From NIFT Bangalore to Polimoda Florence: Khyati Mittal's Fashion Journey

Khyati Mittal has been going through her mother's wardrobe since she was a child — pulling out different fabrics, trying to put outfits together, doing what small children do when they're already working something out about themselves. She didn't need to deliberate about what to study. Fashion was the only answer that ever came to mind.

She grew up in Siliguri at Olian Convent, moved to a boarding school in Ooty for seven years — some of the best years of her life, she says — then to Bangalore for her undergraduate degree, and then to Florence, Italy for her master's. She is now a freelance fashion designer working across brands in India, and she wants to build her own.

We followed her journey from early on, and this is what she told the Global Thinkers Podcast.

Getting into NIFT — without an art background

NIFT Bangalore is India's premier fashion institution, and many students assume you need to have taken art as a subject in school to get in. Khyati is evidence that this is not true. She was a commerce student — Economics and Maths, no art. She still made it to NIFT Bangalore.

The entrance exam has two parts: a General Aptitude Test (general knowledge and maths) and a Creative Aptitude Test (which tests creative thinking, not artistic technique). "There is no right or wrong in design," Khyati says. What the Creative Aptitude Test measures is how you think about an open-ended problem, not whether you can draw perfectly. She prepared by solving previous years' papers and speaking to NIFT alumni — not by joining a coaching institute.

Her rank got her into NIFT Bangalore. She'd aimed for Delhi or Mumbai, which are the most competitive campuses, but she is clear: "Everyone gets a fair chance because there are more than 50 NIFT colleges across India, and your rank decides both the campus and the course."

The course she was allocated — Knitwear Design — led to a pleasant surprise. NIFT had just launched a double-course option. Khyati ended up doing both Fashion Design and Knitwear Design simultaneously over four years. "Most people think fashion means everything is the same, but it really is not. Fashion Design is different from Knitwear, which is different from Fashion Communication, which is different from Leather Design, which is different from Accessories, Shoe Design, Jewellery Design." Knowing your niche matters even within a field as broad as fashion.

Why Polimoda, why Florence

For her master's, Khyati wanted something that would teach her not just how to make clothes but how to build a brand. Every time she looked at fashion business programmes, they focused on management. She wanted entrepreneurship — specifically, how to start a brand from nothing and run it.

Polimoda in Florence was the answer. Ranked among the top ten fashion schools in the world, it offered an international fashion business programme with a specific focus on startups. And — critically — its faculty had actually done the work they were teaching. Her professors had built careers at Gucci, Tom Ford, and Bulgari.

"You can't be taught creativity. But when your professors have that experience, they are able to give you that experience."

The programme delivered what it promised. She met industry people constantly: factory visits, real-time visits to studios, guest lecturers from international houses. She attended Milan Fashion Week as a student — not as an audience member but as part of the ecosystem, watching how the business actually works at the highest level. Her college held a Gucci show in Florence, the city she was living in.

"It was a dream come true for me."

Italy itself was a revelation. People would stop their work to help a stranger who looked lost. "Even if they see that you need help, they will stop their work to help you, because that's just how that country functions — everyone is like a family to them." She lived in Florence for ten months and has never stopped talking about it.

Two collections, two different educations

At NIFT, Khyati's final collection was called Who Are You? — a response to the social pressure on people to define themselves in a single, fixed way. "I have a strong opinion that we don't need to fit into a box." The collection was inspired by the Mullet haircut's famous logic: business in the front, party at the back. You don't have to be the same person at all times.

At Polimoda, her collection became a startup. The assignment was to launch a real brand. She chose upcycling — taking clothes that people no longer needed and transforming them into new designs, rather than letting them go to landfill.

"Most people think that once you've worn a piece of clothing it needs to be thrown away. But clothing has a much longer life than that." It was a 360-degree turn from how she'd thought about design before arriving in Italy. The European market — where consumers will boycott major brands over sustainability failures — had given her a different lens. She came back to India a sustainable designer.

The comparison she draws between European and Indian consumers is stark: European buyers think about what they are buying, not just which brand. They will pay more for a product that has a story, a purpose, an ethical supply chain. Indian consumers are price-sensitive for now, but the market is evolving fast. "We are moving in the right direction."

What she came back to build

Khyati is now a freelance fashion designer, helping brands develop collections and launch them for the right markets at the right time. The long-term goal is her own brand — one that solves a problem, not just one that sells beautiful clothes.

"I don't want to create just another fashion brand. Creating something beautiful is not difficult. Creating something that solves a purpose and has a story is much more important to me." She wants to build something for people, by people.

Her advice to students thinking about fashion and design is direct: don't let the glamour fool you. "I had college from 9am to 9pm. It's all about the hustle behind." You cannot force creativity — which means you can only sustain this industry if you are genuinely drawn to it. "If you are meant to do this, you will be inclined to it yourself. You won't mind working twelve hours sketching the same design again and again until you hit the right one."

Fashion is one of the fields where the right undergraduate institution, followed by the right overseas master's, creates a compound effect that's difficult to replicate any other way. If your child is serious about it — and specifically about building in this space — start the conversation with us, or see where your profile points with our Course Finder.