If you’re considering a career in fashion design, this might brighten up your day. With Italy’s premier fashion and design school Istituto Marangoni setting up base in Mumbai, and fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore launching his very own Gurukul School of Design in Jaipur, India is slowly raising the bar for fashion education. We chatted with Istituto Marangoni’s Tarun Pandey, COO India Sub Continent, Rahul Mishra, the school’s brand ambassador, and Raghavendra Rathore of The Gurukul School of Design to get a low-down. Here’s everything you need to know:
The Mumbai School of Fashion, Istituto Marangoni
Located in a peaceful setting overlooking the sea, the Mumbai School of Fashion offers undergraduate courses in fashion business and fashion design, and short courses like pattern cutting and luxury brand management. The school has already begun its first batch with around 30 carefully-chosen students. “Education, for us, is not mass education—it’s one-to-one where we can give more focus to each student,” says Tarun Pandey, COO India Sub Continent.
The three-year undergraduate course offers students an opportunity to spend their final year abroad in any of their centres which include Milano, Firenze, Paris, London, Shanghai and Shenzhen. This “immersive experience” will ensure the quality of education is at par with their international schools. Moreover, 70% of their faculty is international, who will fly in to deliver week-long sessions. The remaining includes local talent and alumni like Rahul Mishra, who studied at the Milan outpost in 2007 and is now the school’s brand ambassador. “Istituto Marangoni is one school that actually values their alumni,” says the designer, who was first approached by the school to be a part of their advisory committee.
In his role as the brand ambassador, Rahul will be fully involved with the education at the Mumbai School of Fashion, right from working on the course curriculum to mentoring the students. “Fashion is evolving at the speed of light—there is no bookish knowledge to be gained in design; it will all come when the students work closely with Indian crafts and embroidery techniques, and learn how to make craft modern that is globally appreciated,” he says.
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Address: Ceejay House, Dr Annie Besant Rd, Markandeshwar Nagar, Shiv Sagar Estate, Worli, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400018
“Education is the best gift that one can give to an aspiring mind,” says fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore. Having established The Gurukul School of Design in the handicraft and textile-heavy city of Jaipur, the school offers a four-year course which covers all aspects of fashion—design, illustration, management, business, marketing and communication. What really sets the school apart, though, is its interpretation of the “Gurukul way of life” that teaches the values of Indian culture through self-discipline and self-grooming practices.
“The aim is to impart specialised knowledge to students so that they can become entrepreneurs as soon as they graduate,” says Raghavendra, who plans to do this through the original curriculum he has designed while keeping the pitfalls in mind. The foundation year will be dedicated to contextualising art and design, and the remaining three years will teach the students how to create a fashion brand and manage the front and back end of the business. The final two years will also encourage students to travel to design-centric cities like Florence, Italy to better understand international art and design perspectives. Industry interactions and unique programmes will provide a new way of learning for the batch, which is expected to begin in August 2018.
So, what prompted the designer to set up the school? “We are going through a silent revolution in the country wherein we are shifting from a manufacturing to a design oriented outlook. This shift will require a huge talent in the future and we need to be prepared to optimally leverage this design revolution,” he answers. Those looking for a holistic fashion education experience in the hub of handicrafts may just find their calling at The Gurukul School of Design.
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Address: Plot No- IS-2019, Institutional Area Ramchandra Pura (Sitapura Extension) Jaipur, Rajasthan
