Fashion Techniques and Design - Graduated 2015
For Gargi Ghugare, entering George Brown's two-year Fashion Techniques and Design program was a way to shift careers from covering fashion to creating fashion. Formerly an art director for Shaw TV’s “Fashion & Lifestyle,” Ghugare decided she wanted to get even closer to her love of clothing and design. The only trouble was that she had never even used a sewing machine. “I needed to learn the technical skills that would allow me to unleash my creativity,” she says.
Today, as founder and creative director of G aur M, Ghugare exhibits her designs at fashion shows all over the world. Her work has been on runways at Vancouver Fashion Week, Washington DC Fashion Week, and Dubai Fashion Week. She founded the company while she was still a student, with business partner Mrigini Iyer.
While Ghugare is now accustomed to seeing her designs on various runways, she'll never forget her first acceptance into the George Brown grad show. "That was pretty much the first time I saw something that had gone from my concept to actually walking down a runway. It was a huge moment for me," says Ghugare. She ended up turning the outfit into a whole collection.
Ghugare says she loves to work with natural fabrics, and that her creative vision comes from being what she calls a "third culture child", with an Indian background, raised in the Middle East and educated in Canada. "My inspiration pretty much comes from a cross pollination of cultures as such and then making it my own. I always draw it from the world around me."
Now focused on continuing to build her brand and push her designs to more national and international stages, Ghugare credits the program with setting her up for runway success. “Going from not knowing how to use a sewing machine to coming up with a 15-piece collection right out of school that showed in Vancouver Fashion Week is all credit to my alma-mater,” she says.
