Top 10 Fashion Design Colleges in India 2024

Want to join a fashion design college? Find out the top 10 fashion design schools in India, their list of courses, and how you can secure admission to them. Scroll on for more details.

Are you a creative person wanting to explore his/ her natural flair for fashion design? If you are passionate about creating original and extremely stylish designs, then fashion designing is the perfect career choice for you.

Pursuing a career in fashion design will not only satisfy your creative urge but also give you a chance to become famous by entering the glamorous fashion design industry. For people who manage to hit all the right chords, fashion designing offers a decent paycheck.

The best way to meet the right people and establish a career in this field is by joining a good fashion design institute. However, owing to the ever-growing demand for this course, more and more fashion design training institutes are opening up. Thus, in such a scenario, it is advisable to know which institutes/ colleges offer the best training and education in this field.

So, to help aspirants, Shiksha has compiled a list of the best fashion designing colleges in the country as per India Today Ranking 2024. Below, aspirants can go through detailed information related to the top 10 fashion design colleges in India in 2024.

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Top Fashion Design Colleges in India 2024 - India Today Rankings

Rankings of design colleges - Previous year's trends

The rankings of fashion design colleges between 2020 & 2019 are given below.

NIFT Delhi

[India Today Rank 2023: 1]

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

Established in 1986 by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFT), Delhi was set up in technical collaboration with the FIT, New York. NIFT Delhi is one of the best design colleges in the country and it has its head office in New Delhi.

As per the official website, NIFT Delhi offers regular as well as Continuing Education (CE) programmes to students. The design school also has the oldest and richest Resource Centre containing massive collections of print and non-print materials.

NIFT Delhi boasts of eminent alumni such as Rohit Bal, Ritu Beri, Manish Arora and the like. Aspirants can know more about famous Indian fashion designers and how they made it big.

Courses offered at NIFT Delhi:

NIFT Mumbai

[India Today Rank 2023: 2]

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

Considered to be the second best Fashion Design institute in country, NIFT Mumbai was established in 1995. The infrastructure of the college is top-notch and equipped to cater to all the requirements of fashion design courses.

The college has highly trained faculties with strong industry connect and offers employment opportunities to aspirants across all NIFT centres. 

Courses offered at NIFT Mumbai:

NIFT Bengaluru

[India Today Rank 2023: 3]

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

Considered to be one of the best fashion design schools in the country, NIFT Bengaluru’s campus is fully equipped with lecture rooms, resource centres, design studios and labs, gym, hostels and activity centres.

As per the official website, NIFT Bengaluru has signed MOUs with various member institutes of IFFTI. Some of the prominent ones being Hogeskolan I Boras, Sweden; Birmingham School of Art & Design, UK and RMIT, Australia, etc.

Top recruiters who visit NIFT Bengaluru for campus placements are 99 Labels, Cairon, Dhananjai Apparels Pvt Ltd, Fine Stitches, Alok Industries, Pure Earth Pvt Ltd, ITC Infotech, Pal Fashions and Vintage Shades.

Courses offered at NIFT Bengaluru:

NIFT Chennai

[India Today Rank 2023: 4]

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

This fashion design college offers state-of-the-art facilities to its students. The campus of NIFT Chennai is such that students and faculty members have access to the inner courtyard and outer courtyard that is attached with table tennis court, basketball court, badminton court and a gymnasium.

Students are offered (broadband) wi-fi internet facility round the clock. Also, students are offered free shuttle service for industrial visits.

Courses Offered at NIFT Chennai:

[India Today Rank 2023: 7]

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

Established in June 2008, NIFT Patna initially operated out of its transit campus that was located at Udyog Bhavan, Gandhi Maidan at Patna. However, in 2014 the design college started classes from its permanent campus situated at Mithapur Farms, Patna.

