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Visions Episode 19 - Vaishali Shadangule, creativity at the heart of traditional craftsmanship

November 12, 2026
Visions is a series of forward-looking articles that explores the world of tomorrow — its contours, models, and challenges. Through the eyes of experts from various fields, the Visions series undertakes an exploration of our societies, adopting multiple viewpoints to address several questions: How can we imagine the future today? What emerging trends or subtle signals should we pay attention to identify and anticipate new models and ways of living, creating, producing, and consuming? By gathering observations, analyses, and future-oriented insights in fields ranging from multidisciplinary creation to economics, sustainability, and new technologies, Première Vision aims to inform, inspire and provide key resources for creative Fashion professionals.

Vaishali Shadangule’s entirely hand-woven creations under her brand Vaishali S Couture since 2001, graced the runway at Haute Couture Week in July 2021. Her signature technique, known as “cording”, transforms flat fabric into a three-dimensional, sculptural textile. Weaving, cascading pleats, embroidery… her work showcases the diversity of India’s creative craftsmanship. Two years later, she opened a boutique in Paris and showed her work at several international fashion weeks.

When asked about the future of textile craftsmanship in the coming five to ten years, the Indian designer emphasizes the diversity and quality of Indian crafts and weaving, their creative dimension and the need for continuous improvement in the economic conditions that will enable artisans to make a living from their work in the future. Her intention goes beyond simply highlighting her country’s expertise. Her economic approach grounds the discourse on expertise in the realities of the industry. By showing the innovative potential of handweaving, its relevance to a slower approach to fashion, and how it can mean more equitable collaborations between designers and artisans, she is tracing a more responsible path for the entire textile industry. By increasingly integrating these exceptional practices into contemporary design, these designers and artisans will find sustainable economic opportunities in the future.

Un engagement personnel devenu une mission

At the age of 19, after studies in engineering, Vaishali discovered the work of Indian weavers working entirely by hand. One of their techniques, which involves knotting 10,000 threads, requires 17 days of preparation before the actual weaving work can even begin. Impressed, she decided to showcase this technique in her creations. She initially partnered with three families; 26 years later, 4,500 families are collaborating with Vaishali. Their patience and dexterity continue to move her. Born into a modest family in a small village in central India, Vaishali recalls leaving home at the age of seventeen, at a time when opportunities for girls were limited. Her introduction to this traditional craft gave her direction. In 2001, she launched her label with two goals: to provide work for artisans, and to see their textiles worn around the world. She successfully organized presentations at the New York and Milan Fashion Weeks.

Indian textiles beyond embroidery

A true ambassador for Indian textile techniques, Vaishali also aims to show that these are not limited to artistic embroidery, as Europeans tend to believe, but span a much broader creative range.

“All brands know and make wide use of Indian embroidery, while the potential of the country’s textile industry remains unexplored.”

In India, as she points out, the expertise rests with families of artisans. Working with natural raw materials such as cotton, silk and wool, weavers produce fabrics whose colors, patterns, texture, weight and transparency differ according to regional traditions and climate. Vaishali gives the example of jamdani, a traditional West Bengali textile. Its weaving techniques have been recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, and its geometric construction lends itself to exceptionally intricate patterns. “This diversity represents a significant resource for designers, and it deserves to be further explored and promoted in the future,” she continues. In other words, India’s creative talents are still relatively unknown, yet could become a valuable source of creativity, particularly as quality is now increasingly associated with restraint.

Handcraftsmanship as a field for innovation

At a time when many are wondering how AI might transform jobs and working practices across the industry, Vaishali demonstrates that handweaving and innovation are far from incompatible. They could even go a step further by pursuing further experimentation with materials and new applications. “Working with a merino wool yarn I had brought them, some artisans in central India managed to produce an extremely fine fabric which, despite being almost transparent, had exceptional thermal properties. Similarly, by combining a particular goat-hair spinning technique used by women in Ladakh with an equally specialized weaving technique practiced by weavers in central India, we produced a cashmere of such high quality that it could be used to make jackets and dresses, rather than just knitwear.” She is convinced that only close collaboration between designers and artisans can drive technical progress and innovation. As she likes to point out, handcrafted fashion is synonymous with a slow, conscious, ethical and sustainable approach. It encourages consumers to slow down and become more aware of the work that went into making the product. “Everything is inside the fabric. That’s its soul,” she adds poetically. The product then speaks for itself: its breathability, sensuality, comfortable feel against the skin and the aesthetic appeal of its weave all imbue it with meaning.

Recognizing Indian artisans as creators in their own right

Alongside her creative approach, Vaishali advocates for economically equitable collaboration between designers and artisans. She is calling for a shift in perspective: artisans are not merely manufacturers; they are creators in their own right.

