Special Projects

DEFRA Project

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK and Govt of India   organized ”shared talent India” an exciting cross cultural collaboration.  This project is being implemented by London  College of Fashion  in association with Pearl Academy of Fashion.  A collaborative design development exercise involving Indian designers, students from Pearl Academy of Fashion , London College of Fashion and AMFI, Amsterdam  culminated in the prototype development of different sustainable products.  .

 
The Shared Talent Project has been launched in India during the India Fashion Week from 18th March to 22nd March, 2009. The six selected Indian & UK designers with selected AMFI, LCF and Pearl Academy students attended a collaborative workshop from July 17th to 25th to produce concepts showcasing the Indian Sustainable Textiles. Among the selected Indian designers are Gaurav Gupta(Akaaro), Jattinn Kochhar, Nitin Bal Chauhan, Padmaja Krishna, Samant Chauhan and Varun Gupta. The culmination of the project has been showcased in a static exhibition on the Monsoon Stand at Estethica  and at London Fashion Week in September.    Monsoon have made final selections and were impressed by the range of work and loved many of the stories behind the pieces.  The selected creations were displayed for sale at the Monsoon store in U.K. Shared Talent India Project (DEFRA) workshop was telecasted on 8th August, 2009 on Starplus channel.

 
Pearl Academy of Fashion put up a spectacular display of DEFRA project work at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion week held in New Delhi between 24th and 28th October, 2009. It was a complimentary stall space provided by the organizers – the FDCI – for all the five days of the week.  The display included photographs of the ten-day collaborative workshop held in New Delhi and the final garments made by the 12 selected UK & Indian designers. PAF students’ works on sustainable fashion also became an important of the display.

 
To document Shared Talent India, London College of Fashion’s staff and students will write, direct and produce a short film to produce the use of Indian Sustainable textiles and their possible fashion applications. They will record all activities using film and photography and document the journey that the textiles undertake from original conception to purchase by the consumer. The design concepts, the documentary short film directed and produced by the students and an exhibition of the photography from the project will be displayed alongside the launch of an online resource profiling sustainable textiles, Indian suppliers and the design concepts.

DelPHE Project

Pearl Academy of Fashion, University of Nortumbria (UK) and Dastkar are collaborating on an action research project “Sustainability and Equitable Development: Interventions in India’s Rural Craft Industry”. The project is funded by British Council  under  “Development of Programmme in Higher Education (DelPHE)”. In this project, faculty are experiencing craft related issues to  develop  systematic educational programmes.

This project “Sustainability & Equitable Development: Interventions in Indian Rural Craft Industry”(DelPHE) which seeks to achieve sustainable growth for women workforce through training and skill enhancement for livelihood and development. The project will also seek to develop M.A. ethical design programme and give students an opportunity to interact with craftsmen in the rural environment. The Project partners are Northumbria University, Dastkar and PAF. This project is sponsored by British Council of India.

 
FD-V students are working on a  Men’s Wear project brief given by DASTKAR under DELPHIE project.  Also three TD students have taken it up as a research project and final collection under the DELPHIE project for DASTKAR and Kundera.

UKEIRI

The Academy has been awarded 3 projects under UKIERI (UK-India Education and Research Initiative:  (i)  with Ravensbourne College of Communication & Design for  exploration of design and supply chain across India and UK. (ii)  with Adam Smith College (Scotland) for building an understanding of  collaborative work links between the Scottish and Indian education sector in the area of new media  and (iii)  with London College of Fashion for  understanding skills required by graduates to  bring in sustainability into the Fast Fashion  industry.

 
A team of faculty members- Aileen Lamden, Douglas McMillan and Shirley Anne visited Pearl and India from September 7th to 14, 2009.
Five students came to Pearl from 7th to 28th September 09 on exchange. They were Robbie William Kerr, Lauren Fawns  Veitch, Gillian Bell, Blair Christopher Wightman, Rawlinson Anthony Magnus. Three Faculty members from India Sumita Sarkar, Ramneek Kaur Majithia, and Manas Barua went to Scotland , Adam Smith College from Nov 1 to 8. As part of the UKIERI trip Ramneek, Manas and Sumita attended the Fife Creative Awards ceremony in Kirkaldy and a Fashion Show of 13 Scottish colleges at Edinburgh called STAG. Five students have gone on exchange to Adam Smith College for 3 weeks from Nov 1 to 19. The UKIERI team from Scotland and India visited  Space TV Production Centre, Noida.