Mumbai, 1 March 2011: Wills Lifestyle announced the fifth edition of ‘The Debut’, a first of its kind initiative for recognizing India’s promising young talent in fashion arena. The first regional round kicked off today at the Wills Lifestyle store in Phoneix Mills. The contest like previous four seasons will provide an opportunity to showcase, reward and recognise the aspiring young designers of the country.
This year the contest received an overwhelming response through more than 300 entries from all over India, including students from country’s prestigious fashion institutes like all centers of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National Institute of Design (NID) and Pearl Academy of Fashion. Out of 200 portfolios received, a separate jury further short listed the entries to 45 potential candidates, who will be presenting their creations in front of an eminent jury at the regional rounds to be held in Bangalore (March 03) and Kolkata (March 08) besides Mumbai.
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On the occasion of ITC as an organization completing 100 years, the students have been provided a theme to draw inspiration for the creations – a theme to draw inspiration for the creations – INDIA first. The criteria for selection will require the garments to signify continuous existence, societal, development of product & technology innovations in India.
Mr. Atul Chand, Divisional Chief Executive, ITC’s Lifestyle Retailing Business Division said, “The Debut by Wills Lifestyle is a unique platform that nurtures and recognises young talent in the field of fashion design. This initiative provides encouragement to budding creative talent and facilitates interface with the leading names of the Indian Fashion fraternity. We are delighted at the overwhelming response received and we are sure the initiative will go from strength to strength in the years to come”.
The short listed finalists will be competing at ‘The Debut’ finale to be held in New Delhi on March 16, 2011. An eminent panel of representatives from the design team of ITC and other fashion institutes like NIFT, NID, Pearl Academy, along with renowned fashion designers of FDCI will judge the winner, on key parameters like Creativity, Technicality and Commercial Viability. The winner will receive an award at the forthcoming edition of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Award, besides an all expenses paid trip to an International Fashion Fair and an opportunity to work with ITC Ltd
The candidates in Mumbai were judged by the celebrated fashion designers Krishna Mehta, Priyadarshini Rao, Monica Aggarwal NIFT.
5 winners for Mumbai round to go into the final:
Nipun Dhingra
Arti Jaggi
Mukta Barva
Harshita Bhardwaj
Madhurima Sengupta
MUMBAI REGIONAL ROUND PARTICIPANTS
NIFT Mumbai – 1 Student
NIFT New Delhi – 5 Students
NIFT Gandhinagar – 1Student
Pearl Academy of Fashion , Jaipur – 4 Students
Pearl Academy of Fashion , Delhi – 3 Students
Amity School of Fashion Technology – 1 Student
About Wills Lifestyle- ITC’s Wills Lifestyle has been established as a vibrant fashion brand for the premium consumer. Wills Lifestyle offers a complete lifestyle wardrobe for the premium consumer, incorporating the latest fashion trends, comprising – Wills Classic work wear, Wills Sport relaxed wear, Wills Clublife evening wear, Wills Signature Designer wear, Essenza di Wills range of fine fragrances, bath & body care products and fashion accessories for both men and women. A nationwide chain of exclusive specialty stores provides the Indian consumer a truly ‘International Shopping Experience’ through world-class ambience, customer facilitation and clearly differentiated product presentation. Currently there are 72 stores in 37 cities across the country, and the brand is making rapid strides in terms of expansion – doubling the number of stores over the next three years. Wills Lifestyle, ITC’s premium fashion & lifestyle brand has been recognised as the Retailer of the Year at the Asia Retail Congress 2011. Being one of Asia’s biggest retail forums, Asia Retail Congress has also awarded Wills Lifestyle for the Best Retail Marketing Campaign in the year 2010. The brand was also declared as the winner for Customer & Brand Loyalty in the “Retail Sector” at the 4th Loyalty Awards presented by Carlson Marketing.
For details visit www.willslifestyle.com
