Guest Speaker 25th Jan 2014
Way before Fashion Journalism became Varun Ravindernath Rana’s profession, Varun Ravindernath Rana was plugging away as a fashion designer, working with designers like Tarun Tahiliani & Sabyasachi Mukherji as an assistant.
Varun Rana with Frankie Lim Director of Sales and Silvia Ojeda García, Academic Director. Varun Rana at the session with students.
Varun Rana answering student ‘s queries.
Mr Mike Yam ,Executive Director, thanking Mr Varun Ravindernath Rana for his support.
As soon as he realized his keen interests towards writing, coupled with his core fundamentals in Fashion, he decided to take up Fashion Journalism as his main Career option. According to Varun Rana, as he shared, it was An interesting journey for him .He followed his strong beliefs, Without any pre determined trend or style, doing what he believes is right.Varun Rana had worked with Fashion house like Genesis Luxury and Fashion magazine like Vogue. That was the beginning of his journey in Fashion Journalism. Presently, he is engaged as Fashion Director for Harper’s Bazaar India. Students were delighted to meet this charismatic personality face to face. He shared his experience from a designer to becoming a journalist. He spoke about International Fashion, Fashion Culture and Ethics, Sustainable Design, IPR (Intellectual Property Right), Fashion Branding, India’s Fashion Industry and Consumer Interest. Session was not only interesting but very informative as well. With his great sense of humor, he had captured full attention of the audience who were present that morning. All the students were Inspired & motivated by Varun Rana’s talk. All the questions which were asked by the students, were patiently answered by Mr Rana.
Zurina Naicker Fashion Design Creative Practitioner, attended the session said “I enjoyed the manner in which he approached the students and how he appreciated each question. I like how he interacted with students and involved us as part of the discussions.’’
Mr Mike Yam along with all fashion student attended the session.
Maria Cuadrado , Fashion Marketing and Management Creative Practitioner added ‘’ He is a real inspiration for the students as he shared with them his international experience. It is also for us ,as Creative Practitioners, a way to get in touch with the outside world. Furthermore, the ability to answer one of my FMM students’ questions, changed the flow of the lecture and it is really amazing.’’
Manorama Baswa , Fashion Marketing student said “The monologue given to us by Mr. Varun Rana is one of the best which I have ever experienced. Not everyone is willing to share about their experiences and pasts. His emphasis on hard work, actually makes me realize that giving my 100% is not enough anymore. Things that I have learnt during that one hour talk by Varun Rana, will stay with me for a long time. We should have him over more often and maybe make it something regular.’’
Varun Rana answering student queries.
There were other students like Ashish Garg ,from Fashion Design who mentioned “It is a great pleasure to listen to him and to know so many untouched pieces in the Fashion industry. Each word spelled was full of inspiration for us. Mr Rana elaborated that "knowledge and hard work are the only keys and if brought together can create wonders.’’
Work of Raashi Wallia (Alumni -FMM student of Raffles Delhi)
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Most of the students had similar opinions about Varun Rana’s talk. To some, his session was a gateway to understand what Fashion really means and how the industry works. To the rest, this session actually changed their perceptions towards the Fashion industry. The students realized that, along with hard work, they would also need to acquire knowledge, have great flexibility and even greater sense of responsibilities. With these elements, one can then survive and possibly make it big in the Fashion industry.
Deepti Sharma , Fashion Design Program Coordinator, who helped to us to make arrangements & invited Varun Rana to visit Raffles Delhi, said “In my opinion, Mr. Varun Rana is a very appropriate speaker for the two departments- Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing and Management. He is a fantastic speaker as his education is in Design and he has experience in Management. The students are thrilled and wanted more of his time. I hope we can have him or speakers who are like him, coming to the campus as Guest speakers on a regular basis, so that the students will be motivated and be informed of the current Fashion industry.”
Varun Rana addressing the students.