“Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life.” —Bill Cunningham

The power of fashion was rightly expressed by the latest 2024 batch of NIFT fashion graduates, who, in their 2024 graduation showcase, truly transcended the boundaries of conventional fashion with designs that spoke volumes about where fashion would be with the next generation of designers in line. The 2024 graduation competition, which was held across several NIFT centres, witnessed designers showcasing their remarkable and unique designs that featured skilful garment construction and innovative approaches that went beyond the traditional fashion system.

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Usha International has been sponsoring and celebrating the designs of such talented future designers with the ‘NIFT Best Garment Construction Award’ at the graduation showcase for almost two decades now, and this year witnessed Shiuli Biswas from Kolkata winning for her highly sophisticated and unique innovation ‘Whispers of the Urban Tapestry talks about the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life.’

While talking to The Statesman, a spokesperson from Usha International said, “Our association with NIFT started 25 years ago, and ever since, we have conferred this award annually with an aim to nurture and encourage talent in the fashion industry. The young fashion talent amazes us year after year with their concepts and out-of-the-box thinking to create collections that often draw attention to social issues we face as a society. Their creativity is incredible and their sewing skills up the ante each year, and it gives us immense pride to felicitate their talent with the Usha NIFT Best Garment Construction Award. This year, there were several innovative and eye-catching creations across all the 16 NIFT centres that piqued our interest, including Shiuli Biswas, and every award was very well deserved.”

Shiuli’s creation ‘Whispers of the urban tapestry’ highlights the vibrant chaos of the streets, which illuminates the monotony of existing everyday routine. Among so many students showcasing intricate designs, her design caught the eye due to the unique blend of bold yet minimalist patterns that focused on highlighting the storytelling element, creating visually impactful designs that conveyed a meaning deeper than surface aesthetics. She draws inspiration from the complexities of daily life in the urban landscape, which often gets overloaded with images and elements, where surroundings become out of focus and abstract, and all one ends up seeing are a bunch of lines and shapes moving in speed.

For Shiuli, her creative process starts with keeping track of the current trends, conducting extensive research and roaming the city to not just absorb the minute details of everyday life but also make sure to get inspired to create the perfect aesthetic mood board with a defined colour palette. Her colour palette base was an achromatic colour scheme to keep it minimal, where the embroidery intended to highlight the story. She commented, “From there, I moved on to sketching detailed designs, focusing on unique silhouettes inspired by the concept and intricate details of surfaces made of Kantha embroidery that would reflect the collection’s narrative. Kantha has a special place in my heart; its thread connects us with our ancestors and tells us about their untold stories. Also, fabric selection is crucial, and I carefully chose the fabric that would enhance the design and align with the sustainability goals. Throughout the design process, I continuously tested, refined, and incorporated feedback from my mentor to perfect the final garments.”

While talking about the challenges she had faced while curating her design, she added, “Some feelings can’t be expressed, and some pictures can’t depict what the mind can. At the time of research work, I felt that. In the beginning, I found it difficult to string together the story of what I wanted to capture, from the busy life of people to their adaptation to it. Secondly, any kind of hand embroidery is a time-consuming process as it is very delicate, and for kantha, you can only stitch one at a time. I was working single-handedly, without any help, as it was a solo project and was a time-consuming construction. It took me around four months to complete the whole collection. So time management was a challenge for me for sure.”

Being on the receiving end of enthusiastic feedback, her designs focused on sustainability as well through the use of linen-cotton, which is an organic fabric. Excited about ‘The NIFT Best Garment Construction Award’, Shiuli hopes that she will be able to create a better version across storytelling, sustainability, and vision. Replying cheerfully, she added, “One day, I will be able to represent my vision through the new thought process. Being a Gen Z, there are a lot of things I want to explore and work on; I want to work on sustainable alternatives that will help to reduce pollution raised by our industry. I want to work on an adaptive clothing line for people in need, and for sure on ethnicity to decode the history of mixed culture in India.”