Raghavendra Rathore on hunt for young designers

The National Textile Corporation Limited (NTC) has announced the hunt for the country's 10 most promising designers. The "NTC Young Designer Hunt" will be monitored by ace designer Raghavendra Rathore, who will not only supervise the talent hunt but will also train the participating designers too.

Rathore, who recently made the wedding achkan of Saif Ali Khan, feels that the efforts that have been put into this talent hunt will definitely help create a future of India on global map.

"I am actually looking for local players, in fact I believe that the next big trend is regionalisation because globalisation has happened already. I believe that next big thing that is going to happen now is to celebrate what is close to you and make it available to people, who don't know that it exists," Rathore told IANS.

"With this hunt we are looking for someone who is creatively clear with their thoughts. They are not designing what is already there but they need to design for the future. I think that is the key. It is not about runway or retail stores, it is about how do you get an enticing in the Indian market. It is very important for people to visualise packaging when you create the product because the biggest weakness today is packaging," he added.

NTC, a central public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Textiles, made the announcement Wednesday night about the Young Designer Hunt. The press conference in this regard was addressed by union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma, who also inaugurated the project.

"This designer hunt will not only help the young designers in showcasing their creativity but will also help NTC in fulfilling its commitment of transforming itself into a world class, eco-friendly and integrated textile corporation," Sharma said.

The budding designers can download the entry form and mini-portfolios with the details of selection process from the NTC website.