I studied fashion styling at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), and today I’m going to tell you how I did it and what the experience was like.

I will give you the good, the bad and the ugly, an honest review of the styling course at NIFT.

So if you’re considering studying the same, I hope this blog post, and the below video, will help clear some of your doubts and questions.

Why I studied styling?

So, first of all, why did I study fashion styling? During covid, I started making content around fashion and style, and I was enjoying doing this. I was learning more and more as I made content, and at one point, I thought I should study fashion.

My doubts and questions

But I had a bunch of questions and fears. And the biggest question was,
should I even go back to college at this age?

I have had no formal education in fashion. I’ve never worked in the fashion industry except for the content I make. My education was in management, with both bachelors and masters. So I was doubting my decision.

But I am very lucky to be surrounded by people who believe in me and are always there to give me a little push whenever I’m stuck in situations like these. So I went for it, and now that I have finished this course, I can say yes, 100% go for it.

College or not, we should always keep learning and growing personally and professionally. And not everyone is always in a position to do something like this. Sometimes we have financial constraints and sometimes responsibilities. So if you are lucky enough to be able to do something like this, then don’t let your fears hold you back.

Now that I’ve taken this course, I feel braver and more confident. And if another opportunity comes tomorrow, I will not be overthinkin it as much.

Which fashion institute is best in India?

The next question was, which institute should I go for? And I did check out the websites of some private institutes as well. And then, I stalked the social media profiles of teachers and alumni of those institutes. But I wasn’t satisfied with the work they were doing. I didn’t want to go overseas either because I wanted to study Indian fashion as well.

Short-term courses at NIFT

Then I thought, why not check NIFT’s website and see if they have anything? And that’s when I came across the CE (Continuing Education) program of NIFT. It’s a trusted name, government-owned and the best fashion institute in the country. So we can expect a certain standard of education from them.

The CE program has been launched recently and is meant for people who are not from a fashion background but are passionate about fashion and want to switch careers and go into a creative field. Or for those who are in fashion already and want to add new skills.

They have many short-term courses in pattern making, fashion management, visual merchandising and many more, which range from a few weeks to a year.

The basic education required for this is just till 12th standard. You do not have to be a graduate for this, and it’s totally fine if you do not have a previous education in fashion.

They have evening batches as well for a few hours every alternate day. In my course, we had classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and sometimes on the weekends. So you can manage this with your job as well. You do not have to quit your current job to go for a course like this.

The problem was that the course was not available at NIFT Delhi then, it is now, but at the time, it was only available at NIFT Mumbai. So I took a big leap of faith and applied.

What are the admission criteria?

As a part of the application process, I filled out a form and was supposed to send both a hard copy and a soft copy to the administration in the college.

The fee was around ₹90,000 for the entire course.

There is no written test, just an interview where they have to be sure that you’re passionate about fashion. So I just showed them my past work and content, and that went smoothly.

Which subjects did I study?

Now let me take you through the major subjects that we studied. The first subject was Design Process, where we learned to make mood boards and theme boards, prepare colour palettes, look boards, and plan an entire shoot.

Then we learned about the basic principles and elements of design, which are the scientific principles explaining why something looks good to the human eye and how to draw attention towards or away from something. And these principles could be used in any kind of designing or styling.

We also learned about textiles, different properties and structures of weaves and knits, and different types of fibres, yarns and fabrics.

Which was my favourite subject?

My favourite subject out of all was the history of costumes, where we learned about the history of fashion throughout civilizations and how major events like the World Wars and the Great Depression impacted fashion.

As a part of the same subject, we also learned about the history of Indian fashion, different drapes, fabrics, and the regional costumes of India. And if you’ve watched my videos, you know how much I love artisanal fashion. And this was one of the most interesting subjects in the entire course.

And once we learned that, we moved on to costume appreciation, which was also very interesting because we were supposed to watch movies and observe the styling of characters. Different colours, fabrics, and textures had different meanings.

And I started noticing things that I never noticed before. For example, in the movie Gangubai, Alia Bhatt wears a white sari throughout most of the movie. But the details in the white sari keep changing according to the scene. For romantic scenes, we see floral patterns in romantic colours like soft pink. For scenes when a celebration or a wedding is happening, we see golden and silver embroideries on this body and in the last scene where they have to portray a powerful woman, they show a broad red border on the same white sari.

So it was really interesting to learn these things. And now whenever I watch a movie, I cannot unsee these things.

We also studied how fashion forecasting is done; like post-COVID, “Above-the-keyboard” dressing became popular because when you’re working on a zoom call, just the top half of your body is visible. So statement earrings and statement
sleeves like puffed sleeves and padded shoulders became trendy.

We also saw the Tie-Dye trend, which became popular because, during COVID, we were all making DIY Tie-Dye T-shirts at home. So as a part of this subject, we learned how future fashion trends are forecasted, and NIFT gives all its students a free subscription to the WGSN website, which is a company that provides fashion forecasting services. And this subscription is otherwise very expensive.

Whether you are designing student or a styling student, NIFT expects you to learn fashion illustrations. So we were taught how to draw block figures, fashion croquis, flat sketches, and how to render those flat sketches and take measurements.

We also learned about colour theory and did some exercises to understand colours better, and NIFT makes you do this manually. So we had to mix the colours and draw a whole colour palette of our own. But it is also quite therapeutic. So I enjoyed that too.

And finally, we had the masterclasses on styling, where we learned about body types, different types of personalities, proportions, and how accessories and details made a difference in styling.

So yeah, those were the major subjects. Now let me tell you what the overall experience was like. Let’s discuss the good things first.

What did I like about the course?

NIFT gives you access to some brilliant resources. The Resource Center at NIFT has some really good books, and as we discussed, it gives you access to WGSN for free.

NIFT is the best fashion institute in the country and has a certain level of credibility.

It gives you exposure by inviting industry experts and organizing events where you can meet artisans and learn more about their craft.

What I didn’t like

What I did not like about this course, though, was just how unorganized it was.

Classes were rescheduled and cancelled last minute by visiting faculties, and it felt like they respected the time of teachers but not the students. And that was something which made me angry sometimes.

I should also make this clear that NIFT does not give any placement guarantee for these courses, although some students did manage to get internships through the teachers; if you’re looking for a course which has a placement guarantee, then this is not the one.

I also felt that the course focused more on theory and fashion basics rather than practical styling. To cover that gap, I had to take some online courses on Udemy, watch YouTube Videos and refer to books and blogs.

What happens in NIFT’s Jury?

At the end of this course, we had a “Jury”, which is like a final exam where we were supposed to pick up a theme and inspiration and, based on that, conduct and shoot.

My theme was celebrating heirloom pieces and rural fashion. It was inspired by the women of my family, and I used their old clothes and jewellery for the shoot, which I did in my Nani’s (Maternal Grandmother) village in Rajasthan.

So yeah, it was a mixed experience, but I still learned a lot, and I will share all this knowledge with you through my blogs and YouTube channel.

If you have any questions, drop them in the comments.