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NIFT…..Taking handloom to the next level

Posted on May 11th, 2018 03:30 PM

Learning From The Fashion Maestro

It has been 70 years since we broke free of colonial clutches, but are we really free? If you think about it, the foreign culture still forms a major part of our lifestyles today. In other words, we are fans of the Western counterpart. There is no denial to it. We dwell in a culturally luxurious country, just to be intimidated by the values of alien societies and give the latter a shocking amount of importance. Such popularity of foreign culture also descends from the need of recognition on global levels. It calls for familiarity with international standards and knowledge of cross-cultures, gradually detaching one from one’s nativity. The lineage remains covered with dust, while the youth runs after a superficial modernity. This is inherited. Our orientation comes in favour of alien practices and the well-taught necessity of Western pigments in our behaviour and choices, to stand tall in the society. Such preference is inculcated in a man at different levels of social grooming- family, friends circle, social groups and peers.

On the up front, educational institutions make for one primary source of our intellectual habits. We draw our inferences and logic majorly on the basis of what we are academically trained of. As such, what better place to talk about than National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) when it comes to the perks of being in fashion. The NIFT is a fashion education hub of the highest repute, launching millions of talented artists in the market every year. Being the leading institute, it has repeatedly stood to its stature of not only innovating and creating with glitz and glamour, but also prompting eminence in endorsing handicrafts and handlooms. It represents grounded designers in utmost elegance and demonstrates the royalty of handloom on a massive scale. Their academic curriculum includes Craft Research and Documentation as a mandatory subject for students to be familiar with domestic inhibitions of art and culture. This, in turn, infers regular visits to different clusters for field work and product development.

In an attempt to realise the vision of handloom sector as a full-fledged commercial sector, and its promotion as a fashion progeny, NIFT recently signed up for the implementation of regular Craft Cluster Initiative, thus paving way for innovation and experimentation in crafts by students. It also aims at providing wholesome knowledge about the strengths of cultural lineage and the luxury of loom and crafts. The fashion skills of students can thereby be invested in producing contemporary cultural designs and encourage the rural workers along with the necessary guidance. The larger picture would then portray an expanding market for handicrafts and wider recognition for Indian art and culture around the globe. NIFT also connects with rural artisans and clusters and provide them ground support through activities like product development, design intervention, knowledge sharing and capacity building.

The dynamics of fashion do not revolve around Western wear or fusion concepts. It is also about exploring the history of a richer cultural diaspora and putting every titbit to use in recreating a newer range of products. As the present bugs and future fashion police, NIFT has prepped to flaunt the Indian art, have you?