How to become a Costume Designer?

Candidates applying for B. Des course need to have passed 10+2 exam from a recognised institute and should be less than 24 years as of August 1, 2026. Relaxation of 5 years in the upper age limit applies for candidates belonging to SC, ST and PwD categories.

Yes, the National Institute of Fashion Technology will allow candidates with late fees. The late fee application window will open once the deadline to fill out the NIFT 2026 application form with regular fee closes. The start and last date to fill out the NIFT 2026 application form with late fee will be notified by the institute before the regular application form closes or sometime thereabout. The late fee for NIFT 2026 will be INR 5,000. The late fee has to be paid in addition to the application fee, which is INR 3000 for open category candidates.

The candidate has to select their admission category at the time of filling out the NIFT 2026 application form. The candidate must make sure that they have the requisite valid and verificable certificate supporting their category.

Note that the category selected by a candidate at the time of submitting the application form will be considered as final.

If a candidate selects a reserved category i.e. SC/ST/OBC (NCL)/EWS/PWD but fails to submitted a valid Category Certificate, he or she will be considered for open category seats provided any benefit of relaxed age or income or cut offs has not been availed by the candidate at any stage of the Admission Process. If any benefit has been availed, the candidate’s application will be rejected. 

Also, if a reserve category candidate is considered for open category, then he/she will have to pay the difference in amount of application fee as applicable for open category.

The Situation Test/ Personal Interview (PI) are the 2nd stage of the NIFT 2026 entrance exam. Candidates were shortlisted for the Situation Test/ PI based on the NIFT 2026 written exam scores.

Note that if the candidate fails to qualify for the 2nd stage, he or she is not considered for admission to various design courses offered by the NIFTs.

The only exception is B.F.Tech program, where the merit list for admission will be prepared solely on the basis of GAT scores.

In the case of other courses, the merit list will be prepared by giving weightage to the written exams and Situation Test/ PI.

Minimum qualifying criteria for NID DAT are the minimum marks candidate needs to secure for admission. The category-wise cut-off would be released at the time of counseling and seat allotment. Cut-off would be prepared by considering factors like total number of applicants, merit ranks of applicants in NID DAT, seat intake of applied programme, etc. 

The results of the DAT Prelims will include the qualifying status of the candidate. If the candidate fails to qualify in DAT Prelims, he or she will not be eligible to appear in DAT Mains.

Note that the Desing Aptitude Test (DAT) conducted by the National Institute of Design (NID) has two sub-exams: DAT Prelims and DAT Mains.

Both the exams are mandatory.

Also, the final merit list is prepared by giving weighatage to DAT Prelims and DAT Mains. So, if a can candidate fails to qualify DAT Prelims or doesn’t appear in DAT Mains, the candidate will be disqualified from the admission process.