Layered by Life!

By Siya Mishra

Photography: courtesy the designer

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Budding designer Vaishali Shadangule talks about her myriad experiments with Indian traditional fabrics.

From the small town of Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh to Mumbai, the city of dreams, designer Vaishali Shadangule has truly proved herself as a name to reckon with in the world of fashion; her Spring Summer 2013  collection, ‘Athaaha’, attracting the attention of the masses and the industry experts.

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Guided by instinct and her inherent aesthetic sensibilities, Vaishali is an avid fan and explorer of Indian arts and crafts. Incorporating modern cuts and drapes in her designs, she extensively uses Indian fabrics, presenting them in a new avatar, enhancing their traditional appeal.

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Vaishali has successfully worked with fabrics like maheshwari, paithani, khadi and jamdani to name a few. Elaborating on experimentation, which seems to be her design mantra, she says, “I like all my designs to retain a certain ‘Indian-ness’, which I accomplish via a play of fusion silhouettes and cuts.” 

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Her latest collection, ‘Athaaha’, has ‘depth’ as the central theme, symbolically portrayed through the many layers of colours in the garments—black, white, blue, pink, maroon, and orange—creating the illusion of a background and a foreground. “I have used a strip and running stitches, akin to a random path on the garment, which leads to the desire of a discovery,” explains Vaishali. The collection is based in hand woven chanderi from Madhya Pradesh and woven khand fabric from Maharashtra.

Vaishali Shadangule

Intuitive and spontaneous in her work, Vaishali’s inspiration stems from the fluxes of her very life. She transforms her beliefs, observations, realizations, memories, emotions and obsessions into design to express herself. No wonder then that her designs depict intrigue and narration. With plans to branch out in the fashion metros of Mumbai and Delhi, Vaishali is only a stone’s throw away from starry recognition.

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