JEDIIIAN on her journey with JD Institute, inspirations, & future

Tete a tete with Fazillah Binti, JEDIIIAN who was among the TOP 15 at Max Design Awards held in Delhi, on her journey with JD Institute, inspirations, & future.

Your journey in JD?

It’s been a fantastic journey ever since I switched my career from Banking to Fashion Design and enrolled myself as a student in JD. I started with Makeup Artistry course with Ms Leila Sharma, who was absolutely inspirational and motivated me to improvise and do better. So was my mentor, Ms Suma Satish, in the Fashion Design June B 2017 batch, who constantly encouraged me and provided the confidence which is quintessential for a fresher. I am grateful to Ms Shristi Jaiswal who tirelessly mentored me for MDA with all her inputs and guidance. I was absolutely lucky to have the best faculty and thanks to JD for laying the strong foundation, towards a promising future.

Inspiration for the MDA 2017-18 collection?

The theme for MDA 2017-18 was Craftivism. It is a word derived from Craft and Activism and I thought it was a great theme to promote because I personally love the idea of using handcrafted arts into fashion to publicize social awareness messages on any topic in a subtle manner that can eventually contribute towards creating positive changes to the world.

I designed the collection to create awareness towards Anti-racism. Both designs I showcased at MDA are based on High Street Fashion and was created with simplicity and comfort to the consumer in mind while blending the aesthetic aspects of design with ancient Ebru art techniques from the Middle East. When amalgamated with a choice of colour palette thru Water Marbling technique, that mirrors the beautiful skin tones around the world, the collection augments well as a superlative and subtle channel to propagate against racial discrimination based on colour, creed, culture, religion, nationality and promotes human equality.

Experience at MAX Awards?

It was absolutely fantastic. It felt like a dream to be in the MDA finals. Right from submission of designs, to selection and then preparation to the finals and participation has all been an exciting journey and incredible learning experience for me. It was really amazing and I felt it was a honour to be there as a fresher studying fashion for less than a year and competing with designers who are already in the 3^rd and final years. I learned a lot from the participants and I feel my confidence has boosted multifold after the MDA experience. I realized, to be a good designer it takes a lot more than what we study in the classroom but to be able to learn from the real-world experiences and continuous research. It was also exciting to be in the mix with renowned designers like Rhina Dhaka and Ashish Soni.

The MAX team was absolutely well organized and very helpful throughout the journey in the competition. I am also extremely thankful to all the management and faculty members from JD Bangalore and Delhi who gave me tremendous support throughout the competition.

The MDA experience has hugely helped me to think and become more proactive while organizing my time, plan and prioritize tasks that must be done in a prompt fashion. Moreover, MDA has given me the confidence that I belong to the industry I have chosen and that will be the greatest takeaway from my very first fashion award competition.

I am a believer by nature and being there in the finals, capped that belief quite remarkably. MDA is a fantastic platform and opportunity for aspiring students like myself who are just stepping into the real world of fashion. MAX empowered me with the chance to express my ideologies thru fashion, and I could not yearn for a better platform to showcase my talent.

The feeling of being in the top 15?

To be honest, it was unbelievable event though I was quite confident that my designs were creative and worthy enough to be selected. Besides, it was an amazing feeling to explain when the effort and hard work that we put, yield successful results.

What’s next?

I aspire to learn more from real-world fashion designers by probably working with them as an intern for a while after course completion. I would like to enhance my experience by designing contemporary fashion garments that are affordable to all social classes and also compete in more fashion shows. I have always aspired to become a fashion designer encouraging sustainable and ethical fashion because I truly desire to do everything I can, to try and create changes that will make the world a better place for all.