Fashion Inspirations from Wendell Rodricks and Anjana Sharma

The students of Whistling Woods- Neeta Lulla School of Fashion are mentored by acclaimed designers and professional from the fashion industry. Furthermore, our ‘Masterclasses’ expose the aspiring designers to the ever dynamic world of fashion. Our latest Masterclass held on 17^th April, 2015 was all about drawing inspirations from the works of leading Designer Wendell Rodricks and, Anjana Sharma, COO and Fashion Director of Stylista.

 

At the Masterclass, Wendell and Anjana discussed various aspects of fashion design with the students. Wendell started off by sharing his journey and experiences as a designer. He also spoke about how he draws inspiration from the the colours, serenity and beauty of  nature, sea, flowers and trees, which he demonstrated through a beautiful presentation and showed how he translates his inspiration into breathtaking designs.

Wendell was also inspired by his birthplace, Goa and its natural beauty. It inspired him to create some brilliant designs, which he shared and presented with stories of Goa and how it translate into his designs.

He believes that creativity and practicality should be given equal importance in the field of fashion. He also encouraged the aspirants, not to limit themselves to just one aspect of fashion, but to enjoy and explore as much as they can. Along with exploring, designers need to be well-aware about the different fabrics and textiles while creating new designs and his one golden advice to the students was that, “a designer should never be afraid of scissors.”

Anjana Sharma, on the other hand, shared great insights on fashion and market trends. Her discussion helped the students to better understand why the balance between commercial knowledge and creative brilliance is of importance, in the fashion industry.

This insightful Masterclass culminated with the two honorary guests conducting a one-on-one mentoring session with the graduating batch, where they shared their design ideas for their ‘Graduation Day’ collection. 

Overall, the Masterclass and post-Masterclass session gave our students some great insight regarding the aesthetics of fashion designing alongwith inspiring the aspirants to put their soul into their art.

Developing the Fashion Ecosystem- The Future of Fashion Forum

The Future of Fashion Forum, 2015, a prominent fashion event that brought the who’s who of the fashion industry on one platform. The event that was on 24^th January, 2015 saw a huge number of fashion enthusiastic coming to attending the Forum that not only aimed to enlighten the students, but also to give a chance to interactive with some of the biggest names in the fashion industry.

After the inauguration ceremony, the first session of the day started with an interesting topic that was Developing the Fashion Ecosystem. The event was presented by Vinay Nadkarni (MD & CEO Globus Stores Pvt Ltd), Anjana Sharma (COO & Fashion Director stylista.com) and Payal Singhal (Fashion designer). Each one of the speakers gave great insights on the current fashion scenario. “Locally produced fabric to create a sustainable ecosystem is the trend that’s coming in” is what Payal Singhal believes.

Taking the topic further, the panel spoke about the fashion consumed by the masses. “Tier 2&3 cities are not a restriction these cities consume more in comparison to metro, through e-commerce”, Vinay Nadkarni said. Talking about e-commerce, he said, “The buying habits of the customers have changed over the past few years. E-commerce is booming.”  To this Payal Singhal added that, “India is a booming e-commerce nation with a huge population of technologically aware youth.” She also added that, “Digital has given designers bigger platforms and wider reach to showcase their collection to their clientele.”

Talking about Indian Fashion, Vinay Nadkarni said that it is necessary to “maintain ‘Indianness’ in whatever you create, a huge market lies ahead to consume the vibrancy of colors and the Indian essence.” Even Payal Singhal commented on similar lines saying, “India has been a global style trendsetter from the very beginning” and also,“India has always been a global style influencer. There is no other place that provides cultural heritage as we do.”

This session also dealt with the importance of creating a right retail brand building approach and adoption the right business structure. The first thing that Vinay Nadkarni says about this is that, “Research, understand the market, and cater to your clientele.” Payal Singhal elaborates it by saying, “Know your brand vision, execute your ideas, know your clients, maintain the identity to make your brand visible and relevant. Creativity and commercial viability is a balance that one needs to strike to appeal to the clientele.” Also that, “Consumer feedback is imperative to make garments saleable.”

Lastly, Payal Singhal advises the young aspirants present to, “Keep innovating and to also be unique to succeed in an extremely competitive fashion world.”