Why do cities like Jamshedpur lack sartorial elegance? Lack of sound designer sense, believes Arvind K. Zarapkar, principal of Zarapkar Tailoring College in Mumbai.

The fashion designer is in the steel city to conduct a session, titled Creative Pattern Workshop, which is being organised by OIIFT on its Bistupur premises.

Zarapkar will train around 30 professionals and students during the six-day workshop, which started on Monday and will continue till August 8.

"What tailors usually do is called drafting and it hardly helps in giving the perfect shape to a designer dress. During the workshop, I will teach the basic flat pattern cutting, which is a step by step scientific process, used in case of designer wears that we see on the television every day," said Zarapkar.

The sartorial expert believes in basics. He feels patterns and right cuts can make even a modest fabric look rich and beautiful.

"The basic is very important. Flat pattern cutting helps you learn innumerable designs. Opportunities for designers are many, but you have to be thorough in what you do if you want to beat competition," said Zarapkar, who is a visiting faculty member at NIFTs, SNDT Women's University and many other fashion cradles both in India and abroad.

A fashionista with a diploma in garment designing from the Master College in the US, Zarapkar was also a member of the board of vocational examinations and the moderator at the Union ministry of labour and employment.

This is the second time Zarapkar is visiting Jamshedpur to train aspiring and budding designers.

Prativa Mohanty, director of OIIFT, said, "It is a privilege for us to have the veteran here to train designers. They can learn how the professional fashion world works."