Ten students of classes XI and XII attended a 6 day workshop at the Pearl Academy, Noida from 6th to 11th June 2016. The students were able to to explore, first-hand, the various areas of fashion like styling, communication, business and visual merchandising during this brief stint at the institute.
On the first day, the focus of the programme was architecture and interior design. Architecture deals with the exterior shell while interior design deals with the inside. We were shown how spaces, big and small are conceived to be built and decorated. We were asked to create a few rough models from wooden blocks. The models had to replicate the outside of a structure. It had to be something unique and different. This activity had us don our thinking caps and stretch our imaginations! Later, we also created models using materials such as thermocol, threads, cardboard and toothpicks. Each individual model was then combined with four other models to create a unique formation.
The second day was equally exciting as it dealt with the designing of garments. We had to design five dresses in a span of one hour! The texture of the outfits had to be the same as we were provided with only one fabric, a sari. It was a challenge to create all the dresses from only one fabric. Once the designing was done, we had to actually make the outfits! We created a crop-top, shrug, mini skirt, dress, etc. All of this was done with the help of a fashion stencil which was provided to us by the academy. Later, a few of us even donned these dresses for an impromptu fashion show!
[gallery link="file"] On the third day, we had an interactive session on fashion styling. The students had many questions to ask and it was quite engaging. The second half of the day was spent styling our own garments. We did this by cutting up old T-shirts into various shapes and styles. This demanded a lot of ingenuity and imagination from our end but it all ended well. This was followed by a photo shoot where students also got to model what they had created!The fourth day started with a business workshop where we were spoken to about visual merchandising. We were shown the selling techniques of different brands and how companies deal with competition from other brands. We were also exposed to things like private labels, national labels, e-commerce, startup, retail etc. Personally, it was the most interesting part of the 6-day internship. After the session, we were asked to design a window display. Students were divided into groups of 4. Each group assumed a different style like punk, roadster or classy etc. Each group also had to assume a particular brand through which they had to showcase their presentations. The day ended well with a selfie session with several staff members from Pearl.
The next day, we visited a garment industry where we studied the garment-making process. The various kinds of machines and skills used to produce garments were observed. The kind of detailing required to develop a single garment was a great eye-opener!
The last day was very engaging. The day started with a hair and makeup workshop. Later, a few of us were made to dress up in cocktail dresses, while the rest had to do up the hair and makeup to suit the dresses. Some budding artists amongst us came up with fancy floral designs around the eyes, nude lips with a bold eye look, peacock eyes with dark lips and much more! W e had a ramp walk in which our models had to showcase the makeup and hair styles created by the other group members. The ramp walk was followed by a small dance party and refreshments - a perfect end to a wholesome programme!
The experience was very useful as it provided us with a generous glimpse into the fashion world. I'd like to thank our School for providing us with this opportunity and look forward to other such experiences in the future.
Devangini Aggarwal (Class XI).
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