The Higher Education Review

Having started her career working in the Hospitality sector, Prerna Nishant Joshi holds an extensive 10 years industry and academic experience. At MSOD, she sits on the chair of Dean of Students and is responsible for managing the smooth functioning of the institute. She has completed her Masters in Business Management from Mithibai College.

Housing world-class fashion brands and hosting some of the biggest fashion shows in the world, Mumbai unequivocally justifies its title of being called as ‘the fashion capital of India'. The city is filled with high profile celebrities and business personalities, who always is in search of the best fashion designers in the town and are ever ready to splurge on making themselves more presentable than others. To sum up, these factors become enough in making other cities go weak on their knees when it comes to considering the fashion quotient of the country. Hence, while choosing an appropriate location for establishing the sister concern institute of Modart International Paris, a premium Parisian fashion school, Mumbai was decided as the perfect hub for initiating the Mumbai School of Design (MSOD) in 2007, which was earlier known as Mod'Art India.

"The institute has encompassed cutting-edge facilities such as CAD LAB, 30 Mac Computers, pattern making garment construction lab and many more, for facilitating the students with substantial hands-on training and become industry-ready"

"With the goal of bringing fashion from the ramps of Paris to the streets of India, Mod'Art Paris felt the need to mark its presence in the country. Since then, we never looked back and has been successfully gifted a number of proficient and

skilled fashion designers to the industry," shares Prerna Nishant Joshi, Dean, MSOD. The institute conducts a 3 years Bachelors programme and 1 year Masters programme in Fashion Design, which are affiliated with Modart International Paris. Joshi pinpoints, "In order to meet the increasing demand of the industry and fast-growing number of student applications we independently, also run around 30 short-term other design courses. Given this, we are in the process of getting the affiliation of Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, so our students can now have nationally and internationally recognized degrees to aid their pursue of higher education. " From starting with only 6 students to now educating over 250 students, the institute over the years has created a niche for itself in the market by demonstrating excellence in training the upcoming designers.

The reason behind the institute's popularity among the aspirant designers of the country greatly lies in its offering of a strong and updated curriculum. "We modify our curriculum in an interval of every 6 months, making our graduate the most skilled and letting them stay ahead of time. The curriculum has been designed not only keeping in mind the international standard, but also to give equal emphasis to the trends of Indian design market," says Joshi. As a large number of the pass out students prefer to join companies situated in India, MSOD makes it a point to expose them to optimum local culture and tradition by encouraging them to spend a week annually in locations such as Maheshwar, Munnar and so on. There the students are accompanied by the faculty members and are asked to learn the local handicrafts, understand the fabrics and organize a workshop in collaboration with local organization along with collecting materials from there, so that later they can use those in their final collection to prepare the portfolios.

Teaching the Nuances of Fashion

The design being a creative field, it requires more practical training rather than classroom rote learning and in this respect, the MSOD faculty members that comprise of a blend of young and experienced academicians puts the

substantial focus. "At MSOD, the teacher- pupil relationship is quite friendly, where the students with no hesitation can anytime walk up to their teacher to discuss on any doubt or issue. Building a communicative and engaging rapport is what our teacher vouches for," opines Joshi. Apart from this, the students are also given ample space to foster their creativity and bring their ideas into reality in the form of the final portfolio that they are motivated to design solely based on their imagination.

Joshi claims, "Enabling our faculty members to remain up-to-date with the latest teaching techniques and happenings in the design industry, annually we encourage them to undergo a training workshop in the Modart International Paris. And in the case of keeping our students abreast the skill demands, we invite eminent experts from the industry to deliver lectures." The institute has encompassed cutting-edge facilities such as CAD LAB, 30 Mac Computers, pattern making garment construction lab and many more, for facilitating the students with substantial hands-on training and become industry-ready. Every year, the institute organizes a fashion show in a very large professional scale, which is attended by top-notch designers. The students get the exclusive opportunity to showcase their creations in this show.

Maintaining the thin line between individual attentions and providing independent time, the institute in support of the Placement cell renders counseling to each student before commencing the recruitment process. "We speak to the students regarding their expectations with their career and the kind of company they aspire to work with. According to their wishes, we then get in touch with the list of companies and brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Arabella, Gauahargeous, Nidhi Munim, SS Homme, to name a few, with whom we enjoy certain tie-ups," shares Joshi. Having on board each faculty member explicitly on module-specific and confirming the students with the highest quality of design education, MSOD envisions introducing more and more innovative and comprehensive courses matching the dynamic nature of the design industry.