On 22nd December 2021, JD Institute Of Fashion Technology organized a skilled workshop in collaboration with MSME at their CP branch Office, that brought together the upskilling of the young talents from both institutes. Asserting the importance of “upcycling”, which is the need of the hour, the workshop focused on throwing a challenge on students to transform their used clothes into new wearable art. The skill collaboration workshop was seeded in March when our Executive Director, Ms. Akshara Dalal visited MSME-DI and realized the opportunity of developing entrepreneurial skills with a skill collaboration between the two entities. Headed by Padma Raj Keshri, Associate Head of our Fashion Department, this workshop adhered to JD Institute Of Fashion Technology’s vision aligned with UN SDGs. The current focus of the institute is to create awareness of sustainable fashion and fair trade practices. The students were taught the design techniques of deconstruction and reconstruction which was followed by a creation of a lookbook curated by the students from both the institutes.

The skill collaboration workshop between JD and MSME-DI highlighted the transient nature of the fashion industry and taught the budding designers how to enhance the longevity of the garment. The students carried their existing clothes which they then transformed into a new piece within four hours duration. Since MSME-DI focuses on the tailoring aspect of the garment, Neera Nagpal from the support team guided them to handcraft the best piece out of waste. This skill collaboration of reconstruction and deconstruction saw positive participation from the students to upcycle any product in the future.

Reconstruction is the process of making new clothes from previously worn garments or performed finished products. It is a form of up-cycling and is the process of making new clothes from waste formed of previously worn garments or preformed finished clothing products. This process involves first deconstructing garments and then reconstructing the waste materials into new designs. Reconstruction is often incorrectly considered to be an exclusive design approach since the designs are often not easily reproducible owing to the variable supply of working materials. This unique workshop merged the skillset from two different institutes on a single platform for a common goal of achieving a sustainable result.

Padma Raj Keshri is a champion of sustainable practices and has been associated with recycling projects throughout his illustrious career. Mr. Keshri is currently enrolled in the UN Youth Delegate program by Unite 2030. Earlier in his career, he was the Head of Innovation for Shahi Exports Private Limited, Knits Division Bengaluru. He worked for Shahi for 6 years. His contribution in working with Co-operative in Leh, Looms of Ladakh training 180+ women artisans for livelihood deserves a due mention. For him, sustainability is a great tool to achieve the design ideas we have.

The workshop was concluded by acknowledging the hard work of the students by the team and it was later followed by the distribution of certificates.