Day Eleven & Twelve

After the research and analysis of a wide variety of aspects from both cultures, students were finally ready to begin designing. Working still in pairs, so to create matching garments or accessories for the same collection, the students made 4 initial sketches for the first day.

Fatima Pilgrami, an instructor from the Fashion Design Department at NİFT, very kindly offered to take us on a tour of some designer stores in Hyderabad. The university bus took us to one well-known fashion street where we were free to visit the following stores.

Origins – This was an exclusive store selling a selection of Indian designer labels. They seemed to specialise in bridal and evening wear, with heavily embroidered saris retailing for as much as 80 000 rupee ($2000). In Indian culture it is traditional for the bride to wear yellow, orange or green, but more modern brides are also opting for alternative bright colour combinations. The store also held a wide variety of “Sherwani”, the traditional suit worn by Indian grooms and also the traditional headwear called “Pagdri”, the Indian version of the turban.


















Creative Bee – This was another textile store which specialised in natural dyes, block printing and experimental weave structures.

WunderShop – This quirky store was run by Kedal Maddlu, an ex- graduate of Nift. The interior had been specially customized with a wide variety of decorative objects, mainly from Indian hand-craft and with a recycled flavour. This young designer had printed traditional symbols and kitsch references on modernized version of traditional Indian attire.






















Satay Paul – This store catered for the more mature woman with classical printed textiles, from saris to scarves, and also some rather nice ties for the male shopper.

Anokhi – Selling a selection of block printed fabrics, ready made garments and accessories, Anokhi is one of the better known design names in contemporary Indian fashion.

Ritu Kumar – Rita Kumar is one of the most famous textile and fashion designers in India. Heavily beaded sari’s and eveningwear with intricate embroidery are displayed alongside a more wearable contemporary daywear collection.
















On the Friday, we continued with the sketching and finalised each students design before breaking for the weekend. In the evening, we visited the “City Centre” shopping mall for some retail therapy and familiar food.