Designing to win over designers
The budding designers will have a new destination today with the first DLF Emporio Awards 2012 being organised as a part of their luxury shopping festival. The awards aim to bring students to the limelight so that they can garner opportunities for their careers.
In its endeavour to encourage new talent, DLF Emporio has organised a competition and received 25 entries from students studying design in colleges of India and abroad. These designs will be judged by a prominent jury including Rohit Bal, Priya Sachdev, Bandana Tiwari and Mohit Gujral, who will shortlist the best entries that will be showcased at the mall’s atrium for a week-long exhibit.
In accessories, there are interesting entries. A flashy one by Sunakshi Bansal, called “Typographic Neckpiece” has the names of brands hung from wires. Sunakshi says, “I took the inspiration from the mall itself and incorporated names of brands such as Hugo Boss and Gucci and carved them in leather for my neckpiece.”
Another interesting entry is by a group of students from NIFT, Gandhinagar. Shreya Madhulika, one of the members says, “Our design entry is by the name of ARSS which represents the initials of four of us - Alka Kushwaha, Rohini Bharti, Shailja Chavda and Shreya Madhulika.” The girls have submitted a jewellery piece which they call “Amaranthine - eternally beautiful and ever-lasting.”
Shreya explains, “We took the theme of ‘day and night’ and made use of the technique of jaali work to create this piece. The motif inspiration is from the sun, Indian chakra (wheel) and is moulded in contrast of dull and shiny (plain) gold that depicts the complementing of night and day.”
Standing apart as a synonym for luxury, the need to promote new talent as a part of their Shopping Festival is an innovative approach by Emporio. Dinaz Madhukar, vice president, Emporio says, “We have been organising the shopping festival for the past three years but this time we planned to introduce Design Awards so as to bring together the best of talents and honour their creativity. We not only want to encourage new talent but also want to provide them with a platform from where they can show their potential and meet top designers.”
With a worthy jury, the students are looking forward to a call from the known
designers who want to discover new talent.
It has been declared that the winner will get a chance to intern with one of the mall’s designers.
This final prize of interning with the mall’s designers is what every participant is really hoping for. This includes Ravi Tirkey, a II year student of Raffles Millenium International, a London based institute which has a centre in Delhi too.
Having designed a ripped off T-shirt in blue, Ravi says, “I took the inspiration from cracks on walls and worked on a T-shirt as it is the most wearable garment.”
He adds, “I am hoping to win the competition as vacations are approaching and there could be no bigger treat if I get to do an internship here without having searched for one!”
