Milan touch to fashion
Aspiring fashion designers cannot ask for more what with the InterNational Institute of Fashion Design (INIFD) joining hands with renowned Milan fashion institute, IMB (Instituto di Moda Burgo).
The collaboration is for the one and two year diploma courses in fashion design at the 183 INIFD centres across India. As the first move to share international excellence in the couture arena, Stefania Gulina — a designer, stylist and forecaster from Milan — was flown to India. She also visited the INIFD unit here.
“INIFD had conducted a workshop at Calcutta last month to train and upgrade the knowledge base of the faculty members in the various centres all over the country for which Gulina was invited. This was the first step towards introducing the new syllabus,” said Rashmi Chopra, centre head of INIFD.
After the tie-up, INIFD has modified the previous course and changed the syllabus. “We have introduced two books, Figurino Di Moda and Modellismo, which will be made available from IMB. These will be the basic books which will be supplemented by other study material arranged and compiled by the INIFD faculty,” said Ritu Khanna, a senior faculty.
“The training session was primarily held to upgrade the knowledge and skills of the faculty and to keep us informed of the upcoming global styles. We were given valuable tips on draping and Gulina also forecasted the look for the fall and winter of 2007-2008 and spring-summer collection of 2008-2009,” she added.
Apart from quality training, students at INIFD would now also have the privilege of studying and doing an internship at IMB, Milan. “We will provide exchange programmes. There will certainly be a competitive test for the INIFD students, from which the top candidates will make it to IMB. Though we are unsure of the exact number of students to be sent for the exchange programme, we will try to accommodate a considerable number,” said Chopra.
