[INTERNSHIP REPORT/ DESIGNER: NIKASHA TAWADEY] October 20, 2009

FOREWORD

The search for an internship was a tedious task. The options were to intern
with a designer, a retail giant or an export house. Having had previous experiences
with the latter two I decided to pick the designer category. It was a gruesome task to
apply for an internship. Most designers were hoping to train and hire or just had
conducted training sessions for the year so there were limited openings. I, with great
difficulty landed my internship with the designer Nikasha Tawadey. She is a
relatively new designer; Bombay based, and has been in the industry for five years.
Before joining here I had started elsewhere as a merchandiser and completely
despised the environment. Hence my search continued. I wanted to intern with a
designer who would be participating in the fashion week and whose design sensibility
would be different from mine as I wanted my mind to open up and seek different
horizons. I chanced upon Nikasha Tawadey went for the interview and in two days I
got a call asking me to join as soon as possible. Hence on the 24th of July commenced
the journey of my internship.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to convey my gratitude to Ms Nikasha Tawadey for giving me the

opportunity to intern with her. I would also like to thank my co- workers Madhuritu
Dutta and Tina Bhardwaj for all their help. All the above mentioned people have
provide me guidance and help pave my career path , I would like to convey my
sincere gratitude to them.

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INTRODUCTION

The organization I interned with was Pacific Brands. Pacific Brands belongs to
the designer Nikasha Tawadey. Nikasha is a Mumbai based designer. She has a small
production unit in Santa Cruz west in Mumbai and a store in Bandra.

Nikasha`s collection embodies a vintage feel with a rhapsody of colours

coming alive through the interplay of fabrics and prints, simple silhouettes with
classic cuts, interlaced with trimmings and embroidery, eye for detail is an
explanation for all her collections in a nut shell. Her designs exude femineity whether
it is in terms of silhouettes, colors, fabrics or prints.

Nikasha’s designs are an Indo western blend. The silhouettes are

inspired from the days of the Maharajas. The anarkalis, the straight fit pyjamas, the
flaired angarakhas etc. The garments are mostly Suits, tunics, kaftans, saris and
lehenga choli. Indian garments with a slight touch of the west.

Her design flair reflects her years of working with Sabyasachi Mukherji. The
use of light silks, chiffons, georgettes, brocades, muls in combination with turquoise,
coral, glass, wooden beads all interlaced with lace, satin, ribbon, splashed with a hint
of embroidery make every garment look chic .The color palette comprises of red,
haldi(yellow),coral, beige, cream, white, sea green and mauve.

Detailing is done in terms of Indian prints in colors of antique gold, copper

and whites, pleats, piping, tucks, ruching and embroidery.

Some key features of her designs are juxtaposing of the most unthinkable
color combinations, the dhoti pants, frills in garments made from crushed cotton and
latkans (doll and gotta).

Besides garments designing of accessories such as neck pieces, stoles, head

gears belts and bags are also done.

My internship with Nikasha Tawadey was for a period of 3 months. I was

appointed various projects such as orders, printing, dyeing, silhouette development,
look book creation etc. This internship has provided an insight into the fashion

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industry. It has not only provided growth professional but also personally and proved
to be of invaluable guidance and stepping stones for my selection of future avenues.

COMPANY PROFILE AND STRUCTURE

DESIGNERS PROFILE

Nikasha Tawadey after completing her education in Delhi with Honors in

Psychology, Nikasha set out to study psychoanalysis at the Tavistock School in
Mumbai, but her creative urges drew her towards fashion designing. During this
course, she dabbled into fashion designing and year 2003 saw the well known
designers Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla approach her to retail her line at Selfridges
(London). The year 2004 saw the birth of her label “Nikasha”. Today Nikasha is the
only Indian designer retailing her exclusive Spring Summer collection at Macy's ( San
Francisco ) under her brand name “Nikasha”.

