NIFT graduates find their mojo in design

The garments, footwear and jewellery profiled at the fashion show were custom-made by the students as part of their graduation project, write Dakshiani Palicha and Madhumitha Viswanath.

Anmol Thapar was born and brought up in Ludhiana, a city well-known for its knitwear industry. It is only natural that he opted for the department of Knitwear Design at NIFT, Chennai. His designs have repeatedly won attention: he was one of the top five finalists at the Max Design Awards 2016. His graduation project, a collection called ‘Wall of Unity’, is based on the Berlin Wall. 

While on an exchange programme to Berlin, he was fascinated by the Wall and the story behind it, and thus was born ‘Wall of Unity’, a collection of computerised flat-knit autumn and winter wear, which he presented at Fashionova 2016, and which won him the award for Best Design Collection in knitwear design. 

The challenge for him while designing was to represent correctly what he had felt: it called for using blended yarns to bring out the desired textures. “It was pretty hard to work on this concept. Creating textures and silhouettes, and the conversion of yarn into the fabric I wanted was quite a task,” he adds. After graduating from NIFT, Anmol plans to study further before starting his own line.

From sketching designs on her notepad as a child to dreaming as a teen to become someone who can express herself without words, Snehal Chaudhari found the answers she sought in the field of fashion and design. Hailing from Indore, Snehal won an award for her graduation project for the best collection in application of design methodology. Her jewellery collection was inspired by Babar Nama, a 40-page book which has colourful, soul filling illustrations. “When Babar came to India he was greatly inspired by the flora and fauna of our country. He converted all this into illustrations, which was later compiled into a book filled with many pictures and drawings. If the emperor of India was inspired by our country so many centuries ago, then why not myself is what I thought,” Snehal says. 

Her collection at Fashionova 2016 was themed around the traditional jewellery of Lucknow which consists mainly of jaali work with a mix of existing traditional crafts and karigari design. When asked about the challenges she faced while creating her designs, she said that translating her idea in mind into actual objects was the most difficult aspect of all since such antique designs are not seen in India anymore.

A student of the department of Fashion Design, Anandhu Sudheer chose to portray for his graduating project the theme, ‘old is the new new’ in his collection, ‘Upside Down’, which won the prize for Best Design Collection in Fashion Design. 

“I was inspired by how a vintage camera captures an image, and how it is later flipped for the viewer. Which is why my designs too, can be flipped. They can be worn both right side up and upside down,” he says. “It is a set of five ensembles, but 10 completely different styles,” he adds, all bearing the colour of vintage photographs. 

To add an edge to his designs, Anandhu employed many different motifs. “Patterning was a bit of a challenge because after the design is flipped, it still has to sit right and the proportion should match,” he adds. Anandhu loved painting and sketching even as a boy. As he grew up, this passion only became stronger. After winning various painting competitions, the idea to join the world of fashion clicked in him, he says.

Rabindranath Tagore inspired millions with his words and music and Archi Banerjee, a pure Bengali at heart, is one of them. She has dedicated her first design collection to him. “ While growing up I have been around his music and his creations all the time. This is why my entire collection which was displayed had a strong Bengali touch to it,” she says. Archi, who was selected as the best outgoing student, also bagged the award for the best use of traditional silk in contemporary styling in NIFT’s Fashionova 2016. “My collection was very simple and casual and there were many other designs which were bolder, even outrageous. This award was completely unexpected,” she says. 

As all her designs were hand embroidered and made of material from handlooms sourced from West Bengal. Archi now plans to work under a designer in the handloom industry, after which she wants to help in the development and upliftment of the handloom sector. “Designers like Anavila Mishra, Aneeth Arora, Pankaj and Nidi, who work with wedding designs, but also work on casual wear, using Indian crafts and textiles. I would love to work with designers like them,” she says.