Kolkata: Wills Lifestyle announced the fifth edition of ‘The Debut’, a first of its kind initiative for recognizing India’s promising young talent in fashion arena. The third regional round kicked off today at the Wills Lifestyle store at South City Mall. The contest like previous four seasons will provide an opportunity to showcase, reward and recognise the aspiring young designers of the country.

This year the contest received an overwhelming response through more than 300 entries from all over India, including students from country’s prestigious fashion institutes like all centers of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National Institute of Design (NID) and Pearl Academy of Fashion. Out of 200 portfolios received, a separate jury further short listed the entries to 45 potential candidates, who presented their creations in front of an eminent jury at the regional rounds held in Mumbai and Bangalore besides Kolkata.

On the occasion of ITC as an organization completing 100 years, the students have been provided a theme to draw inspiration for the creations – a theme to draw inspiration for the creations – INDIA first. The criteria for selection will require the garments to signify continuous existence, societal, development of product & technology innovations in India.

Mr. Atul Chand, Divisional Chief Executive, ITC’s Lifestyle Retailing Business Division said, “The Debut by Wills Lifestyle is a unique platform that nurtures and recognises young talent in the field of fashion design. This initiative provides encouragement to budding creative talent and facilitates interface with the leading names of the Indian Fashion fraternity. We are delighted at the overwhelming response received and we are sure the initiative will go from strength to strength in the years to come”

The short listed finalists will be competing at ‘The Debut’ finale to be held in New Delhi on March 16, 2011. An eminent panel of representatives from the design team of ITC and other fashion institutes like NIFT, NID, Pearl Academy, along with renowned fashion designers of FDCI will judge the winner, on key parameters like Creativity, Technicality and Commercial Viability. The winner will receive an award at the forthcoming edition of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Award, besides an all expenses paid trip to an International Fashion Fair and an opportunity to work with ITC Ltd.

The Debut has added a new dimension to its engagement with the students of fashion. For the first time, social media was leveraged to increase awareness and tap into a larger talent base . An All India Design Contest was launched on the Wills Lifestyle Facebook Page , Winners of this Contest will showcase their Garments as Wild Card Entries in the The DEBUT Regional Fashion Rounds.The Contest was open to the students of Fashion Design stream of any Design College of India. A total of 197 students uploaded their best Designs, of which 5 Winners were chosen on the basis of highest votes received by Wls Facebook Fans.

The candidates in Kolkata were judged by the celebrated fashion designer Pali Sachdev and Reenit Singh from NIFT.

KOLKATA REGIONAL ROUND PARTICIPANTS

NIFT New Delhi – 4 Students
NIFT Rae Bareili – 1 Student
NIFT Kolkata -2 Student
Pearl Academy of Fashion, New Delhi – 6 Students
J D Institute of Fashion Technology , Delhi – 2 Students

They have been selected after the first round, wherein their illustration-based design portfolio was evaluated.

The Semifinalists:

Tanya Narula, Pearl Academy Of Fashion, Indian Tomorrow

Shradha Grover, Pearl Academy Of Fashion, Craftainability

Abhishek Debnath, NIFT, Chakra Charitra

Yadvi Aggarwal, Pearl Academy Of Fashion, Art-O-Tecture

Angnarboo Sherpa, NIFT, Maati- The Indigo India