In times when promoting young and creative talent is becoming vital for the Indian fashion industry, e-commerce website Myntra has come up with Myntra Fashion Incubator (MFI), a one-year programme via which it will train and support 11 new faces under its first batch of Designer In Residence (DIR) platform.
As part of DIR, Myntra will provide the selected candidates necessary design and work infrastructure, capital support and mentorship from a team of acclaimed designers. The programme would cover essentials like branding, consumer behaviour, product design and development, pricing, inventory planning, retailing and financial planning.
The final names under MFI program included Metallurgy by Advaeita Mathur, The Lokal South Kallection by Darshana Sukumar, Ek Karkhana by Preeti Wanchoo, Picnic by Harleen Kaur, ex.pression.ist n by Mohammed Javed Khan, Tortus by Raghav Sethi, ASA by Shreya Oza, The Ink Bucket by Vidhi Khandelwal, Vaishvik by Rajesh Maratha, Anwar Khan by Anwar Khan and MAD on FAD by Priyanka Kumar.
Close to 30 applicants were asked to present their creative and scalable business ideas to the jury, and 11 of them made it to the final list thanks to the jury panel, which included some popular names like Wendell Rodricks and Rina Dhaka from the fashion world, experts in the retail industry and members of Myntra's leadership team.
The jurors were bowled over by the confidence and creativity that the youngsters exhibited while representing their brand and ideologies.
Rodricks told IANS: "I'm very happy with this initiative because I I truly believe in next generation. I interacted with every designer and they are great. We need to understand that we were also new when we started, so let them get a chance and let's see how they grow."
He has a word of advise for the designers.
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"With a corporate backing like Myntra, I think it will help the young designers to flourish in days to come, but they have to understand one thing that one can't be commercial and creative at the same time."
Designer Rahul Khanna of the famous duo Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, said he was on the lookout for someone who can play with fabrics and textures.
"For me, a garment's finishing and someone having a clear idea about their brand is very important," Khanna told IANS before the final round.
The 11 students will be the part of the first of the incubator program, and they will occupy the design space inside the Myntra campus by Jan 15, 2015. Eventurally, they will work full-time on their brand.
Sharing how Myntra came up with the programme and how it will be involved with these students inside the campus, Abhishek Verma, senior vice president, Myntra Fashion Brands, told IANS: "We got to know that there are lot of young names who have great business and I know that fashion is a tough business and risky too, so we thought there is demand and supply of talent.
"We have created a brand which is doing very well for us and hence it almost felt natural for us to do this as a step to promote young names."
The idea is to play the role of a mentor and infrastructure provider with no interference in creativity, said Verma.
Apart from training, MFI will also provide these candidates an opportunity to showcase their brands at various platforms as well as to be retail their creations on Myntra.com. Also, after completing one season, they can also pitch their fashion designs to MFI advisory board for investments to scale their business.
(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)
