Director, Indian Institute of Craft and Design, (IICD) Jaipur. Job Responsibilities are administrative and academic in nature. After Affiliation of IICD with Rajasthan Skills University she has been appointed Dean, Design Skills in RISU since July 2018. She is a founding member and Secretary TCRC since 2016. She is also a member of CII’s National Committee on Design 2019, 2020 and 2021. She has been a guest faculty with the National Institute of Design, Pearl Academy and NIFT and prior to that she was the Centre coordinator and Faculty Member (Full time)– Fashion Design Department, National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, India.
She has also worked as freelance Textile Designer, writer on Fashion / textile related issues in India and abroad and provided fashion consultancy to firms in UK and USA.
PhD Candidate in History of Arts (Textiles), from University of Glasgow. The thesis is online on the University website – http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7809/ PG Diploma in Introduction to Sanskrit – Etymology from IGNOU, New Delhi. Archaeology of Clothing, a three months course from Oxford University, UK. Diploma in Export Management from FTDC (Foreign Trade promotion Council. M.Sc. in Textiles and Clothing from The University of Delhi, Lady Irwin College The title of dissertation – ‘Quintessence of Lotus: Motif for textile design’ – can be seen on university website – http://www.ladyirwin.edu.in/textileresearchMsc96.htm
Core areas of research interest include –
- Craft and Design Education
- Craft Entrepreneurship
- Historic Fashion, Costumes, Textiles and other crafts
- Studies in cultural context
Mentored many Design Collections and colloquium papers.
As a research consultant she worked on a project of Manipur Maharaja’s dress, exhibition held in the UK in 2017. She has been invited to join the research group as a dress historian in the Gwilliam Project 2020 – 2023, by McGill Library, Canada.
She has participated in many webinars and talks, she gave an online TedX talk in July 2020. She organized two seminars with IICD and 2 with TCRC since 2017. Some of her key presentations are:
- TedX talk online, in July 2020 on ‘Indian Handicrafts, epitome of design and sustainability.’
- Presentation on ‘Role of Design Education in Craft Economy’, at ISB Hyderabad on 20thFeb 2020.
- A key note lecture in TCRC seminar on 1stFeb 2020, on ‘Elite Indian Menswear’
- Presented a public lecture at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbaion 22nd Oct 2019, titled, ‘Courtly Indian Menswear: 1847 – 1947’
- ‘Inculcating Cultural Values in Youth’, a lecture given to DIET faculty members at the Gandhigram University, Tamil Nadu on 21stMarch 2019
- Presented a paper at Insight 2018, international conference at NID, Ahmedabad on 1stNovember 2018, titled, ‘Design Etymology in the Indian Context’
- Invited to talk on the topic,‘Kahani, Parampara aur Bhavishya’, at the World Living Heritage Festival, Udaipur, on 20th October 2018.
- Paper presented on‘The symbolism of Lotus in Pahari Embroidery’, at the Bhurilal Museum, Chamba on 10th June 2018.
- Invited to present a talk on the “Future of Design Education in Crafts Sector’, in the India Fashion Summit, 2018, held on 3rdMarch 2018, at Kochi, Kerela.
- Presented a paper in the NIFT International Conferenceheld on 1-2 February 2018, in the Fashion Pedagogy section, held at IHC, New Delhi, on ‘Clove Model – Proposed methodological model for research in craft and fashion history’.
- Presented a talk on ‘The Shoe Story of British India’, at Lotika Varadrajan Memorial Symposium on 6thJan 2018, organised by TCRC and CRT at IIC Annexe, New Delhi.
- Invited to present a talk on ‘Design Leadership’, at CII-NID conference in Hyderabad, on 5-6 December, 2017.
- Invited to present a paper on ‘The blouse and the petticoat: colonial additions to the saree’, in the seminar on ‘Colonial Objects and Social identity in the 17thto early 20th century’ at the National Museum of Denmark from 20th to 24th Sept 2016.
- Delivered a lecture titled ‘History of elite Indian menswear and womenswear’ on 23rdJuly 2016, at the K R Cama Institute, Mumbai.
- Invited to present a paper on ‘The Birth of the sherwani: An influence of the British Raj’ in the seminar on ‘Textiles, Collections, Communities, Culture And Trade’ at the K R Cama Institute, Mumbai on 9th– 10th January 2016.
- Invited to present a paper on ‘Defining and Redefining THE TRADITIONAL in Indian fashion at the conference cum workshop, ‘Traditional Textile Craft: An Intangible Heritage’ at the Jordan Museum from 24-27thMarch 2014. The details can be found on – http://conferences.saxo.ku.dk/traditionaltextilecraft/
- Invited to the International Workshop of ‘Costumes, Clothing, Consumption and Culture’ by CTRheld on 21st and 22nd November 2013 at University of Copenhagen Denmark, to present my research on ‘Influence of British Rule on Indian Fashion in the 19th and Early 20th’
- Presenteda paper “Textile Crafts and their contribution in Indian Fashion” in the ASA conference 2012 at JNU new Delhi on 4th April 2012
- Attended the ‘Dress History Conference’at The University of Brighton – from 8th to 10th Dec 2011
- Presenteda paper on “Effect of British Raj on Indian Costume” at the London College of Fashion – Fashion Colloquium 21st to 22nd Sept 2011.
