Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
Home \| Messages \| Design Faculty Chairman’s Message Director, NID Activity Chairperson Communication Design I.T. Integrated Design Interdisciplinary Design Industrial Design Textile Design

Fatema Jaliwala | fatema.jaliwala@gmail.com

Narendra Kumar for Debenhams

Apparel Design and Merchandising | PGDPD
Guide: Amit Sinha;Sanjay Guria
Sponsor: Arenah Impex Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai

Keywords
Fabric development
European market
Department store
Print design

The project commenced with a study on Arenah Impex Pvt. Ltd., which is fashion designer Narendra Kumar Ahmed’s corporate venture, to understand his style. This was followed by a study on UK-based lifestyle departmental store, Debenhams, who have ventured into India and launched their first store in Gurgaon. The first part of the diploma project involved designing a prêt line for High Summer 2011.

A thorough understanding of the dynamics of the domestic apparel industry, retail industry, women’s wear market, consumer societal trends and a scientific user analysis of the departmental stores in India, formed the basis of this project. The observation of international trends, combined with user research helped establish the foundation idea of the ‘traditionally modern’ and affluent Indian consumer. The idea, with an exposure to print design, screen printing, merchandising, costing and fabric development, was turned into a final collection of 33 garments for the Autumn/Winter 2011 collection for Debenhams.

The second part of the project involved fabric development for Osonai, an eco-friendly international line for the European market from the Narendra Kumar stable. Conceptualization and fabric exploration using tie-dye and embroidery techniques were undertaken. A range of theme-based digital prints was conceptualized and then developed for Arenah Impex.

I now realize that apparel should be treated as a product and hence, even its creative aspect, must be user-centric. The interpretation of research led to the conversion of the design process into products. I have benefitted greatly from the exposure I got to facets of textile design such as screen printing, digital printing, dyeing, shibori and fabric construction.