Threads of Freedom

Marking 25 years, Vaishali Shadangule's arduous journey to the international stage has redefined Indian handlooms as sculptural, sustainable haute couture

- By BENU JOSHI ROUTH

Dressed in a red salwar-kurta, Vaishali Shadangule was just 17 when she left home at 3 am, boarding a train from Vidisha to Bhopal without a ticket.

Perhaps she didn't know then that the trip of 60-odd km would also be the start of her creative journey.

At home, Shadangule remembers, a horse cart would arrive every morning to take her brother to school, while she could study only till the eighth grade, as long as it cost nothing. As a teen, she pitched in with work—taking tuitions, selling paintings, designing mehndi—to earn and fund her education. But that night, she chose to break away.

Today, at 47, Shadangule stands among India’s most singular design voices-celebrating a quarter century of work rooted in Indian textiles, craft, and handloom, while supporting over 3,500 families of weavers across seven states. She is the first Indian woman designer to showcase on the official calendar of Paris Haute Couture Week, the first to open a flagship store on Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris, and to launch a Western bridal line in Barcelona (in 2025).

Yet, the 17 years she spent at home were far from wasted.

Finding Fashion

The values that define Shadangule's design philosophy were quietly absorbed from her mother for whom sustainability was a way of life. She would repurpose old saris into frocks or curtains, vegetable peels were used as compost for plants. These lessons have formed the foundation of her brand. “These things stay with you,” she says. “They become instinct.”

When she started her brand in 2000, she followed these ideologies almost subconsciously. “I have always been conscious about not throwing away fabric, but finding ways to use every bit,” she says. “When you treat nature like a part of your body, you are careful about what you create, how you create it, and how you treat people.”