Coming soon: Haute Couture for India

The announcement was made on Thursday by Union Textile Minister Smriti Zubin Irani at an event in Chennai after she inaugurated the Student Multi Activity Centre and Girls Hostel in Kanagam Village.

Addressing the gathering of students, she said, “It intends to give India one of the first forecasting agencies, where NIFT Chennai students can contribute to holistically. It is a historical venture you are to embark upon. The world of fashion has been beautifully serviced by forecasting industry. One of the first attempts in Indian fashion and in Indian textile industry to forecast fashion, to forecast fabric and colour, not only for the Indian market domestically, but also for Indian manufacturing and export possibilities, will find one foot in this very campus of NIFT Chennai. This centre not only serves you as students but also seeks to serve the prospects. possibilities and capacities of India as a manufacturing hub and as a textile hub of the world.”

Colour forecasting or fashion forecasting involves trend prediction, where individuals or groups work together to predict the colours, fabrics and styles for fashion garments and accessories that will be in vogue among consumers in the next two years at least.

Talking to DT Next, Anitha Manohar, director, NIFT Chennai, said that the forecasting will open a whole lot of possibilities of fashion predictions, as there is a gamut of fashion movement happening across regions in the country. “The fashion trends are different in North and South India and across several other regions of the country. Fashion forecasting is usually done by agencies abroad and this for the first time in India, we will work towards forecasting the different trends and present them,” she said. The NIFT Chennai will be working in association with NIFT Mumbai for this project, she added.