TIRUPUR: Gone are the days when fashion apparel was only meant for the grown ups. Why should they have all the fun? Ask babies- who are now a fan of a teen designer. Meet 19-yearold Trilochanaa Jyothi, a first year student from NIFTTEA Knitwear College in Tirupur, who designs dresses for newborns. She also designs for children below age group of five.
A native of Chennai, she completed her diploma in Fashion and Styling from NIFT College in Chennai. But the passion of fashion has drawn her to the NIFT-TEA Knitwear College to take up a course in apparel and fashion design. Speaking to TNIE, Trilochanaa says, “I was always interested in apparel designing. I joined National Institute of Fashion Technology, to complete a two-year course in fashion and styling.
When I completed my course, I came to know about NIFT-TEA Knitwear College, which is more apparel centric. After I joined here, I got more in depth knowledge on the basics and foundation of the apparels and design. At that time, my cousin sister from Australia, had a newborn and she was whining about the lack of cotton clothes for babies in the country.
She asked me to design for the newborn and there was no looking back.” “It was a tough task, since newborns are sensitive. I decided to research about the babies and spoke to women who were embracing motherhood for the first time. After the study, I concluded that baby dresses shouldn’t have metal or sharp zippers and no loose buttons as these could increase chances of choking. Besides, they shouldn’t have loops, knots, bows and ties.
Based on these directives, I created designs for the frocks, diapers, gloves and socks. I sent a total of 10 pair of frocks and 5 pair of diapers, gloves, socks to my sister and she was very happy to dress her little angel,” she adds. Besides, Trilochanaa also stitched a few dresses for children below 5 years. She bought pure cotton fabric for 20m and the output received much appreciation. Saranya, an IT engineer and one of the clients, says, “These dresses are very comfortable for my child.
I liked the dresses for the newborns too.” Professor Bhoopathi Vijay says, “Trilochanaa has good stitching skills and she is very good at completing integrated and complex design projects. Designing for newborn is a tough task and she has completed her project with enormous hard work and the output is great.
So, we are planning to showcase the dresses to manufacturers in Tirupur garment industry in the upcoming days.” NIFT-TEA Knitwear College - Chairman P Mohan, says, “Due to Covid, all students were asked to take up creative projects. They have excelled in this initiative and one of the best creative endeavours is from the first year student Trilochanaa Jyothi.”