Student Spotlight- In conversation with Richa Shah

Richa Shah, scholarship winner of Whistling Woods InternationalNeeta Lulla School of Fashion, shares her story on how she became a part of our fashion academia and what made her opt for this career.

What aspect of Whistling Woods - Neeta Lulla School of Fashion appealed to you the most as an institute?

Richa: The combination of Whistling Woods International, Asia’s best media and entertainment institute, vigorously growing from the past decade and Neeta Lulla, the pioneer of fashion, appealed to me the most. It’s like everything under one umbrella. The whole idea and thought of educating students by the designer herself is very inspiring. She probably is the first of all the renowned designers, to establish a school of fashion, sharing her experiences and knowledge to aspiring designers. The exposure one will get here is like no other in the industry.

What made you opt for 'Fashion Design' studies?

Richa: Because it’s fun. This is the greatest platform for expressing your creative self. It’s all about self expression, like playing with fabrics, style, patterns, colors and so on. This is the best time for innovation, as people are readily accepting new and up-coming creations. It’s just not about the wearable garments, but taking ideas and innovations to their peak. Also, on a personal level, the Scholarship opportunity at Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of Fashion worked as a boost for me to opt for fashion studies.

How do you believe this Scholarship program will help you in your career?

Richa: Creativity alone is not enough to become an aspiring designer. To be able to successfully implement ideas and practice designing, lot of trials and errors and other resources are required, that can go beyond one’s means. A scholarship program as this will definitely enable me to explore all that is required for my education and pursue my dreams.

Which stream of fashion studies interests you the most?

Richa: Learning everything is vital to be a proficient designer. But my interest lies specifically in illustration. Visualizing an idea is more intriguing than actually making it. It’s the only form of art that brings your imagination to paper, actually developing things without any limitations, experimenting with colors and other props. With ace mentors at Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of Fashion, I believe I will excel in this field.

Does ‘Corporate Wear with Indian Influence’, in your opinion, match the standard of 'Global Formal Wear'? If so, how?

Richa: Yes, it surely does, if applied in the right manner. The concept of ‘corporate dressing’ for Indians is a very western and formal concept. So a touch of 'Indianness' such as embroidery, traditional art etc would add spice and variety to it, without disturbing the basic nature of the garment.

What color swatches have you used and why?

Richa: Swatches for my creation are mostly in earthy and pastel tones to keep the elegance of designs alive. I majorly used only three tints and shades of blue, black and white and few tones of brown to it. The materials used were linen, jute, khadi etc. to add to bring an Indian influence to the designs.

The Essence of Illustration with Belinda Bawa

Belinda Bawa, designer, artiste, fashion researcher and currently a mentor of illustration at the Whistling Woods International Neeta Lull School of Fashion talks about significance of ‘Illustration’ in a designers’ life. With a versatile background and undying passion for innovation and creativity, Belinda Bawa ‘illustrates’ her knowledge and experience as an ‘illustrator’!

Where did you start and how did you get into ‘Fashion Illustration’?

Belinda: It all started with the design project of the film Devdas. Neeta was working on the costumes for the film and asked me to come up with dramatic and elaborate sari designs. I joined hands and that made all the difference for me.

Why is it essential to understand and learn illustration? How is it practically beneficial?

Belinda: You can’t express an idea without drawing it out. Even a basic designer needs to be able to illustrate the design to successfully communicate the concept to the tailor. Because unless you can portray your ideas properly, you cannot get clothes made properly.

How has the rise of digital media influenced fashion illustration?

Belinda: It definitely makes my life easier. It saves a lot of time and helps me with like erasing, color options, touch ups and other developmental work. However, the core of design for me would be paper and pencil and I don’t supplement it with digital media.

Illustration by Belinda Bawa

What scope does a fashion illustrator have?

Belinda: The scope for an illustrator is still limited in India but is growing no doubt. Fashion weeks nowadays demand good illustration and not just good clothes. Designers, film makers look for dramatic representation of a concept, which only an illustrator can do.

Is fashion education essential for ‘illustration’? If so, why?

Belinda: Yes, education is very important. You cannot draw what you don’t know. There are terminologies and concepts one needs to learn before transferring the thought to paper.

Illustration: Belinda

How would you define your style?

Belinda: My style is more fluid. My characters are mostly bold, with fluidity in movement and poses. I usually tend to mix traditional Indian styles with graphic, classic and dramatic.

1920s Illustration by Erte

What and who inspires your illustrations?

Belinda: Beauty- the Beauty of clothes, beauty of women and the beauty of the human anatomy. Works of Erte, Thierry Perez and Reuben Toledo are very inspiring. They are like Gods of illustration.

3 things you would suggest aspiring students to keep in mind while illustrating?

Belinda: Look, look and keep looking. Because your eyes always fool you. So observe everything around you and draw. Draw what you see, draw what you feel and draw whatever comes to your mind.

What scope or industry opportunity does fashion education from WWINLSF open up for aspirants?

