Kavita Parmar: IOU Project

Kavita Parmar is not a typical fashion entrepreneur. She lives in Spain but was born in India into a family with deep textile roots, and she grew up with an innate sense of craftsmanship and cultural heritage. Early on, she experienced the global textile world first hand, working in Hong Kong with major brands and later leading fashion ventures in India and Europe. She saw that something was fundamentally wrong in the fashion system. Rapid mass production was erasing culture, undervaluing handcraft, and disconnecting consumers from the people who actually make their clothes. She witnessed the emotional and economic toll on artisans and weavers who were not recognised for their work.

What The IOU Project Is and Why It Matters

In 2010, Kavita founded The IOU Project as a reimagining of how fashion should work. A model that rewires the relationship between maker and consumer. The name IOU comes from "I owe you," a reminder that consumers, brands, and of course the makers are bound by mutual responsibility. Rather than hiding supply chains, IOU illuminates them. That means every garment or object in the collection carries a traceable identity, originally through QR codes that link back to the specific artisan who made it, giving them visibility in a world where production usually hides them.

The IOU Project pioneered the idea of turning supply chains into prosperity chains where transparency is an ethical imperative rather than a performative gesture.

United Nations and Global Recognition

Kavita's work has been formally recognised on global platforms, including by the United Nations. She received the UNSSC Leadership Award, acknowledging her contribution to sustainable innovation and systemic change in design and supply models. She has been invited to speak on sustainability and transparency at high-level forums such as United Nations leadership programmes.

Her journey is marked by achievements that combine creative imagination with tangible social impact. Documenting many master weavers in India, she has brought their identities and stories online for the world to see and pioneered traceability in fashion years before it became mainstream. She has won multiple international awards for innovation and sustainability, including the Luxury Briefing Award, the SOURCE Award by the Ethical Fashion Forum, and the Sustainable Luxury Award in Latin America.

She also created XTANT, a global community and annual gathering that celebrates heritage textiles and regenerative practices. 

The fashion industry still relies heavily on opaque systems that prioritise speed and low cost over human dignity and environmental health. This has only intensified with digital commerce and globalised production. IOU's model challenges this by:

• Giving artisans a platform by making their invisible labour into visible authorship
• Reconnecting consumers with the real people and stories behind what they buy
• Preserving cultural heritage at risk of disappearing under mechanised production

It is a model that matters for artisans and their future.