Nikasha has been among the lucky few designers to have had a chance to dress
the then reigning tennis beauty queen Anna Kournikova She has also been
instrumental in designing and styling for the Lifestyle campaign. Actress Preity Zinta
has sported some of her chic ensembles in the movie Lakshya. From designing for
Anup Jalota`s music video to the Coke commercial shot with top Pakistani stars; and
her participation at the Singapore Fashion Week in 2005, are just some of highlights
that add to her illustrious career graph.

TYPE OF ORGANISATION

The design house Nikasha is at a very nascent stage. She has had marked
achievements in just five years of being in the industry. The design studio is based in
Santa Cruz West (Mumbai). The showroom is in Bandra. The strength of the unit is
25 persons.There is a cabin for the designers and accountant and there are two galas.
One for the embroiders and another for the tailors.

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The breakdown of the unit is:-

Assistant designers -3

Tailors – 10

Masterji -1

Embroiders – 10

Accountant – 1

Peons - 2

SCALE

The hierarchy in unit:

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TYPES OF BUYERS

Besides personal clients as mentioned above there is an elaborate list of

buyers.

Buyers list: Ogaan (Mumbai) Ensemble (Delhi/Mumbai),

Zoya (Mumbai) Aza (Mumbai),

Kalika (Bangalore) Cypress, Macy's (San Francisco)

Collage (Banglore, Chennai) Rudraksh (Pune)

Carma (Delhi)

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DEPARTMENTS

There is no specific task allotment of task for the design team based on
department divisions as it is a small production unit. The department segregation
applies only the tailors and embroiders else everyone who is done with their delegated
task pitches in other tasks.

The overview of a generalized department division is:

o Design Department
o Production Department
o Dyeing
o Printing
o Finishing and Packing

Design team

The design team comprises of the designer Nikasha Tawadey and 3 assistant
designers. Designing is done for the fashion week, for the store in Bandra as well as
for exhibitions. The garments comprise of saris in chiffon, georgette and cotton with
gotta work and printing done. Tunics with pre-ruched churidars, salwaars, cowl pants
and dhoti pants. Kaftans, pleated tunics and kucchi tops. Blouses and lehengas.

Production Department

These assistant designers irrespective of their designation have a lot more

ground to cover as it is small production unit. They also function as merchandisers,
production heads for their respective orders and also are responsible for the
company’s correspondence with clients and buyers. The assistant designers also
handle clients and buyers.

The fabrics sourced are mostly utilized for accessory making. Trims used are
gotta strips, brocade borders, sequins, buttons, zippers, elastics, threads, needles etc.
These are sourced from a place called pyaidhuni in south Mumbai.

Sales in the store are also managed by the designers. There is a sales person
but personal clients are attended to by the design team themselves.

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Production team

The masterji is responsible for patterns and construction of all garments. There
are 10 people on the sewing machines. Cutting and stitching is masterji’s
responsibility. Sampling in terms of silhouettes is done. Line balancing is the
responsibilities of the assistant designers and the masterji.

Embroidery team

All garments are only hand embroidered. There is one embroidery head and 9
embroiders. The embroidery head is responsible for the team. He has to make
“Kakhas” and develop new and innovative techniques in embroidery. Sampling for
embroidery is done by the embroidery department in charge. He also is responsible
for finding cost cutting techniques and time management of his team. Most garments
have sequins work, or embroider done on them. The motifs used are clove leaves,
palm leaves, olive leaves. The motifs are traditional motifs executed in kasab and peta
work. Chikankari is extensively used. Sequins are used in highlighting garments.
Latkans and belts and other embellishments are also executed in this department.

Dyeing

Dyeing is outsourced. Sampling of colors is done by assistant designers.

Crushing of fabrics and dyeing is done in Mahim.

Printing

Printing is also outsourced. Printing is done on chiffons, georgettes, silk and

cotton. Traditional motifs are printed mostly in antique gold, fresh gold, copper and
white.

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Finishing and Packing

Finishing of the garment is taken care of by the respective tailors. The

checking is redone by the assistant designers. The garments are draped on the
dummies to see the fit and fall of the garment. They are photographed for
documentation and then taken for ironing. Ironing of the garments is done, they are
style coded, priced, folded and packed.

