CEO Speaks: Never out of style!
If you’re dreaming of frolicking in fabric and watching your designs go down the ‘runway’, fashion designing could be your preferred choice.
As a very popular course among the youth, several institutes have come up with tailor-made lessons to explore the elements and principles of design, including the production process, trends, colour research and much more.
Studying fashion at a university level provides students with exposure to a wide array of skills, including technical and an understanding of the design industry. These days, it also encompasses a study of its historical development and current trends. Courses today also stress ethical business practices and contemporary issues surrounding fashion.
As a fashion designer, your role could involve working as per design briefs (instructions), analysing and predicting trends in fashion, styles and fabrics, finding suppliers and distributors, estimating costs of clothes and manufacturing and also pitching your ideas to fashion labels. You will usually require relevant higher education qualifications and degrees to work in the industry.
A good starting point to research colleges, degrees and courses for pursuing an education in Fashion studies would be to check a list of AICTE and UGC-approved colleges for the same in India. It is also important to read up on literature about the different courses and course providers and do in-depth research into the links of specific courses.
Students planning to pursue fashion studies can now begin their studies in school with the introduction of the Fashion Studies course in Grades XI and XII by CBSE. Furthermore, several colleges have been established in India that are pioneering in the stream of fashion designing. The National Institutes of Fashion Technology (NIFT) established in affiliation with the Ministry of Textiles is very famous. They have 16 campuses across the country with a population of 11,000 students. Admission to a NIFT campus can be obtained by sitting in an entrance exam that is held once a year. Based on the student’s performance in the exam, they are then placed in one of their campuses if they are eligible for admission.
The Pearl Academy is also very famous for fashion designing in India. They have four campuses in the country. Admission to this institute is also held through the Fashion Designing Entrance Exam for which students can register online.
Some famous fashion schools around the world are:
Parsons School of Design, NYC
The Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC
London College of Fashion, London
Royal College of Art, London
Istituto Marangoni, Milan
ESMOD, France
Ecole de la ChambreSyndica de la Couture Parisienne, Paris
Best fashion designing colleges in India include:
NIFT Delhi
NIFT Mumbai
NIFT Bangalore
NIFT Chennai
NIFT Patna
NIFT Gandhinagar
NIFT Hyderabad
NIFT Kolkata
Pearl Academy, Rajouri Garden
NIFT Shillong
Army Institute of Fashion and Design
NIFT Raebareli
Pearl Academy, Jaipur
Amity School of Fashion Technology, Amity University Noida
NIFT, Kangra
National Institute of Design Ahmedabad
Footwear Design and Development Institute
Chennai Pearl Academy
AAFT Noida
Fashion designing internships are among the most highly desired ones in the world. A college internship is a formal design programme that lasts for a set period of time, allowing students to get practical work experience within the industry. It provides on-the-job training to students to become job-ready. At times, it also helps students to figure out their specific fields within the fashion industry that they would be interested to work in. An internship programme also allows students to use their fashion design knowledge from the classroom in a real-world format, under the watchful eyes of a design team, learning from and being recognised by the most talented designers in the world.
These days, fashion and coding are being smooshed together. There’s a swath of cool tech on display, from 3D printing to graphic design tools, drones to a bar to create your own fragrance.
As the industry continues to evolve, fashion designing aspirants can also start a career in an allied field as per their artistic bent of mind. However, there is also a need for the sharp application of technological skills for manufacturing fabrics.
Most aspirants have a perception that the fashion industry offers only one job role, which is of the fashion designer. However, the fashion industry actually has varied requirements and the key differentiation lies in opting for particular courses — either Bachelors of Design (BDes) or Bachelors of Fashion Technology (BFTech).
Although both streams deal with fashion trends, fashion designing is about crafting new accessories, and apparel or stitching a designer dress; developing visualisation skills for presenting the creative expression of a costume on paper and then converting it into real-life costume designs.
Fashion technology, on the other hand, is the technological aspect of textile fibres, yarns for producing quality fabric materials. Corporates prefer to hire skilled and talented BFTech students as Pattern Engineers, Technical Leads (Fabric) and Textile Quality Auditors. Fashion design students are more suitable for roles, including Trend Analysts, Material Designers, Fashion Revivalists, Colour Trend Experts and Boutique Managers.
Any career in fashion takes a lot of effort and hard work. Apart from that, always remember: “You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it” (Edith Head, American costume designer). Dr Sanku Bose, Group CEO (Techno India Group)
