5 from NIFT Patna to attend Wills contest

PATNA: As many as five students of NIFT Patna would take part in the eastern zonal competition of 'Wills Lifestyle Debut Awards'- an all-India competition for final year students of fashion designing - to be held in Kolkata from Wednesday. This year the theme of the fashion show is 'Urban Heritage'.
The five students who have received the honour of representing Bihar at the competition are: Dharmendra Kumar, Neha Sharma, Ritu, Pragati Bairagi and Manju Mehra.
"As many as 300 fashion designing students from across the country participated in the first round of competition, out of which 32 were shortlisted for the second (zonal) round," Sanjay Shrivastava, HoD, fashion designing, NIFT Patna, told TOI. He added, "The selected 10 winners at the zonal level would showcase their designs at the final round of 'The Debut' in New Delhi in the first week of March."
"The winners would be felicitated with a trophy and a certificate and all expenses-paid trip to an International Fashion Fair of repute," said Monika Garg, director general, NIFT, Patna. "All my students would be presenting Bihar's traditional art and craft through their designs," said SC Jha, director NIFT, Patna.
Dharmendra Kumar, one of the selected students, would be promoting local 'Sujni' art at the fashion show. Ritu, who is very fond of 'Sikki grass craft of Sitamarhi', said, "I would be crafting high fashion garments." Inspired with the magic of 'mehndi', Neha Sharma's collection would contain intricate designs and patterns of 'mehndi'. "My method would translate the uniqueness of this art form on to the garments to emphasize on 'mehndi' as an art to wear."
Pragati Bairagi, another participating student said, "My collection is a tribute to arts and crafts of West Bengal like 'Kantha' embroidery, scroll painting and 'Patachitra'. On the other hand, the garments of Manju Mehra are inspired from urban heritage of Indian embroideries. She said, "I am breaking the rule of embroideries, using white fabric and white thread for all embroideries including 'Chikankari', 'Kashida', 'Kantha' and bead work on 'Chanderi' silk fabric."