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How to study in style

Mangalore is taking the right steps into the fancy world of haute couture by providing a sound academic grounding, writes M. RAGHURAM

CLEAN CUT Indian styles are a hit the world over be it the bindi, kurti or sherwani PHOTO: SHASHI ASHIWAL

Indian is hot with maverick tycoon Richard Branson sporting a sherwani, Madonna wearing mehendi and Gwen Stefani tooling around with a bindi. If you are into fabrics big time, your search stops here. Think of the gorgeous warps and weaves from Indian looms and one is transported into a phenomenal world of colour.

Indian fabrics and embroidery have been popular internationally forever but now Indian cuts and silhouettes are gaining on the global stage. There is Ritu Beri who scorched the catwalks in Paris while Tarun Tahiliani had the fashionistas go mama mia in Milan. The short kurti has become as much part of haute couture as the kimono cut.

While high fashion is all about flair, creativity and imagination, there is not much one can achieve with the proper basic education in the grammar of fashion. One of the institutions providing this basic necessity is the Mangalore Institute of Fashion Technology (MIFT). M.G. Hegde, fashion design educator, says the 10-year-old institute is more than up to the challenge of creating a global look while keeping the ethnic identity intact.

A visit to the exhibition of garments produced by the students of the MIFT provides a teaser trailer of what would sizzle on the catwalk in the future. The kurtas are strikingly different while the salwar kameez sets kissed with dainty embroidery in gossamer hues are truly to die for. Even the common shirt with stiff collars, which is a symbol of our colonial past, looks uncompromisingly Indian.

Hegde, who wrote the first academic curriculum for fashion, is confident that Indian designs, particularly those in silk and khadi, will make its presence felt on the world stage. Indian silk is superior to the multi-filament fabrics available elsewhere in the world and khadi is the purest form of cotton. Hegde says: "The world now understands the importance of these fabrics and fashion designers of the future will be from India if they are able to harness the scope of khadi and silk."

Mangalore's status as a fashion centre is growing slowly but steadily. A drive from Balmatta to Hampankatta or Falnir is as good as fashion show as one can watch pretty young things in the traditional blue jeans teamed with kurtas or skirts with tops embellished with Indian embroidery.

So the next time you feel like a wardrobe makeover, don't go to Vogue or think Chanel and Gucci our homegrown designers rock big time!

Accolades

The hard work that has gone into the fashion designing is finally paying off with two students of Karavali College winning international acclaim. Pooja Purushottam, doing her first year garment design, won the first prize in the national-level Global Style 2006 Fashion Design held in Hyderabad recently, while Anju Rashid, doing her second year, won the Special Jury Award for presentation.

G. Ganesh Rao, chairman of the college, said: "There is no doubt that the city has ample talent in fashion designing."

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