India : Hunar Online Courses, a SkillTech online learning platform to empower women by helping them learn new skills and become financially independent, today hosted the second edition of the Hunar Live Fashion Show (HLFS). The show was graced by the presence of Bollywood actress, health & wellness influencer and entrepreneur, Shilpa Shetty, who praised the designs by Hunar students and saluted the hardwork of 200+ women.
The show also had 4-time national award-winning designer, Neeta Lulla, Hunar’s very own celebrity mentor, as part of its jury along with acclaimed fashion designer, Divya Reddy and Kamini Saraf, Founder of Yatra exhibitions & Director, Radha TMT.
The second edition comes on the heels of the success of the first edition held in 2021. Last year’s edition had over 14000 viewers, 100+ participants from 100+ cities and a showcase of 10 unique Bollywood-inspired collections. The vision behind the event has always been to provide a national platform to Indian women who wish to turn their skill into their success. That’s why the first Hunar Live Fashion Show saw hundreds of talented women from all over the country, getting recoginition and making a new name with their skill. Also, all student collections were listed on online retail portals for sale and received interest from over 400 people to purchase the designs.
The participants were assigned to style a look or illustrate a garment for the upcoming wedding season, which was reviewed by the expert faculty members and design advisors of Hunar. Out of the total 10,000 design submissions, 200+ entries were chosen to present their designs to the jury via a ramp walk during the virtual fashion show. The show, themed and titled as “Wedding Dhoom, gave Hunar’s students across India, a platform to showcase their designing skills before a panel jury and more than 9267 virtual viewers. In addition to gaining recognition, the students also got the opportunity to sell their designs on WhatsApp catalogues and launch their respective brands.
Nishtha Yogesh, CEO of Hunar Online Courses, said, “At Hunar, we help women gain financial independence and an identity of their own that comes from their Hunar, their skill. We are proud to have hosted the second edition of the Live Digital Fashion Show for our talented students. Our event has become an influential platform to support thousands of women all over India who are producing extraordinary designs from their homes. Live Digital Fashion Show has given them a great start on their entrepreneurial journey and demonstrated what they can do with hard work and skill.”
Bollywood actress, health & wellness influencer and entrepreneur, Shilpa Shetty attended the show virtually and said, “I am so amazed by these collections and the stories of these designers. It is nice to see an organization like Hunar that doesn’t just teach skills but help its students grow by providing a national platform to showcase their designs.”
Neeta Lulla, the celebrity fashion designer, said, “Being a part of the Live Digital Fashion Show and seeing the beauty in the Hunar students’ original ideas gave me great pleasure. They have combined trends and traditions to produce outstanding work.”
Through this program, Hunar launched 200+ fresh fashion designers from 100+ Indian cities, who, during the show, showcased 15+ collections.
The fashion show was streamed live on 30 September 2022 from 2:00 PM onwards and aired for 120 minutes on the Hunar Online Courses website. With 2500+ LIVE comments, the designers received 50,000+ votes to decide the Most Popular Collection!
Details of the winning collections:
- Judges’ Choice Award- Kashmir ki Dulhan
- Best Selling Collection- Designer Doli
- Most Wearable- Gujrati Lagan
- Most Popular Collection- Beach wali Shaadi
- Best Jewellery Award- Kalamkari Dulhan
Thousands of viewers participated in the interactive virtual fashion show and voted for their favourite garment during the final show, which showcased real models walking on the ramp. The winners of this virtual fashion show received a host of benefits, such as:
- Receiving cash prize of 1Lakh rupees amount to help commercialise their business.
- Being featured on thehlabel.com, Hunar Online Courses’ e-commerce website, to be sold at retail prices to online shoppers.
- Getting opportunities to sell their designs on other retail platforms, such as Amazon and others.
- Receiving the token of achievement by way of trophies for selected and certificates for all participants.
- Securing a complete guide to designing, creating, and marketing their start-up brands and fashion businesses.
The 15 design collections that walked the ramp were Bride ki Saheliyan, Designer Doli, Beach wali Shaadi, Floral Shaadi, Rajputana Bride, Patakha Reception, Gujrati Lagan, Kraft Kaleerein, Wedding Ke Rang, Mehmaan from Bengal, Sangeet Style, Nawabi Bride, Kalamkari Dulhan, Kashmir ki Dulhan and Band Baja Bride.
Students of Hunar Online Courses access an online curriculum in the skill-based courses in the fashion, food, and beauty segments. These advanced entrepreneurship courses are pre-recorded classes, live virtual classes and webinars by certified teachers and industry experts. As a result, Hunar Online Courses has a growing community of more than two million women and over 45,000 students, out of which 30 per cent are running their enterprises successfully, earning over INR 50,000 every month on average.
This year, Hunar launched the Food and Beauty categories, and now has a total 55+ creative courses for its students. Hunar had also joined hands with reputed national brands like ITC Aashrivaad Atta and Naturals Salon to empower more and more women. It recently hosted India’s largest online graduation ceremony where more than 6,000 women earned their certificate on a single day.
