New Zealand fashion tech students showcase western designs on silk dresses

The fashion show was organised to conclude the six-week training the group comprising 13 girls had at Bannari Institute of Technology (BIT), Sathyamangalam. 

 Leading industrialists, textile exporters and fashion designers from India witnessed the event, to explore opportunities to manufacture western outfits using traditional materials, as part of the Make in India initiative. Chairman of New Zealand Giles Brooker Group, Giles Brooker, and the director of New Zealand Institute of Fashion Technology Val Marshall-Smith also witnessed the show. 

The students belonged to the 4th batch of New Zealand Institute of Fashion Technology who are here for the programme sponsored by the government. Prabha Govindasamy, a consultant facilitating the collaborative relationship between the two institutes, said the students remodelled the silk sarees into western outfits. 

“Knowledge of textile technology and fashion technology is less in New Zealand,” she said and added that the use of bold colours and contrasts, like the ones in India, is rare there. These students collaborate with BIT students and learnt the technologies, in addition to taking up tours to hand loom manufacturing units and bulk production garment factories.