about authorship and provenance and respect for all of the components that go into making the garment and giving a face and a voice to each of those people, who are normally so hidden from the customer. 

Joshua Williams: She's been described by Elle magazine as a craft revivalist, but I also know that part of that revival of craft is the focus on heritage and where these materials come from and where this artisan ship comes from.

Can you talk about how that informs the IOU Project differently than perhaps a typical collaboration. 

Sass Brown: Absolutely. I mean, I think first of all, she very much tells the story of the heritage and the history of the madras cotton, of its role in the currency of the economy, of the country. And that in itself is quite unique, but there's beautiful imagery and storytelling around that history. And around those traditions. 

She does also work with some other materials, which she gives equal provenance to whether that's Harris tweed, or mud silk, for example, both of which have their very own distinct heritage and histories. It's very much about giving them the authorship and the voice and the space as a vital component of it.

But she's very much invested in artisanship and craftsmanship. So she's also a co-founder of a textile festival called Xtant. So it's a heritage textile festival cum exhibition that showcases and sells handcrafted textiles and products from around the world. 

Joshua Williams: There's often this push within our modern society to take traditional craft and push them into contemporary thoughts or designs. Can you talk a little bit about how she thinks about this differently or how this focus on provenance changes that particular conversation? 

Sass Brown: Yeah, I believe that the madras itself is quite traditional. It's done through traditional processes from traditional fabrications and fibers. There's a certain amount of creative freedom that each weaver has, which is also quite unique. It's not predetermined, here are your colors. Because part of the beauty of that material culture is this differentiation and different output from different families and different locations. So there's very much a creative freedom for the weavers themselves. And it really is all about telling their stories and honoring that history and that tradition.

Joshua Williams: Really a flat hierarchy of collaboration, which is quite unique. What can companies or organizations learn from the IOU Project? 

Sass Brown: Craft is often underestimated in terms of capability and scale. For example, 20 million families depend on hand weaving in India. That is an incredible scale that in Kevita's case, she has utilized. So this isn't a tiny little brand that produces one off. Yes, pieces are unique because the weavings are slightly different; the colorations are different, but within the format of madras cotton. So I think the idea of scaling craft and utilizing existing scale is quite special and quite unique, bringing livelihoods to many more people.

Joshua Williams: Very interesting. How can people find out about IOU Project and find out about those that she collaborates with and the products that she's selling? 

Sass Brown: Well, the website is, I'll spell it out, it's I O W E Y O U.cc. So that's quite specific. You will find her on Twitter under The IOU Project. And there's some lovely videos actually on YouTube about her. And Xtant also have a website which is www.XTANT.io. 

Joshua Williams: Wonderful, thank you so much, Sass. And we look forward to having you next month. 
Sass Brown: I look forward to it too. Thank you.