NID students showcase futuristic designs at jewellery week

Mumbai, Aug 15 (IANS) Students of the National Institute of Design (NID), the only institute participating in the India International Jewellery Week (IIJW), presented a unique and futuristic jewellery collection which left the spectators enthralled on the inaugural day Sunday.

The edgy and funky collection, called New Adorn, was put together by five students - Swati Agarwal, Chetan Sharma, Avantika Kumar, sanjeev Gupta and Gauri Pandey - of the Lifestyle Accessory Design department of the NID, which is a premier institute in the field of design education and research.

"We always associate jewellery with precious and non-precious gems but the fact is that the beauty of the jewellery piece lies in the beauty of the material, whatever it may be. The whole focus of our collection was to make use of unusual and different materials to make jewellery designs," Pandey told IANS.

Models sashayed the ramp in black outfits wearing uncommon and experimental designs for neck pieces, waist chains, rings and earrings among other pieces. Few models also sported jewellery pieces at places which are not usually adorned

"We are have tried to make designs which are not typical. When we were working on the designs, we realised that there are so many other places in the body that you can adorn with a piece of jewellery. So we created designs by discovering new geographies of adorning the body," Pandey added.

The students also stressed on the fact that their designs are eco- and nature friendly.

"We also tried to make the designs eco-friendly and close to the nature by using integrating recycled cans and cold drink bottle crowns since we felt that that will be the basis of designs in the future," said Agarwal, another student of the team.

The team also said that their collection revisited cultural aspects of Indian traditions to explore alternative techniques and materials to lend a bold, alluring and exhuberant appeal to their work.

IIJW is India's first-ever jewellery week and will run till Thursday at the Hotel Grand Hyatt, Santa Cruz.

The extravaganza will showcase the collections of 30 designers, including Farah Khan Ali, Varun D. Jani, Bina Goenka and Rhea Nasta. Well-known jewellery brands like Mirari, Gitanjali, Amrapali, Tanishq and Ganjam are also participating.