Picture shows Prithu Singh and Manas Chandra at the Emerald studio.

Emerald International (Pvt.) Ltd, a top Sri Lankan shirt-maker, said last week it reached another milestone this year when it was handpicked as the model institution for practical training of undergraduates in fashion designing, by the National Institute of Fashion Technologies, Hyderabad
This is most prestigious institute in India and perhaps the Asian region and has trained and nurtured renowned Indian designers like, Rohit Bal, Manish Arora, J.J. Vallaya and Ramesh Nair (Assistant designer for Hermes).

Emerald said in a statement that Centre Coordinator of NIFT, Ms. Malini D, requested the cooperation of the Managing Director of Emerald International Mr. A.F.M. Ikram, to undertake the training of a selected few undergraduates, every semester.

The internship will be for the period of 2 1/2 months each on an annual basis. The four year degree in fashion design at NIFT, aims at developing the skills of students in the area of apparel designing. The first undergraduates to pursue this programme, Prithu Singh and Manas Chandra completed their internship in mid-July this year after going through an on-the-job, completely hands-on training experience under the keen eye of M.T.M. Lukman, the supervising mentor of Emerald.

He explained that the benefit of this type of teaching is the development of a practical orientation towards the functioning of the apparel industry in the areas of sample development, creative artwork, supervision and merchandising, which helps the interns in enriching the course curriculum to produce skilled, professional and dedicated man power resources, to take up the challenges in the highly competitive industry.
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