Latest trends

The National Institute of Fashion Design

(NIFD) in the Capital is slowly making its presence known. "With 350 students at present, NIFD is coming mostly catering to students coming from middle-class families, many of whom are outstation candidates," said Nandini Chowdhry, director, NIFD, Hauz Khas. NIFD has centres in Pitampura and Patel Nagar too.

Perhaps, the unique selling proposition of NIFD is its tie-up with the Annamalai University. "We offer full-time fashion, design and interior design programmes; the courses are B Sc Fashion Design; B Sc Textile Design and B Sc Interior Design, in addition to diploma programmes in related areas. The session begins in July. On completion of a course, the qualification is awarded by the Annamalai University and it is mentioned that the student has done the course, full-time." She added, "The fee structure and even the curriculum part are all taken care of by the university."

According to Chowdhry, "Our students are comparable to students from any other good institute, be it NIFT or Pearl Academy of Fashion." Explaining why she thought so, she said: "This is because we offer the best of infrastructure, faculty and facilities for the students." She pointed out that many of NIFD's students, who were outstation students, coming from states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, north-east and West Bengal formed a diverse group. "This diversity of students adds a lot of richness to our repertoire as many of them are quite talented," she added.

A student requires a minimum qualification of a 10+2 or equivalent, with 60 per cent marks to take the entrance test. "Besides an entrance test, we have a creative test as well, to assess the aptitude of a candidate and give the students some themes to choose from. They are asked to pen down a few lines as well, which is a test to measure their communication ability, as communication today is vital to function in the fields of fashion and design," Chowdhry elaborated.

"Spoken and written English form an integral part of the course curriculum," Chowdhry said. According to her, the students needed to be taught the nitty gritty of the trade, such as in what way to approach buyers as well as to communicate with the stakeholders in the fashion industry, in the best-possible manner and all this required that they learnt the art of communication.

Chowdhry said: "Almost 99 per cent of our students are placed well in the industry; hardworking students can get a remuneration of Rs 10,000 per month easily. A few of the students come from business backgrounds and hence do not require jobs."

On future plans, Chowdhry remarked, "We are planning to start courses in fashion journalism and retail in the foreseeable future. Besides, we plan to host exhibitions with some of the reputed players in the field of fashion and design.