A stitch in time at SNDT Women’s University

When Hemant Trevedi, veteran designer, reputed fashion professor and now mentor to the graduating batch of fashion design students at Mumbai’s prestigious SNDT Women’s University, PV Polytechnic, suggests you be part of a graduation year selection jury panel, you do not refuse. In fact, you cannot refuse, because you realise just how much effort has gone into that crucial year.

By the students, by the faculty of SNDT’s Apparel Manufacture and Design department, by Hemant himself. You realise because a long time ago, you used to be a small part of that process. And now, in the strange manner life sometimes has of reminding you of roots, it has come full circle.

There are enough design schools in India to warm the heart of any budding aspirant. The capital's formidable NID, the reputed NIFT which has centres across the nation, The BD Somani and Sophia Polytechnic institutes in Mumbai, SNDT of course… the list is long. It is at SNDT however, that it all began for India, because it prides itself on being the nation’s pioneering fashion design course, having started way back in 1976. And it's been quite a journey for fashion.

More than a decade or so ago, while beauty queens were still sweeping international titles, fashion in India was enjoying its heyday. An important part of a ramp model’s schedule used to be travelling across India for graduating batch shows. These student shows were different from the drama and discipline of big designer shows — they were exhaustive, intense, and required models who actually understood garments — so as to present them better to juries who would be deciding a graduating designer’s career path. But while they were exhaustive, they served a deeper purpose. They offered, in a concentrated timespan, a glimpse of fashion’s new talent, of creativity, of vision — Coalesced in two-three months or so, across India.  In doing these shows, you connected at one go, to the fountainhead, the very source of style — its Gen Next, its future, its to-be-fulcrum. They offered context, perspective, a preview of an evolving, dynamic, creatively rich fashion continuum. And you got a sense, year upon year, of being a part of a fabric bigger than the sum of its parts, bigger than yourself.

Student shows are wonderful in that they are as yet unfettered by the constraints of market dynamics. They are allowed to showcase the full extent of their creativity — however eccentric, unpalatable, pushing the boundaries. They also tend to make great use of India’s rich, diverse cultural heritage and worksmanship.  As a model, I had been witness to India's fashion evolution at a time when fashion was separate from Bollywood. In Mumbai, apart from other institutes, SNDT’s graduation show, Chrysalis, was a regular annual event — fittings, repeat fittings at times, the all important jury presentation and then, the final show.

These days, models, part of a crowd, without really distinct personalities, tend to forgo the student jury shows if more lucrative assignments pop up. But that’s another story. Luckily, jury members this year, were mainly from the industry itself, including the perfectionistic  master couturier Shahab Durazi, queen of sari couture, Shaina NC, the dramatic, voluble, former supermodel Anna Bredmeyer and veteran fashion scribe Meher Castelino among others. They understood garments despite the gaucheness of some of the models showing them.

The collections were painstakingly put together, with AVs on each. The theme being ‘Essence of India’, each had interpreted it their way, drawing from our vast colour context, craftsmanship and culture. The faculty (Principal Varsha  Jain, HOD Jasmine Sarupria, familiar faces Solange Suri, Usha Batra and Soojata Kothari  among others) embodied support, a sisterhood springboard of warmth and encouragement for each student. Hemant himself played liaise between the jury, faculty, students, vociferous in his support of the effort behind each and every detail — a mentor one would certainly want on one's side as a newbie!

Diverse collections, stylised accessories, enthusiastic young students, and an encouraging industry in the form of both faculty and jury members: Indian fashion appears most alive and kicking.

And when the votes were finally cast, I came away with the feeling that despite not having as thorough a link to emerging designers as I once used to, all was well yet in the evolving universe that was the world of Indian fashion design.