As the skies started blemishing the dawn’s twilight, I stand at a break point still not discerned on where exactly to begin or what exactly to inscribe here. It has been long-drawn-out since I penned down my infinite unanswered notions here in my weblog. The recent course of events has been cozy and comforting just like the present weather in New Delhi. The environment is contentedly positioned to kick-start my final graduate design collection.
The very fact that I got through the college campus placements and I now have a job to look forward to propels oodles of warmth inside my flesh. The icing on the cake is that my best friend and I made to to the same company. I will shortly be working as a fashion designer in Burnt Umber, with the Pantaloons team in Mumbai.
At this instance when I look back, I joined NIFT to befall in one amidst John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Rei Kawakubo. I still do. It was tricky to pick between a retail brand and a designer brand. Working with a designer brand is unabashedly the easiest ticket to become the next John Galliano. However, the retail environment escalates you as a professional, nurtures your management & organizational skills and furnishes healthier conception of commercial styles, tastes and trends as you deal with the masses.
Overtime I have questioned and pondered more persistently and answered some questions, thrusting myself into a cocoon that comforted me and most of us legitimately do so, have done so, and continue to do so.
I indisputably owe this judgment to my internship in Bangalore and the working atmosphere there. The city itself is genuinely charismatic with an aura of its own. My friend once quoted, “Someday I’ll go to heaven and say, it’s good, but this ain’t Bangalore”. Bangalore’s scenic beauty, dreamy weather, welcoming natives and their relaxed lifestyle – It is all very happening and yet so calm and polite. I was gifted to work in the city, blessed to work in the company, FS Asia Marketing Ltd., a retail brand that principally deals with knits and organic fashion.
Up in the fifth floor of SMR Vinay Estate in the desolate Bayyapanahalli ring road, the office vicinity boasts of serenity and still. The pleasant wind tenderly gushes through the windows keeping everyone glued to their work in comfort. Mr. Naidu, who leads the company, is a well-poised and highly sophisticated man, dressed in pristinely tailored clothes while even his shoes never wore a wrinkle. Our boss, Mrs. Pradivya guided our team of three with the entire process of designing and developing patterns for a new organic clothing brand.
The opportunity imparted fresh and innovative approach to problem solving in design. We did research, sent out questionnaires to find the target market, their style and fabric taste and their spending habits. Senior merchandiser Pradeev helped us with the process and did the needful.
In contrast to the celebrated tales of unhealthy work culture at designer brands, the Bangalore episode bestowed me with better management and organization skills, a new dimension and thought-process apart from the scholarly knowledge on organic fashion and clothing. I met humble people. I bonded with people. I became a better person. It was in that two months when my mind was at peace in the entire four years of college life at NIFT. Retail environment is perhaps just the right endeavor for me.
Today when nostalgia suffocates me as I reminisce old times and when there is a lot to look forward to and a lot to hold back to, I write about my assessments and what they hold for me. I write when I am alone, it brings the best out of me.
With plenty of hopes, dreams and aspirations, I am looking forward to relocate to Mumbai in July later this year.
Footnote: Snapshots from Bangalore
Office, F S Asia Marketing
Work Table
Organic Fabric Swatches
Patterns
The flyover outside office
Bhagini, my favourite restaurant out there. Yummy & economical!
Clicking while in auto. Way back home.
Dreamy Bangalore Weather!
TOIT!
The super-awesome open-air CCD near Indira Nagar Metro