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PROJECT UNDERTAKEN

My internship gave me the opportunity to work on various projects which

permitted me to apply my knowledge as well as get a firsthand experience of how the
industry works.

The various projects undertaken during the three months of internship:

 Rudraksh
o Design development sheets
o Fabric sourcing
o Embellishment sourcing
o Design modifications
o Production

 Carma
o Procurement of fabric
o Production

 Store Production
o Designing of garments
o Fabric procurement
o Production
o Accessories

 Sahachari Exhibition
o Designing of garments
o Silhouette development
o Fabric procurement
o Production

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 Lakme Fashion Week

o Sampling of dying
o Sampling of printing
o Developing placement prints
o Sampling of embroidery
o Silhouette development
o Production
o Accessory procurement
o Fittings
o Backstage assistance

 Look book

 Swatch file and scrap book

 Orders of Personal clients

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RUDRAKSH
Rudraksh is a multi brand store in Pune. I had to carry out the order sent by
this store for 18 garments based on the autumn/ winter ’09.

The tricky part of completing orders is that there are multiple orders
taking place parallel. So not only done line balancing have to be managed but
also the time frame and vacancies as per dead lines of other orders.
Completing an order means starting from scratch. You have to know the
pieces that you are suppose to prepare. Based on which you understand the
work that goes into them.
Some pieces have embroidery so would take longer to finish whereas others
might just have stitching details.
The aspect of availability of fabric, dyeing, printing cannot be overlooked.
The patterns to some might be more complex than others.
In some designs fabrics without dying cannot go for printing hence some
pieces have a lot more preprocessing than others.

Keeping all these factors in mind one has to decide to give pieces to
various departments without creating bottle necks in production. You have to
put all your resources to optimum use.
This order had a 4th September as a deadline. I had one month to complete the
order.
So basic steps for production would be in the following sequence:
Design development sheets
Procuring fabric
Consumption per design of fabric
Dyeing fabric
Printing of fabric
Embroidery of fabric
Cutting and stitching
Checking the fall and fit
Finishing
Ironing and tagging
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Packing

First I had to make design development sheets for all the designs and
give a copy for masterji to follow and also refer to the fabric consumption
sheet in order to sort out all the fabrics, measure them based on the
consumption for every design; add color swatches and send them for dying.
Before sending out the fabric one has to make a challan for the dyers stating
the consumption of fabric and putting swatches of the fabric, hence one can
follow up when the stock is returned from dying. We write the consumption
and name of the order and color to be dyed on the side of the fabric with our
names as different order pieces go together for dying so segregation becomes
easier later.
This initially did not seem very crucial but over time one starts valuing
even such rules such as making minor notes because in the long run it is a time
saver and avoids mismanagement.
Once the fabric comes from dyeing I created packets of fabrics used in
a design and made design wise packets. Then, I gave the pieces that did not
require embroidery but had the same pattern for cutting and a couple of pieces
for embroidery and sent the pieces for printing as per requirement. One must
keep a track of all pieces at all times as they are prone to be misplaced or get
used in another order by chance. Minor errors add to expenses in terms of time
and hence in turn money.
When the deadline was closer then I started stitching the minor aspects
of the garments such as the belts, latkans and accessories that require
attention.
On completion of pieces they were inspected for lose threads, they
garments were put on dummies to check the fit and fall and if there are any
flaws. Then the garments were ironed, coded, tagged and packed, basically
made ready for dispatch.

