The fashion industry in mass quantities is said to have a high carbon emission footprint. The production process is often considered to cause a lot of pollution. Starting from these findings, Melie Indarto started an eco-friendly fashion business called KaIND (Kain Indonesia) since 2014. KAIND itself first wants to present the uniqueness of Pasuruhan batik so that it is better known to the wider community. KaIND creates handmade products that explore and express iconic symbols such as Mount Bromo, Whispering Sand, Chrysanthemum, Aglaonema, Asoka, and Sedap Malam into hand-woven scarves.

In the midst of the onslaught of the large textile industry, Melie chose a path to develop fashion in hand-woven techniques, hand-written batik and natural dyeing.

"In the last 10 years, the number of weavers at our place has continued to decrease, now maybe only 10 percent remains," he said, Wednesday (12/15/2022).

From there, his party recruited young people in Pasuruhan, East Java to attend free weaving training at KaIND.

"We recruit young people, some are truck drivers, and the unemployed to take part in free training at our place," he added. Apart from that, KAIND also cooperates with around 200 local farmers to become silkworm cultivators.

"Then we process the empty cocoons into fiber and spin it. This becomes organic and biodegradable fiber," he said.

KaIND products themselves use 50 percent of the basic ingredients of eri silk, which can be found in woven fabrics, woven shawls, and sleep eye masks. In terms of coloring, Melie uses natural dyes such as mango tree bark and sappan leaves, as well as other natural dyes.

"Because the rainfall in Pasuruhan is relatively high, we also use rain fed water in our production," he explained.

From the start, Melie didn't follow trends like the fashion industry usually does. He focuses on presenting eco-friendly slow fashion to the public. He has a dream, people start to be able to use environmentally friendly products in their daily activities.

"Sustainable fashion is not just a trend but must be the future, not one or two years. Hopefully people can switch from materials such as polyester, nylon and spandex to natural fibers, for example, silk, raji, cotton, pineapple fiber," he explained.

"People need to feel the touch of organic fabric," he added. Currently, the biggest challenge in the world of sustainable fashion is educating the market. Because, sometimes the price of sustainable products is often above the market average. "For that we at the same time tell, how the process of making this product, and how the materials are processed," he said. Reporting from the Tokopedia account, scarf products at KaIND itself can be redeemed at prices ranging from IDR 300,000 to IDR 700,000. Meanwhile, woven fabric with a size of 3 x 1 meter is priced around IDR 1.5 million.