Belinda: The students at our institute get to work in proximity to designers and film makers, which eventually will be their future clients. So they are already prepared with a platform to start their career.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT- Exploring ancient Egypt & India

The students at Whistling WoodsInternational-Neeta Lulla School of Fashion always go back in time to learn something new from the old. In an assignment last week, our freshman students explored ancient Egyptian and Indian clothing.

Egyptian civilization has always been looked upon as a benchmark of art, culture and style. The discovery of cotton and expensive fabrics like Linen, were a breakthrough by the Egyptians in the world of clothing and fashion, which still remains with us today.

Ancient Egyptian clothing was about richness of the fabric and ornamentation, yet simple in   construction and draping.

The men wore a wrap-round skirt that was tied at the waist with a belt. Sometimes the cloth was also wrapped around the legs. The length of the skirt varied depending on the period- short in the time of the Old Kingdom while in the Middle Kingdom they were calf length. In the New Kingdom period, pleated garments became fashionable.

Egyptian women wore full length straight dresses with one or two shoulder straps. The affluent class wore finer fabrics with embellishments. Jewelry and headdresses were a must for both men and women alike. The women wore dresses made from fine, translucent linen.

In another assignment, the students created ancient Indian costumes out of flowers and leaves. The challenge was that they had to source materials from whatever was available around the campus.

Ancient Indian men used to wrap a garment piece made of leaves around their wait and women would wear a skirt similarly made. They also used natural materials like fibers of the flax plant, reeds, etc to weave garments. Keeping this in mind, the students had to procure materials for constructing the costumes. 

Our students surely had a blast, working with materials sourced from the natural surroundings of the campus and recreating prehistoric clothing.

Color Concepts 101: Introduction to Color Theory

The most important aspect of design is to understand color and color theory. Contrasts, complementary, monochromes, color blocking, analogous, triadic are few concepts that one needs to be identified with before learning to design.

Image Courtesy: Google 

A new color combination can add innovation to an apparently dull wardrobe and can completely transform a look from season to season. Color theory is relevant to several aspects of style besides clothing as well. For example, to create an ensemble, one must understand what color concept it will represent.

The color wheel might seem intimidating initially, but comes in very handy for piecing together flattering and unique color combinations and helps a designer understand color relationships.

Hue is a color in its purest form.Tint, tone, and shade are all derivatives of Hue.

Tint = hue + white, tone = hue + grey, shade = hue+ black. 

These four elements are used to create the color your eyes see.

Once you know what the color wheel comprises of, you can do your own permutation and combinations and create infinite tints, tones and shades. From prints and patterns, to color blocking, accessories and everything in between there are millions of ways to use these combinations.

Color Concepts:

Monochromatic is a color combination that is comprised of just one color.

Complementary: These are colors directly across from each other on the color wheel. Because of their high contrast, as the name implies, they complement each other.

Analogous: Combinations of any three colors that are directly next to each other on the color wheel are analogous.

Split complementary: This color combination is achieved by taking a base color then pairing it with colors directly next to its adjacent color.

Triadic: Colors in groups of three colors that are all equidistant from each other on the color wheel.

The foundation of fashion design, a color wheel is just the beginning of a magical world of creation, innovation and invention. So enlighten yourself and go out there, explore, create make mistakes, and have fun!

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT- Reliving SUMERIAN era

The spotlight of this week at the Whistling Woods - NeetaLulla School of Fashion was on the ‘Sumerian Costume Design’ by our freshman students. Under the guidance of Belinda Bawa, art design & illustration professional and one of our faculty, our students created prototypes of garments from the Sumerian era, as a part of their practical training on History of World Costumes and Clothing. 

The best part of this assignment was that the students had to use only discarded materials available on campus. The idea was to assess the creativity and ingenuity of the fashion aspirants and find innovation amidst regular yet limited resources.

The Sumerian Civilization has always been an interesting era of history, much talked about, especially for their rich art and culture. The innovative concepts in clothing and jewelry and their styling, made Sumerian fashion the most distinctive of their time. Even till today, designers get highly inspired by ancient civilizations and their sense of style.

The Sumerians had the most unique sense of clothing style of their era- the men were mostly bare-chested and wore skirt-like garments tied at the waist. Women usually wore gowns that covered them from shoulders to the ankles with the right arm and shoulder left uncovered. Headdresses were common among both men and women.

Garments and accessories made from naturally available resources made the Sumerians pioneers of ancient clothing. They used what was easily sourceable- like grains that they could harvest, wool, fur and skin from animals they reared, metals that were found in natural ores, and so on. They mostly used the fibers of the flax plant, leaves, sheep wool and cotton. Keeping this in mind, the freshman students of fashion used brown paper, cotton and similar materials to create Sumerian costumes. 

The students were divided in 2 groups of five people in each, where one was to design a male costume and the other designed a woman’s attire. They found this exercise very engaging and fun and it helped them get acquainted with the ‘History of World Costumes’ along with hands-on experience.