One of the award-winning creations of Ajay Kumar Gupta, of NIFT Calcutta: Couture maturity. Picture by Pabitra Das

Fashionably close in politics, but poles apart in power dressing. Couture conflict is lending the latest twist in the tale of two cities.

The curtains that came down on Confluence 2004 — the final showdown among the best graduating design collections across all National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) centres — brought with them more than a whiff of Delhi vs Calcutta controversy.

By Monday midnight, the verdict was clear. NIFT Delhi, the alma mater of JJ Valaya, Ritu Beri, Manish Arora and Ashish Soni, swept the award categories, bagging four out of six in the fashion and knitwear departments. Calcutta NIFT (of Sabyasachi Mukherjee fame) had to make do with just one award.

Ajay Kumar Gupta of the Knitwear Design and Technology Department of NIFT Calcutta, who had earlier bagged the award for Most Innovative Collection in the home run, emerged the sole city winner in the Most Creative Knitwear Collection rounds on the national stage.

Delhi may well be tops today, but tomorrow belongs to Calcutta. That was the verdict from jury members and top NIFT officials contacted by Metro, the afternoon after. For when it comes to “potential among designers”, Calcutta is the clear choice.

“It isn’t enough to say that the collections by the Calcutta students were good, I think they put up a very mature collection. I can vouch that there were at least five or six collections that spoke volumes about the potential of students,” said city designer Anamika Khanna, who was also on the NIFT jury this year.

“I was hugely impressed by the collection the students of Calcutta put up this time. The use of colour and graphics in their clothes was amazing; it exudes a global feel,” echoed Banhi Jha, chairperson of the fashion department, NIFT. “I have seen stars in the making among the students of Calcutta. Just give them two to three years and you’ll hear their names emerging in the national circuit… In the next five years, Calcutta will be the fashion capital,” she announced.

But if the city has such designs on the future, why are the awards giving it the miss at present? “Personally, I felt that the designs and cuts of the collections from Calcutta were fabulous, but each jury member has his own viewpoint, so it’s difficult to say why the results are as they are,” said Anamika.

According to some ‘mentors’ at NIFT Calcutta, Anamika had put up her own little fight to get the home designs their due. “I didn’t fight for Calcutta to win, but I fought for the right designs,” stressed Anamika.

In Delhi, however, the mood was all upbeat. Asha Baxi, dean of academics in NIFT, Delhi, said: “The reason for this success is the strict discipline and delivery standards that we maintain at our centre. Both the students and faculty are expected to bring in their best to the classroom.”

Back home at Salt Lake, Ajay’s achievement was enough to keep the campus abuzz. “We were very optimistic about his collection and were confident that he would win; this didn’t come as a big surprise,” said Swaroop Dutta, professor with the knitwear department and Ajay’s mentor.