Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Rohit Bal, Raghavendra Rathore and Leena Singh - the big names from the the fashion industry came together to motivate and guide new talent at Agragami, a first of its kind designer-student conclave.

“In the glitz and glamour of the fashion industry, we loose opportunities to promote new talent and this somehow blocks the industry expansion. Creative industries need constant infusion of new ideas to break new barriers and this initiative (Agragami) is a nice approach,” Leena Singh told IANS.

Designer duo Shantanu-Nikhil were also at Agragami (which means frontrunner), organised by International College of Fashion (ICF) at India Habitat Center Saturday to provide a platform for synergy and networking between aspiring and established designers.

“ICF, through this medium, focuses on encouraging and promoting the new generation of designers and design entrepreneurs in the Indian context. Structured and nurtured design thinking combined with local innovation and Indian mindset can play a very crucial role in achieving a strong growth path even for new talent. Winning by design should be the new age mantra for new India,” said Vinod Kaul, joint managing director, International College of Fashion (ICF).

“With the growing interest of fashion in India, a lot of promising designers are coming up. They, however, need the support of the existing fashion ecosystem ranging from peers, technicians, merchants and models in a co-optetion model for their own and the fashion industry’s success. The Design Conclave will be instrumental in raising issues which are critical for implementation of successful design innovation as well as design practices in various enterprises,” he added

ICF offers an entrepreneurship programme and Kaul said: “We specialise in an education based around the business of fashion. The objective is to equip a student to not only fashion designing, but also to be a successful entrepreneur.”