Designer Vaishali Shadangule gives old India a new look

Designer Vaishali Shadangule uses traditional weaves and textiles in Western and contemporary dresses

Jamdani, Paithani, Maheshwari, Chanderi, Kand, Ikat … when you are in conversation with Vaishali Shadangule, you are sure to hear these references to Indian textiles. The Mumbai-based fashion designer has made it a special mission to work with traditional weaves and can talk non-stop about them.

“I am still in the process of discovering new and unfamiliar weaves to incorporate in my designs,” says Shadangule at her tiny workshop, located on Carter Road in Bandra. “I don’t think I will ever get weary of the heritage of textiles that we have.’’ Her workshop overlooking the Arabian Sea has a sense of Old India about it. Hanging on stands there are strikingly rich dresses made from textiles woven painstakingly by weavers from Varanasi, West Bengal and other Indian culture hotspots. They were showcased at the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week.  In the airy attic above, a group of karigars work busily, hand-embroidering Punto style (cutwork) on a length of silk fabric.

Shadangule made her debut at the Lakme Fashion Week in 2011, in which she showed well-crafted Indian dresses in Chanderi and Paithani prints. It was perhaps the first time that these fabrics had been cut into dresses, for till then they were only woven into 5.5-metre saris. The designer had reached out to the weavers of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh and Paithani in Maharashtra to incorporate their designs into fabrics suitable for cutting into dresses.

She made use of similarly traditional cloth in this year’s show too. “Jaya Shree Textiles of the Aditya Birla Group helped me to experiment with a new yarn made by combining linen and silk. A group of Jamdani weavers from West Bengal with whom I work did the rest. As the show was for a winter/festive season, I needed to add a festive touch, and I got this by adding shiny silk to linen,’’ explains Shadangule as she shows a peach-coloured gown with a large blue bib embroidered in the tribal Rabari style. Her dresses employ such innovations, whether it is with the popular Jamdani and the Rabari or the Jacquard. The customary motifs are redesigned without losing their essence in order to gain a contemporary touch.

The Mumbai designer’s love for Indian textiles doesn’t mean she designs only Indian wear. In her collection you will find Western silhouettes, layerings, pants, tunics, skirts, gowns, dresses and, of course, the readily consumed salwar-kameez, ghaghras and saris. For her, fusing Indian with Western and contemporary is not an artificial art. Take her summer wear created for Lakme Fashion Week 2012 that used Khand. Khand is a fabric worn by the farmer community of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Her search for the original weavers of this fabric took her on a 565-km journey because no one seemed to know where the artisans lived. “I was under the impression that the fabric was woven in villages around Kolhapur,” she recalls. “I did came across products made of Khand, but these were woven on powerlooms, not on original handlooms. My persistence ultimately led me to Guledgudda near Bagalkot in Karnataka.  Here I found three families who still followed the traditional handloom method of weaving the Khand.’’

She stayed with the weavers, urged them to experiment with newer designs and got the cloth she needed to fit her collection.

She usually stays with the craftspeople during the time they work on the fabric she has envisioned. Like she did when she got her special Banarasi sari woven for this year’s collection. The burnt orange-pink bridal sari is heavy to handle and is full of heavy zari embroidery from the city known for its zari work on saris. “It’s bridal attire and so, is heavy,’’ she explains, holding up embroidery of the kind had almost vanished 25 years ago.

Vaishali Shadangule

Shadangule has more than 60 people working for her brand, Vaishali S. Her designs have been worn by celebrities like Vidya Balan, Sonam Kapoor, Amrita Rao, Shweta Salve, Tanishaa Mukherjee and many others. Her products are retailed from Fuel, Ogaan (Delhi), Rudhraksh (Pune), Aza & Atosa (Mumbai) and her own outlets in Mumbai. Items in her latest collection are priced between Rs 12,000 and Rs 2,00,000.