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CARMA

Carma is a multi brand store in Delhi. Since the clientele between

Delhi and Mumbai, we had to modify our designs. We used more heavy
fabrics and did more elaborate embroidery. I worked on productions of two
completely contradicting clientele. Pune has a clientele whose prefers simple
garments without excess work and money wise also people are careful and on
the conservative unlike Mumbai where the clientele is more experimental and
Delhi is where money is readily available and people are ready to spend and
want heavy garments in terms of richness of fabric and embroidery.
Our modifications in design were more in relation with the fabric. For
Delhi fabrics used were rich like brocade in bright colors. The embroideries
were more elaborate.
Carma I assisted one of the assistant designers with this order.
I got an insight into designing as per clientele. Understanding the difference in
various markets and needs of customers
In this project I had to procure fabric and embellishments. I made the
doll latkans for all the garments with tie-ups. The deadline for this project was
the 22nd September which was the day after Eid and the tailors had not
returned in full strength and the order had to go out that very day so we
assisted in stitching garments. We stitched dupatta borders, tunics, gotta strips
for latkans. It was very crucial for us to finish this order because this was the
first time working with Carma and they had a promotional event the next
afternoon.
The cutting, stitching, finishing, ironing, tagging, coding, packing and
dispatching was done by three of us belonging to the design team.

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STORE PRODUCTION

We designed numerous saris, lehengas, tunics for the store for our bridal
collection and diwali season. I assisted in this project. I designed saris and got
them constructed. Since we were aiming for the bridal collection all our
garments had elaborate embroidery, brocade borders and were very bright and
colorful.
We made accessories from cloth strips. We made neck pieces, coin pouches,
potli bags, belts and head gears. We had leheriya dyed fabrics and waste fabric
which we put to use.

SAHACHARI EXHIBITION

I helped in design modifications and construction of kaftans and anakalis. I

aided in designing kaftans and saris. I helped make the inventory lists, tagging
of the garments. The event was in the world trade centre in Colaba. We made
all the arrangements such as packing all the garments, challan books, tag gun,
tags, visiting cards, visitors diary, stationery, making the costing sheets etc.
We had to move the garments to the world trade centre. I participated in the
exhibition too. We had a very good sale and the exhibition helped generate
more clientele.

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LAKME FASHION WEEK

Lakme fashion week was a fun and great learning experience. The
fashion week was scheduled from the 18th September – 22nd September.
The preparation for the fashion week started in the first week of
September as we were completing other orders. The inspiration for the fashion
week was from Oriental silhouettes and the blooming of flowers.
The transition of a bud into flower was the theme. So the collection
starts with pastel shades and progresses into complete coral and red shades.
The color inspiration and the prints were initially from the Chintz textiles. We
did not end up using the prints but the color palette was carried forward.
The colors used are red, coral, mauve, light pink, rani pink, hot pink,
snuff, cream and white.
Fabrics used for the collection are chiffon, georgette, DuPont silk,
floral printed cotton-jute fabric.
The silhouettes were kaftans which are Nikasha trade mark and wraps,
with straight fit pants, wrap skirts and pants, shararas, halter necks, tie up
tunics, with high collar details. The embroidery was floral. Flowers placed on
garments are in soothing colors and their placements were such that it seems
that they are floating in the air.
I was given to do the sampling for dying. I had to select shades and go
to the dyer and get them developed. Once we finalized the shades I had to do
printing samples in a gold, copper, pink and tobacco color palette. I tried out
new motifs of palms leaves, floral motifs and other traditional motifs.
We did digital prints. This was one major assignment in this
project.There were floral prints which I worked on in photoshop. I had to
make placement prints for textile development. There were two motifs which I
had to work on the color palette, placement. I had to create border placemnts
The colors and prints got finalized from there we shifted to silhouette
generation.
In silhouette generation the key words were wrap, strips and high
collars. Twenty two silhouettes were finalized and the sampling for these was
conducted and rectifications were made. From there we discussed the color
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palette for every design and the production began. In parallel I was also aiding
in the embroidery sampling. I helped develop khakhas and color combinations
of the threads.
Once everything was finalized production began. I made the design
development sheets and aided in the production and fittings which were
carried out a week before the fashion week.
The venue for the fashion week was Grand Hyatt. On day one we set up our
stall there with our previous two collections. Our show was on the 19th.
The 19th morning we packed all the garments. Made packets of the accessories
for every garment which were: the little coin bags and potlis, head gears and
shoes. With every packet we placed the models picture her garment details
like the color and the number of pieces in the ensemble and what accessories
she would be wearing and her shoe size.
Three hours before the show the models were in for makeup. We got
the garments ironed and made a list of the details of the garments for the
buyers. We got the models to get ready for the sure. We helped them into the
garments. Made sure the garments were worn properly all fastenings secure,
pins where ever required. The show went off smoothly. We then collected the
garments and got them to the stall area and spent the next couple of days
attending to buyers and taking orders.
The preparation for fashion week was a very enjoyable and a lot of
effort and time went into it.

