Delhi becoming a hub for fashion education

With five fashion institutes up and running and more slated to arrive, fashion education in West Delhi is here to stay. It is presenting a good opportunity for students looking for a career in fashion design and they are ready to shell out a fee as high as Rs 6 lakh - Rs 8 lakh. Several other institutes offer similar yet cheaper alternatives for students who don't want to spend much. Institutes say the response in West Delhi has been impressive. According to Pearl Academy of Fashion, the leader among fashion institutes in the area, about 40 per cent of their students come from West Delhi at their Naraina centre that was started in 1993. "Our Naraina centre was a garment firm then," says Nandita Abraham, vice president, marketing & corporate affairs, Pearl Academy. "Now, we own about 7 buildings in the area where students come in from all over India and even from countries like Germany, the US and several European countries." Currently, Pearl Academy has about 700 students in the Naraina centre itself and the institute intakes about 1,000 students across its four centres in India. These private institutes also come up as a popular alternative for those who are not able to qualify for the more preferred government run institutes such as the National Institute of Fashion Technology and Nation Institute of Design. Unlike Pearl Academy other institutes in the area have a much smaller infrastructure but the investments are never less. Harish Arora, director, International Fashion Academy (IFA), which has his centre at Rajouri Garden explains, "The rentals for my institute run up to Rs 12 lakh - Rs 15 lakh a year. Other costs include faculty remuneration, recurring costs run up to Rs 3 lakh and all that is after excluding the electricity and water costs." IFA opened up last year itself with 140 students and has set a target of achieving a 50 per cent growth by this year. FOREIGN CONNECTION Most of these institutes make it a point to tie up with international universities to lure students. While Pearl Academy has a tie-up with Nottingham Trent University, IFA on the other hand is in talks with International Foundation of Fashion Technology to initiate such programmes in their institute. Moreover, student exchange programmes at different universities have been a hit among students as well as for the institutes. "Last year, we had sent about 100 students to countries under our student exchange programme," said Nandita, who is currently presiding over Pearl Academy's Chennai centre. DIFFERENT STROKES Fashion Institutes have now diversified into offering courses not just in fashion designing but other intertwined disciplines. International Institute of Fashion Technology (IIFT) that has one of its centres in Naraina offers courses in event management, documentation and quality control, interior designing and modelling as well. IFA, for that matter, has also forayed into retail management. Moreover, it has short term courses for dropouts and executives who couldn't continue their studies for multiple reasons. "In a year we see about 15 percent dropouts which are primarily students who get placed or are people who had left professional life for some reason." He adds further, "As far as retail management is concerned, once FDI in retail gets approved we are expecting this to be a much sought after course in the coming days." Similarly, Pearl Academy even has courses in digital film making, photography and new media design. However, Lisa Institute of Fashion, based in Rajouri Garden prefers to stick to basics and offer courses in the conventional streams of fashion and textile design and interior design. COMPETITIVE SPIRIT Though Pearl Academy is preferred among the students, other institutes welcome the competition. "Competition is a very healthy spirit, even if students don't get into Pearl they would look upon other institutes in the vicinity. More awareness leads to more competition and more growth for each one of us. This also encourages us to change ourselves to match better standards" says Harish Arora from IFA. WELL PLACED Institutes maintain that students have gone on and made it big after passing out and even during the course of their studies. Most of the students join big export houses, business houses and design houses or big fashion labels. Others even start their own companies and become entrepreneurs. "For this purpose itself we organise fashion shows and events, take part in competitions outside India just to give the students the adequate exposure which can help them look ahead," says Sanjew Larma, HOD, Lisa Institute of Fashion, Rajouri Garden. FRANCHISEE ISSUES Most of these institutes that succeed in building a brand name opt for inviting franchisees in order to expand further. However, not always does this franchisee model succeed. In an effort to expand their business, IIFT chose the franchisee model only to be left with more competition amongst their centres. In 1993, IIFT opened a centre in West Delhi's Rajouri Garden that received great response until 2009 when two other centres were opened by IIFT at Naraina, Paschim Vihar and Karol Bagh. When students opted for other centres that were easily reachable, Rajouri Garden centre had to be closed down. PK Suri, director, IIFT Naraina, says, "We are making all efforts to revive the centre. We have the best campus and facilities which other centres do not have. Unlike other centres we don't operate from rented spaces. This helps us accumulate and match the institute expenses." IIFT has a 1200 sq yard campus at Naraina. www.dg3.dgevent.in