“All too often, the designer alone receives the credit for a collaborative effort. Yet they should not only work together but also receive equal recognition.“

She advocates for fairer compensation and access to training that brings together artisans and designers, and calls on the public authorities to help steer the system in this direction. She puts training and knowledge transfer back at the heart of the debate. “We will lose our artisans if we don’t give them visibility, respect and compensation,” she argues pragmatically.

Changing perceptions through collaboration

Vaishali notes with interest the shift in focus towards other creative centers around the world, even if she is well aware that fashion history has been shaped over several centuries by a Western-centric perspective. To promote a more equitable balance between these different regional centers of creativity, she calls for even closer collaboration between international designers and Indian artisans, emphasizing that this must take the form of genuine co-creation. The partnership with Première Vision and India’s Ministry of Textiles plays a part in this. Vaishali believes that a creative language can become universal without betraying the identity of traditional craftsmanship.

“We don’t need to change the craft or its identity. We do need to change the conversation between designers and artisans. To create something more global while keeping that identity intact.”

This is where the need for a different form of storytelling comes into play, in order, she says, to “change the way this work is presented to an international audience.” Taking the sari as an example, she explains that the aim, of course, is not to get other cultures to adopt this traditional attire, but to draw inspiration from it to create unconventional silhouettes while preserving the original craftsmanship.

The human touch: the value of luxury in the age of AI

As we know, the development of AI is making it more difficult to distinguish between the real and the virtual. “This appreciation of the value of human craftsmanship will only grow,” she firmly believes. We are already seeing the early signs: brands are increasingly offering glimpses into the design and craft techniques involved in making their products, revealing sketches and showing how materials are cut. They are highlighting the precision of patterns created by hand. In her view, the role assigned to technological progress is clearly defined: “it can help speed up certain operations, facilitate communication, rethink some aspects of marketing and save time on laborious administrative tasks, but original creativity doesn’t come from a prompt.” And she welcomes this distinction.

The human mind and human hands will continue to play a decisive role in the industry’s future. As perceptions of luxury undergo a profound transformation, this expression of the work of human hands will become even more central. “This is true luxury, and it will be the true luxury of the future,” she adds. The growing environmental awareness among younger generations will change not only consumption habits but also how consumers perceive products. They will “increasingly want to know who made a product, how it was made and whether or not it was produced ethically.” As for the question of scale, which arises whenever traditional craftsmanship is discussed, Vaishali points out that production volumes cannot, by their very nature, grow exponentially, offering a lesson of sorts about the need to slow down. That said, she stresses that meeting growing demand, even if it remains measured, is ultimately a question of planning. She emphasizes that the resources are there, and that it is possible to organize the country’s approximately seven million weavers and artisans into collaborative groups.

The Digital Product Passport: making craftsmanship visible and passing on skills

Some brands are apprehensive about the forthcoming introduction of the Digital Product Passport. This is certainly not the case for Vaishali, who sees it as “an opportunity to help people understand the difference between machine-made and hand-woven fabrics.” And she is already looking ahead. “It will bring greater visibility to the time and labor involved in making the products, the people who make them and their remuneration, as well as the origins and cultivation of natural raw materials. People will want to know what they are wearing and how much they are taking from nature. If it were up to me, I would add even more information: how much the weaver was paid, the hours spent making the piece, how the cotton was grown, everything. Everyone could then explore this information and the techniques for themselves, helping to keep them alive.”

She mentions a project supporting farmers who use recycled water. Initiatives like this will be easier to champion in the future thanks to tools like the Digital Product Passport. However, Vaishali is under no illusions that all brands will embrace it to the same extent. She cites the positive impact of the efforts to raise awareness of the work of embroiderers. “The public now has a better understanding of the time involved. By explaining how long the weaving process takes, consumers will appreciate its value – and that of the craftspeople behind it – even more.” In her efforts to pass on traditional skills, documenting traditional techniques plays a vital role. She believes it is essential to provide information about the diversity of weaving traditions, techniques, the villages where they originated and the generations of artisans who practice them. Ultimately, she would like these initiatives to be “fed into a database and turned into an educational resource accessible to schools and anyone wishing to learn.”

Preserving craftsmanship is also a question of economics

Asked about the best way to preserve and promote traditional skills, Vaishali insists on the fundamental importance of economic considerations. She recognizes the value that major museum exhibitions can have in raising awareness of these skills and traditions. But for her, what ultimately matters is the economic benefits, which are essential if artisan families are to continue making a living from their work. Beyond simply showcasing their work, these artisans need to be able to fulfil more orders in the future. This is true for Indian artisans, but applies more broadly to all other regional players in the textile sector. Drawing on her own experience, Vaishali acknowledges that building these relationships can be a painstaking process, but is convinced that they are essential for craftsmanship to thrive.

Discover other articles in the Visions series.

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