NIFT Patna’s campus includes - Accessory Design Lab, 3D Printer, Photography Studio, Mac Lab, Garment Construction Lab, Pattern Making Lab, Textile Design Studio, Textile Testing Lab, Digital Studios and IT Labs and Weaving Studio.

Courses offered at NIFT Patna:

[India Today Rank 2023: 6]

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

Established in 1995 as a temporary campus, NIFT Gandhinagar was later allotted an area of 20,000 sq mts for a permanent campus.

NIFT Gandhinagar’s permanent campus became operational in 2004. Thereafter, the fashion design college was allotted an additional area of 10,000 sq mts to build the girl’s hostel, director’s bungalow as well as the staff quarters. The hotel can accommodate up to 202 students on twin sharing basis.

Courses offered at NIFT Gandhinagar:

NIFT Hyderabad

[India Today Rank 2023: 5] 

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

The foundation stone of NIFT Hyderabad was laid in 1995. Initially, NIFT Hyderabad operated from Chenetha Bhavan, Nampally, Hyderabad. In 1999, NIFT Hyderabad was shifted to Madhapur where the design school was spread over an area of five acres.

The architectural grandeur, as well as the aesthetic appeal of NIFT Hyderabad’s campus, is widely admired by one and all. Hostel facility at NIFT Hyderabad is offered only to girls and that too on a first-come-first-serve basis. There are 238 rooms in the hostel. No hostel facility is offered to boys.

Courses Offered at NIFT Hyderabad:

NIFT Kolkata

[India Today Rank 2023: 8]

Admission Through: NIFT Entrance Exam

Established in 1995, NIFT Kolkata was initially located at Manjusha Bhavan, Salt Lake. NIFT Kolkata shifted to its five-acre campus at Salt Lake in 1999. NIFT is among the five oldest National Institutes of Fashion Technology in India.

Facilities offered to students at NIFT Kolkata include – three conference halls, 44 classrooms, fully equipped labs, 3D printers, laser cutting machine, ETON overhead material carrying system, Shima Seiki computerised knitting machine, digital tablets, digital printing machine, and soft body dress forms. Apart from this, the Resource Centre at NIFT Kolkata houses over 15,000 books and has a huge material collection which includes fabric swatches, traditional costumes, fashion garments as well as textiles and accessories

NIFT Kolkata has 70 full-time faculty members including 13 professors.

Courses offered at NIFT Kolkata:

Pearl Academy New Delhi

[India Today Rank 2023: 9]

Admission Through: Pearl Academy Entrance Exam

Established in 1993, by the Little People Education Society and registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, Pearl Academy of Fashion was initially promoted by an Indian export house known by the name of House of Pearl Fashions Ltd.

Pearl Academy’s first campus was located at Okhla, South Delhi but later the college moved to a much larger campus in West Delhi’s Naraina.

At Pearl Academy aspirants can pursue an International Bachelor’s Degree or an Indian Bachelor’s Degree. Pearl Academy facilitates admission of students in courses offered at the University of Derby, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Torrens University, Australia.

Courses offered at Pearl Academy New Delhi:

Symbiosis Institute of Design

[India Today Rank 2023: 11]

Admission Through: SEED

Established in 2006, Symbiosis Institute of Design (SID), Pune is spread over an area of 80,000 sq ft. The official website informs that “The campus of Symbiosis Institute of Design at Viman Nagar houses state of the art design studios, laboratories, workshops, IT infrastructure, rapid prototyping lab, well-equipped classrooms, library, exhibition areas, seminar hall, conference hall etc. The campus also has an amphitheatre, ultra-modern auditorium and academic plaza for various activities including design shows. The entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled”.

As per the official website, students from SID, Pune have been hired at firms such as “Infosys, Autoline Industries Ltd, Cognizant Ltd, Whirlpool, Mudra Communications, etc. Students have also been absorbed by small and medium-scale enterprises such as Elephant Design, Fitch Design, Onio Design, Leaf Design, and several design corners”.

Courses Offered at SID: