With the changing trends and popular culture, fashion industry is beyond the notion of looking presentable. With movements like ‘Fashion for a Cause’, brands like Levis and Adidas are recycling millions of tons of plastic and using them to create their unique line of jeans and shoes respectively. Such approach needs a different mindset towards fashion and what better than an institute that bears the capability to mould the minds of students for the betterment of the industry as well as the world at large. Varanasi-based Blitz Institute of Creative Arts (BICA) is one such fashion institute that is helping students understand core fashion and arming them with the ability to create something path breaking that goes a notch beyond the conventional fashion ideations. “Through BICA, we ensure that our students develop their skills to become employable and fulfill their dreams,” Pankaj Tekriwal, Director, BICA.

A comprehensive course structure, the curriculum is divided into a one year diploma, two-year advanced diploma and the conventional three-year bachelor course in fashion. Students are tested on the basis of abilities and are accordingly batched into courses that would help them shine and raise up their calibre. With the student teacher ratio of 20:1, the institute ensures that each and every student is given ample attention and guidance to understand the concept and build a strong academic foundation. Pankaj adds, “I believe that you are only as strong as your weakest link. Hence, we make sure that even the most undermined student gets the chance to shine in this domain”.

Students joining BICA have the coveted liberty of pursuing their priorities along with their courses. Here, the student body not only comprises of fresher’s but housewives as well who have the spark of pursuing a professional academic course.

BICA undoubtedly, fuels this fire with its flexible curriculum that suits their requirements and helps them pursue their academics without any hindrance. While the diploma courses are accredited solely to BICA, its degree courses are affiliated to UGC approved university like Swami vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut.

With the student teacher ratio of 20:1,the institute ensures that each and every student is given ample attention and guidance to understand the concept and build a strong academic foundation

Boosting Entrepreneurship
Unlike many educational institutions, BICA steers its students towards entrepreneurship. With the help of their highly qualified & experienced faculties, they get to understand the most basic academic prerequisites of the fashion industry that later helps them start their own enterprise and be the master of their own ventures. For instance, though the college is more than adept to supply the students with all the raw materials at hand, the professors choose to guide & suggest the students in buying their own supplies so they get to understand the intricacies as well as get an overall understanding of the texture, design, material composite and the entire methodology that goes into fashion designing. Pankaj adds, “We teach students the art of understanding realistic fashion. Our teaching is focused towards crafting clothes for the regular population, keeping in mind the designs & material in vogue”.

With help of software like Coral Draw, Illustrator, AutoCAD, 3Ds Max and many more, students are able to align their ideas with technical trends and present them more visually & dynamically. Additionally, BICA is the only institute in Uttar Pradesh to offer teaching with the help of Wilcom Software

that simplifies designing with machine based embroidery. “There is a great demand for Wilcom expertise in the industry and we are one of the rare organisations to a bridge this gap,”asserts Pankaj. For interested individuals and professionals looking to hone their skills and align themselves with the latest industrial demand, BICA offers this course at a very nominal fee as well. Moreover, with fashion design as one of its coveted offering, BICA hold high potential with its interior designing, textile designing and apparel & visual merchandising courses too. Apparel and visual merchandising is an upcoming course that essentially focuses on building the student’s marketing, customer relationship and of course, design skills. By offering practical experiences in big showrooms, students are taught the knack of displaying their creations in a customer-centric manner.


Diversifying its Pedagogy
This academic guidance when combined with hands on experience of internship in several high end companies of Delhi, Noida, Jaipur and several other cities, catapults the students towards a brighter future as it prepares them against the fluctuating trends and ideas of the market. “With our students all over the world, I advise them to work under expert guidance for couple of years before starting with their own venture,” adds Pankaj. No wonder that the BICAns today hold positions at several organisations like Tommy Hilfiger and making waves in the Japanese and American fashion scene. The institute is currently investing in franchise model to expand its teaching methodology to students in other parts of India. With branches in Delhi and Ahemadabad, BICA is all set to start operations in other cities like Chandigarh, Bangalore, Bareilly, Patna, Ranchi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Raipur and many others. “With our franchisee model, we aim to diversify our pedagogy and help as many students as we can in the field of design,” concludes Pankaj.