(Top) A student shows off body painting; (above) participants at the Seamless Love contest. Pictures by Rashbehari Das

It was a combination of creativity with romance, as the Valentine’s Day spirit permeated the events of NIFT’s Fashion Spectrum 2008, in association with t2. The three-day festival, whose theme ‘Warp Weffect’ (derived from warp and weft techniques in textile yarns), focussed on all things fashion while ensuring a good time for students. With over 17 colleges participating in the events, which were wacky as well as innovative, it was a three-day extravaganza that showcased and tested the designing talents and skills of the students.

The events for the first day included a solo vocals competition, a dance show, body painting, a hairstyling contest titled Re-‘Habib’-ation, a VJ Hunt as well as Valentine’s Day specials like Seamless Love, where students were randomly paired and had to propose to each other in an innovative manner. The body-painting competition had various themes, from Flora in Peril to Retro styles. With sequins, glitter and poster paint, students let their imagination run riot. The hairstyling event also experimented with different looks, using ropes, braids, extensions and even mud!

The Pentathlon was a special V-Day event, where students participated as couples in a series of games that included a three-legged race, paper dancing, water drinking, balloon throwing and dumb charades.

The Salt Lake campus, which was decorated in shades of pink and purple, had special stalls for Valentine’s Day, which offered tarot card readings on issues of love, confession cards that students could give to the ones they admired, designer red roses as well as fun Valentine’s Day games. The evening closed with a performance by the college band, which regaled the audience with renditions of rock classics like Knocking on Heaven’s Door and Last Resort by Papa Roach, among others.

One of the highlights of the festival was the fashion show, which saw a competitive segment by participating colleges as well as a showcasing of designs by NIFT students from all the different departments and years.

From the chic-cool collection presented by Jadavpur University to a warrior theme from INIFD — who emerged winners — the shows were well choreographed with plenty of attitude on display. NIFT’s own show included a range of evening gowns, a distressed urban grunge look as well as a special Valentine’s Day collection, among others. The line-up also included shoe designing, dance competitions and a quiz with a special fashion section and other fun contests with design elements.

The college trophy was retained by the hosts, who came first with the maximum points. Bhawanipur college and INIFD bagged the second and third place respectively. “The idea behind this fest was to amalgamate everything that we study and work on through the semester and is an expression of all that we learn,” concluded third-year student coordinator Romika Bhowmick.