Amit Agarwal on mediocrity in fashion education

American postmodernist novelist Thomas Pynchon once wrote something to the effect that every generation is out of the house for the decade it is living in. I want to believe that this is not right for me. The last thing I want is to sound like an old man, frowning in panic, screaming about the incompetence of youth. After all, what is merit and who measures it? But having said that, I’m sure we can all agree on three basic components that can’t be compromised when it comes to what someone values ​​in life: unwavering discipline, having your own voice and walking away from it. An infectious campaign mediocre narrow street.

Unfortunately, it all escalated recently during the interview round held at National Institute of Technology (NIFT), Delhi, of which I am a proud alumnus. The positions I was hoping to fill were diverse: four designers, one graphic designer, one social media assistant and three for retail and management. We got 500 resumes. Since it is humanly impossible to check through all of them, we shortlisted the candidates on the basis of their marks. It came down to about 50 candidates for design and retail each.

Signs that it was heading south existed long ago. Even before the actual interview process started online, half of them dropped out without any explanation. So, the resumes we read were — and there is no other way to put it — atrocious. Except for one or two, they were all startling, lacking voice, and with a cover letter that could have been written better by a nine-year-old. None of them had any practical experience or well-structured portfolios.

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Positivity vs Portfolio

I believe that creativity, especially for students who want to enter the chaotic world of fashion, cannot be contained in a single box. After all, there are many ways to keep one’s portfolio dynamic. We all understand they couldn’t sew a piece for hours because of the pandemic, but what stopped them from just taking a pencil and going wild? Today’s students are equipped with a range of tools – from Behance and Pinterest to the world of reels and videos from fashion masters. I don’t even remember using the internet in my NIFT days, but that didn’t matter to us.

Amit Agarwal says, ‘No other generation has access to the kind of data bank that the current generation does Photo Credit: Special Arrangement’

unfortunately the way fashion The curriculum (or even more comprehensive education system) is structured, which is very old. Why do you have to go through the grinding of three months long modules of children’s clothing when you know it’s not your voice? But if the education system is normal, then the responsibility falls on the student to find creative ways to raise his voice.

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Personally, when I go through a portfolio, I’m not looking for remarkable work because I don’t claim to know what’s noteworthy. I am inspired by departments that see the mundane and make it magical; Students who look at the fashion world from a non-technical, non-fashion perspective clearly stand out. These can be attitudes to culture, sociological dimensions or even a sense of engineering. After all, fashion really comes from understanding life, and you need to allow me your way of looking at things. I also need to learn from the students. It is a two way road. Would remain forever.

In the end, we were able to shortlist only two candidates for Retail. Maybe our criteria for shortlisting based on their GPA score was flawed? Maybe there was a sea of ​​creativity in those hundreds of resumes that never reached us? I will never know. Despite everything, I remain optimistic. There is no doubt in my mind that the present generation knows exactly what they want. I hope they can clearly state who they are.

The author is a fashion designer from Delhi.