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LOOK BOOK
I made the look book for the autumn/ winter ’09 collection. I created a drape
texture from the garments used in the collection. The book has the garment
details, the style code, the color options and the backdrop is made from the
drapes and textures existent in the garments.

SWATCH FILE AND SCRAP BOOK

I have created a swatch file for embroidery swatches, i.e., the samples for the
fashion week.
I also made a scrap book for the autumn/winter ’09 collection. The scrap book
was made from magazine cut outs and pictures and write ups in newspapers.

PERSONAL CLIENTS
The days I went to the store I got to handle personal clients such as Reena
Vadhva, Sharmila Mohitey, Tisca Chopra, Suchitra Krishnamurthy etc.
It was a learning experience as you start understanding the other persons mind
set and fashion sense, it helps you gauge what you can sell to the person. It
gives you an understanding of the market and also understanding body types
and what looks good on the client. One sharpens their sales as well as personal
relational skills.

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

This internship has been a very good eye opener. This is my first association
with the Indian side of design. Since I have never been inclined towards Indian
embroidery and the bright color palettes used, it was a new experience.

I got to carry out the Rudraksh order for 18 garments which aided me in
understanding how production is carried out and also which pieces to give in which
sequence based on embroidery, dying, accessories and trims. I had to make design
development sheets and give a copy to masterji. These technical drawings made me
understand the importance of the minute details as there can be a communication gap
in the design due to misinterpretation of design or lack of details leading to mistakes
which in turn lead to losses.

I got to learn different techniques of embroidery like peta, kasab , chita work
etc. I got to learn about screen printing dyes, mixing colors and application of the
same on fabric.

I got see the business and sales side of the industry and I got an insight into
what the market demands are. I got to handle clients and take orders. I am not a very
people person so this was a difficult task for me where I had to overcome mental
barriers but eventually I did a fair job.

Designing and silhouette development is something that we have all done in

college, what makes it different this time is that you are not designing for yourself but
according to someone else’s inspiration and design sensibility and that is what I feel is
challenging. Working in parameters not set by you.

The fashion week was an experience which teaches you to be quick on your
feet. The process that builds up towards the preparation of the fashion week is a more
elaborate version of what we do in college just with ten times the pressure and no
retakes. I have not only applied everything I have applied in college but gained more
knowledge. Working in the industry is far different than observing the industry.

Working for a designers helps you understand business aspects very clearly and do’s
and don’ts of the industry. It provides clarity as to how to go about if one ever wants
to start one’s own set up.

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RETROSPECT

This internship was a large pedestal for experimenting not only in

terms of design and creativity but also help determine the direction of a
career path.

I feel that given the opportunity, no matter how big or small a

platform, one can always excel. I feel that I have gained a lot from my
internship with Nikasha Tawadey. One can choose to grab an opportunity
given to them or let it just slip by.

It is one thing imaging or observing what the industry is like versus

actually working in the industry. I decided to work with someone who has a
contradicting design sensibility in comparison to my own. This logic I feel
benefited me a lot as I have become more open to juxtaposing coloring,
ethnic prints, motifs etc.

Though I do feel that if I had worked with a bigger brand I would have had
better exposure and more projects to work on. After the first two months I
felt that there was stagnation in the learning process which may not have
occurred if there were vast variation in projects.

I feel that I have done justice to my internship and had an enjoyable

working experience. One of the biggest benefits or positive aspects of this
internship have been that by the end of the internship I developed confidence
to put my knowledge to use and not hold back in doubt whether I am doing
something correctly or not. I feel that I harnessed everything I could from
this experience and would like to move to bigger pastures next time.

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are
located in the same individual.

:Arthur Koestler

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VISUAL COMPILATION OF
PROJECTS

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