Bhubaneswar, Dec. 18: Budding designers at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) culled trash from around their campus to come up with amazing installations as part of their semester project on visual merchandising.
“Visual merchandising is the activity and profession of developing floor plans and three-dimensional exhibits to maximise sales. Goods are displayed to highlight their features and benefits. The purpose is to attract, engage and motivate the customer to make a purchase in retail and trade shows,” said centre coordinator (fashion and lifestyle accessories Sushmita Behera.
“NIFT is trying to ingrain the concept of recycling among students and encourage them to design stuff that are not only beautiful and unique, but also environmentally friendly,” she said.
The students from the fashion lifestyle and accessory department collected a range of raw materials — from metal crown caps to newspapers, plastic and metals to design futuristic fashion installations such as designer wear, chandeliers and junk jewellery, which was put on display on the campus. The installations were designed using the theme and technique of tessellation — 3D geometric shapes by using recycled papers. The also students used cans, bottle tops and cardboard boxes for their project. Ankit, a student who designed junk neckpieces out of recycled materials, said fashion designers the world over was becoming eco-conscious and so, they were trying to follow the global trend.
“We used the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle to create the installations and learned a lot from these experiments,” he added.
Another student Sachin said: “The best part of getting involved in something like this is the practical experience we get out of it. Working on these artworks helps us generate more ideas, thereby bringing out our creative side. Besides, recycled artworks is in vogue and is also an effective way to tell others about the importance of saving the planet.”
Art connoisseurs and government officials from the textile and handicraft industries, who visited the NIFT campus today, lauded the efforts of the students and encouraged them to come up with more such programmes. Airport authorities have assured students free space in the Biju Patnaik International Airport here to install their artwork.
“We are planning many such tie-ups in future with various departments, both in government and private sector, to showcase the creativity of our students and create a market for these products,” said NIFT director K.C.S. Ray.
