FASHION & ACCESSORIES
VERANDAH
Verandah is a conscious luxury travel brand retailing among the best in the luxury resort wear space. It has design roots strongly based in India, and a unique signature style in story-based hand-illustrated prints, fine embroideries and sustainable fabrics, across resort, ready-to-wear, swimwear and lifestyle. Created by Anjali Patel Mehta, the brand’s mission today is to create a joyful environmentally and socially responsible luxury label inspired by the sights, smells, and contours of her land telling untold stories that inspire her. While swim is Italian made, ready to wear and resort lifestyle are made ethically with pride in India.
SUSTAINABILITY PURPOSE
The Verandah brand employs a closed loop design system for almost all their textiles and works on a small batch production model. Their process involves personally designing and supervising collections at their Mumbai Atelier and working with like-minded manufacturers. Verandah uses their post-production waste to design accessories, lifestyle items and their signature recycled denim pieces. Additionally, they also use regenerated and biodegradable yarns (Ecovero, Bemberg, and Lenzing) from the best manufacturers in the world, as well as GOTS certified organic cotton to support farmers and fair-trade practices. All their packaging material is recycled and biodegradable and for every e-commerce purchase made, the brand plants one tree in the Mohali forest in association with SankalpTaru, as part of a forest regeneration program the brand has initiated. The brand supports several socio-environmental causes like Baagh Pari (empowerment of the girl child) in conjunction with tiger conservation (inspiration for their T91 collection) through TigerWatch, as part of a bigger initiative to conserve and preserve the environment.
Established
2011
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
First certified
2024
Employees
26
Categories
Fashion
Website
Distribution
United States, Caribbean Islands, France, Greece
REAL CHANGE IN ACTION
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Verandah has had community involvement as a central pillar of its business from its founding. With every ecommerce purchase, Verandah plants a tree along the Brahmaputra River in the Molai forest reserve to conserve local biodiversity and provide safe passage for animals during annual flooding, thanks to its partnership with SankalpTaru. The brand also works with Tiger Watch, donating 10% of its profits to the organisation and supports the empowerment and education of girls in the Mogya Tribe in Rajasthan. Through this programme, thirty girls have been given sewing machines and taught to create upcycled patchwork quilts, providing them with new livelihoods and diverting them from poaching. Verandah also has a partnership with ReefWatch Marine Conservation, adopting part of a reef protection programme in the Andaman Islands.
SUSTAINABILTY PURPOSE
Verandah’s purpose is centred on creating both local and global positive impact and is shared across the Board and entire team. As part of its core guiding principles, Verandah focuses on artisan craftsmanship to pursue the highest quality whilst uplifting local artisans in every country in its supply chain, from India to Italy. Sustainability is incorporated into the business model and remains a permanent item on the agenda, trickling down through the business operations, structure, and sourcing strategy. Driven by the belief that fashion can be a force for positive change, the brand maintains a balanced level of authority, encourages participation in its social activities, and overall fosters a culture that encourages sustainable decision making.
SUSTAINABLE SOURCING
Sustainability and innovation are the central focus of Verandah’s sourcing strategy and are taken into account in all sourcing decisions. Additionally, Verandah has its own manufacturing facilities, giving the leadership team visibility over the main functions of its supply chain and allowing for more control over the environmental and social practices during production. Verandah’s supplier sourcing strategy covers organisational governance, human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development. Its external suppliers have third-party certifications and accreditations related to responsible environmental practices, such as ISO 14001, Global Recycled Standard (GRS), Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Recycled Claim Standard 100 (RCS), and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified. Between 75-99% of all raw materials used are covered by third-party certifications/accreditations, and only between 1-25% of the brand’s products use virgin materials.
Verandah has had community involvement as a central pillar of its business from its founding. With every ecommerce purchase, Verandah plants a tree along the Brahmaputra River in the Molai forest reserve to conserve local biodiversity and provide safe passage for animals during annual flooding, thanks to its partnership with SankalpTaru. The brand also works with Tiger Watch, donating 10% of its profits to the organisation and supports the empowerment and education of girls in the Mogya Tribe in Rajasthan. Through this programme, thirty girls have been given sewing machines and taught to create upcycled patchwork quilts, providing them with new livelihoods and diverting them from poaching. Verandah also has a partnership with ReefWatch Marine Conservation, adopting part of a reef protection programme in the Andaman Islands.
Verandah’s purpose is centred on creating both local and global positive impact and is shared across the Board and entire team. As part of its core guiding principles, Verandah focuses on artisan craftsmanship to pursue the highest quality whilst uplifting local artisans in every country in its supply chain, from India to Italy. Sustainability is incorporated into the business model and remains a permanent item on the agenda, trickling down through the business operations, structure, and sourcing strategy. Driven by the belief that fashion can be a force for positive change, the brand maintains a balanced level of authority, encourages participation in its social activities, and overall fosters a culture that encourages sustainable decision making.
Sustainability and innovation are the central focus of Verandah’s sourcing strategy and are taken into account in all sourcing decisions. Additionally, Verandah has its own manufacturing facilities, giving the leadership team visibility over the main functions of its supply chain and allowing for more control over the environmental and social practices during production. Verandah’s supplier sourcing strategy covers organisational governance, human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development. Its external suppliers have third-party certifications and accreditations related to responsible environmental practices, such as ISO 14001, Global Recycled Standard (GRS), Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Recycled Claim Standard 100 (RCS), and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified. Between 75-99% of all raw materials used are covered by third-party certifications/accreditations, and only between 1-25% of the brand’s products use virgin materials.
A WORD FROM THE FOUNDER
The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of industrial water waste that reaches our oceans and we believe it is our responsibility to preserve and conserve the environment around us. At Verandah, we have a circular design philosophy, wherein we use responsible material sources, ocean-friendly design materials, sustainable packaging and support give-back programs. We find and partner with organizations that care about the environment too. We are humbled and extremely proud to have been recognized by Positive Luxury and been awarded the Butterfly Mark. This certification further deepens our commitment to bringing about resolute sustainable change
ANJALI PATEL MEHTA
FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
WHY POSITIVE LUXURY
At Verandah, other than creativity and luxury, we strive for tangible ESG goals and want to deliver real change to positively impact people and nature. Positive Luxury have set the gold standard in sustainability in the global luxury industry. Through their ESG+ assessment tool, they have devised a way for companies to benchmark current performance, which is why we chose to undergo certification. We believe they will help us achieve higher standards by sharing best practices across companies and coaching us on how to increase our measurable impact in the future!
PATHWAY TO HIGHER STANDARDS
Within the ESG+ assessment, Verandah scored 66 overall, comprising of 63% Environment, 58% in Social, 70% in Governance and 91% in Innovation. Focus areas for the brand include better tracking of carbon credits in an effort to reduce carbon footprint, with plans to undertake a carbon assessment. They will also track additional metrics to measure the impact of our many social initiatives, and will implement best practices on governance based on learnings from other companies.