Fashion Design & Merchandising – A Journey From Classroom to Production Floor at Parul University!

The real distance between a design classroom and a production house is larger than it looks. A classroom can lay a foundation for you, whereas a production house preps you for the real fashion challenges. This is the major gap that the Parul Institute of Design figured out and ensured that students should go through both frameworks to master this techno-creative world of fashion designing.

Meet the gem – Isha Jagdish, a Master of Design student at Parul University. completed her education in fashion merchandising. She was passionate about the business side of fashion, wherein she had championed a successful internship in a production house.

It’s a discipline that turns creative fashion into a profitable business. In fashion merchandising, a designer imagines a garment, but a merchandiser ensures the right product is made, designed, and manufactured with all the quality levels checked and executed well. It sits at the epic intersection of creativity & commerce. It covers retail merchandising, brand building, client communication, fashion marketing, production management, and the art of merchandising-from drawing to the final presentation in the store.

This was exactly what drew Isha to the field. She was interested less in the drawing of clothes than in the full pipeline behind them, the journey from an initial design to final delivery, and she wanted to understand every stage of it.

To choose from where to pursue a master’s degree was an integral decision of her life. She wanted to study at an institution that focuses on practical approaches in sync with the theory. With a strong rise in fashion, she knew this domain demands a creative & business approach, and hence, she chose the M.Des. in Fashion Merchandising program. It even pairs a techno-creative syllabus that matches her priorities at all the levels!

The program gave Isha a broad, business-focused foundation. Its syllabus covered the core pillars of the field:

• Merchandising and retail management – The planning and management of what gets made and sold.
• Brand building and fashion marketing – How a label communicates its value to customers.
• Production management – The coordination of how garments are actually manufactured.
• Supply chain management – The movement of materials and products across a complex, global pipeline.

Learning never stopped here; the program built was filled with frequent industrial visits, hands-on workshops, guest lectures from working professionals, and live research projects, alongside strong internship support. Isha deliberated that this creative campus culture has pushed her to excel in presentations, discussions, activities, communication skills, teamwork, and mindset.

The real test of that preparation came through her internship as a production executive intern at Siddhesh Chauhan (Sarus Designs LLP), an Ahmedabad-based menswear label known for ready-to-wear, couture, and made-to-measure garments. Working inside a premium label placed her in the middle of real manufacturing, where creative vision meets deadlines, materials, and quality standards. It was, she said, a genuinely valuable learning experience and a demanding one.

Her responsibilities were highly operational, and they map neatly onto what fashion production actually involves:

• MTO Assistance-From assisting the floor team with garments designed for specific orders.
• Production Management-From how manufacturing is going on to the deadline expectation, this role covers the entire process.
• Inventory management: Tracking raw materials so production never stalled for want of supplies.
• E-commerce operations: Handling product uploads on the brand’s Shopify store and tracking customer orders.
• Records and quality control: Maintaining detailed production documentation and supporting quality checks before garments left the building.

None of this could be done from a desk. Isha worked across multiple departments to keep daily production on schedule, and in doing so she saw first-hand how a luxury brand sustains high quality while meeting demanding customer expectations.

Isha’s role is a good illustration of a job many fashion students do not fully picture: the production executive, the person who makes sure a designed garment is actually manufactured well and on time. It is a coordinating role that connects design, sourcing, manufacturing, quality, and delivery. A production executive plans and schedules production, tracks materials and orders, liaises between departments, safeguards quality, and keeps the documentation that lets a brand deliver reliably. It is unglamorous by fashion’s runway image but essential; without it, no collection reaches a customer.

A design becomes a product only when someone makes it on time, to standard, again and again.
– On the reality of fashion production

A master’s degree followed by a hands-on internship left Isha with a rounded and practical skill set, spanning both technical knowledge and professional judgment. On the technical side, she developed a working command of production planning, inventory management, retail operations, supply-chain awareness, order tracking, quality control, and manufacturing documentation. On the professional side, the production floor sharpened her communication, time management, teamwork, adaptability, problem-solving, and, notably, her attention to the smallest details on a garment.

The lesson she took away is one every merchandiser learns eventually: in manufacturing, planning and clear communication are not optional extras but the only reliable way to meet deadlines. Handling real responsibility and proving to herself that she could give her a durable boost in confidence.

Isha credits her readiness for the internship to the foundation the university built. Because her curriculum had already covered retail operations, supply chain, fashion marketing, and production management, she was not starting from zero on her first day; she understood the basic industry practices before she arrived. The program’s emphasis on presentations and workshops had strengthened her communication, industrial visits had shown her what a real factory looks like, and live projects and guest lectures had improved her analytical thinking and teamwork. Faculty guidance and direct institutional support with securing the internship completed the bridge. In her assessment, the combination of classroom learning and practical exposure is what made her genuinely industry-ready. From fashion design and technology to merchandising, discover your path at Parul Institute of Design with B.Des Fashion Design Technology and D.Des Fashion Design programs and get to work for the trending agencies of India!

Asked what she would tell juniors, Isha was direct: make the most of every opportunity the campus offers, whether an internship, a workshop, a seminar, a competition, or an extracurricular activity, and show up for all of it. Stay curious, participate fully in projects, and never hesitate to learn directly from experienced faculty. The practical exposure and industry interaction available on campus, she believes, are what build the confidence and professional skills the market demands. With dedication and a genuine willingness to learn, she says, a student’s time at university becomes a strong foundation for a successful career.

Isha’s direction is clear. She intends to build her career in fashion production management and merchandising, working with established brands on production planning, quality management, and operations and growing over time toward a senior leadership role managing teams and contributing to a large organization. She is candid that this will take continuous learning from seasoned professionals and a steady appetite for new challenges and is equally clear that practical experience is the surest route there. Her journey, from a Parul University classroom to a luxury production floor, suggests she has already found it.