Mumbai school celebrates each child being unique by reimagining their school uniforms

Vishwajyot High School, founded in 2004, has been at the forefront of innovation since its inception. Its philosophy is based on the idea that every child is unique and is capable of discovering the extraordinary in themselves and in the world. By offering personalized education, it has already struck down the long-standing walls of traditional education.

Building on this philosophy, the school and its students are now set to change what ‘uniforms’ are supposed to mean. Invented to address the social divide among students, uniforms have served their purpose very well over the years. But Vishwajyot now wants to reimagine that whole idea. “The realization that every child is unique and needs encouragement to express her individuality has been at the center of everything we do. Because we personalised learning, our students have grown to become very self aware and confident. They expressed the need to have new uniforms. So we wanted to try and imagine how we could give them the agency of choice in picking their uniforms and wearing their personality on their sleeve - quite literally”, says Amrut Dhumal, founder of the school. 

To turn this idea into reality, the school worked with a design studio founded by NIFT and NID alumni. The designers conducted multiple workshops with students across the grades to ensure that their ideas  were placed right in the center of the design process. “It was refreshing to see our students at their expressive best, this is a step in the right direction to be more accommodative of our children's wishes and choices'' noted Kishore Iyengar, Principal of Vishwajyot High School who has been personally overseeing the entire process. 

“From creating print patterns to having a say in the kind of style we wanted, it has been a very unique experience for us. We wanted to choose comfort over fashion, so we consciously chose cotton over denim. We are really glad that our school let us get creative with our uniforms, can’t wait to wear them once the school reopens!” exclaimed Saksham, a grade 9 student.  

Very high quality materials have been sourced for this project. The school hopes that this effort will allow not just students, but their parents also to be a part of this celebration of being unique.