D. Harish Rajiv is an Assistant Professor in Fashion & Lifestyle Accessories (F&LA) at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and currently serves as Joint Director I/c. He has over a decade of experience in fashion education, academic administration, design, retail, and the apparel industry. His areas of expertise include accessories design, retail marketing, apparel merchandising, sourcing, supply chain management, material exploration, and sustainable design practices. Prior to joining NIFT, he worked with leading organizations including Raymond, Arvind Limited, Lifestyle, Tata Trent, Mom & Me, FirstCry.com, Prateek Apparels, and Indian Terrain, where he worked in the roles spanning  merchandising , Sourcing , buying and category management , including  Merchandiser, Senior merchandiser, Buyer and Category Head.

His academic and professional interests focus on integrating industry practices, craft, material innovation, and sustainability into design education. He contributes to curriculum development, academic planning, student mentoring, and industry-oriented learning. He also served as  Project Associate and Team Leader (Marketing) for the ETIDI–NIFT Twinning Programme Arrangement Project in  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,  a capacity building and business process re-engineering project involving  institutional and international collaboration , contributing to international academic and institutional collaboration.

He actively engages in student mentoring, design workshops, outreach programmes, career counselling, and institutional academic initiatives. His broader interests include strengthening industry and craft collaborations, promoting sustainable design practices, and developing industry-relevant learning opportunities. He continues to contribute to fashion education through teaching, academic administration, mentoring, design practice, and outreach activities.