Vaishali S Shares Notes On Her AW 24 Collection For Paris Haute Couture Week

Vaishali S talks about the path to self-discovery, and sartorial excellence and how she addresses sustainability as she showcases at Paris Haute Couture Week.

Vaishali S is back at Paris Haute Couture, and this time in collaboration with fine jewellery maker Tanishq as she presents her collection, Sartori. The collection note refers to it as “A deep understanding or insight into the true nature of reality, a moment where one’s mind becomes free from the illusions and attachments that cloud perception, leading to a state of clarity and peace.” Ahead of her show at Paris Haute Couture Week, we ask the designer to clear her schedule to take us on a unique path through her complex collection. It is a journey of self-discovery that is deeply influenced by nature, one that she translates into design in an attempt to find balance and harmony. The themes might be spiritual but the collection is deeply rooted in the crafts and fabrics of India.

What led you to a path of self-discovery and how has it shaped this collection?

All my career moves reflect my own path of self-discovery. I drive my inspiration and guidance from Nature. The representation of the flow of nature’s energy is my language for sharing this path of going deeper into it and in to myself. Each collection depicts a different seamless stage. This collection wants to express my feelings of realising that each secret and each discovery has always been and is inside of us. It is only through those moments of enlightenment that we suddenly realise that. For this reason, this collection sees the themes very dear to me, mixed with a new technique of handwork that allows me to give moments of fraction and at the same time further layers of thought.

What does Satori represent?

Satori represents a sort of liberation from formal structures of thinking but at the same time very grounded in all my techniques, all joining to form a deeper and faster understanding or representation.

How do you incorporate/convert non-tangible themes such as spontaneity, enlightenment etc into design?

A good part of my handwork is abstract. It is the flow of energy (and in this case also its discontinuity) that I represent. It is very much my feeling or rather the perception that I get of this energy. If you see, especially my cording work, you can feel it clearly. This is my canvas and my technique to fill it.

The Vaishali S colour palette is predominantly in the cream and scarlet spectrum, is there a reason behind this?

I don’t fully agree. Depending on the stage I am in the path of self-exploration, the colours may vary. Take my previous collection, the one depicting the beautiful coloured world which you discover after you take the leap of faith of diving into the darkness of the ocean or the self: the palette of colours was extremely rich, diverse and coloured.

Can you tell us a little about the fabrics/textiles used in the collection, how and where they have been crafted and what sets them apart?

Fabrics always come from most of the regions I have worked in the past, as I try and keep a constant flow of work to all of them. You will find cottons, silks, and wools, handwoven in different techniques from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, and UP. What I have done has been to go a bit further in mixing different threads on the same weave, with interesting results.

Tell us about the challenges of using fabric waste and 100% sustainable fabrics.

The only challenge is that they last much longer! Jokes apart, I don’t find any challenge as it has been the base of my work since the beginning. Hand weaves are strong and resistant fabrics, more than others. Working by starting from the thread and weaving my own fabrics means that I have much longer delays in my supply chain, which requires more planning and constant advanced production> I am already working on the fabrics for my collection in January, as I need to weave the first samples and then launch the production of the first several meters, which in some cases takes even 3-4 months.

What are the key embroideries and techniques from this season? And how it has been used to reflect the flow of nature.

In this collection I wanted to share an enlightenment moment (satori) with the collection, rather than a further step ahead, thus I was obliged to give different layers and seamless sense of flow, but at the same time moments of … sudden enlightenment. This could only be achieved by multiplying with the combined effect: I had to work for once at the same time with cording, draping, and handwork. The hand work while remaining mostly tridimensional to make use of my leftovers, has gone also in multilayer flat. I think the distinctive feature is the added complexity that comes out as added simplicity to get the message this collection carries.

Tell us about Vaishali S x Tanishq’s collaboration, your foray into fine jewellery and the design philosophy behind it for this collection.

Jewellery is a normal extension of fashion, something that helps define your message and something where your message comes from some time. Meticulous crafts that go hand in hand with textiles crafts, something that is already part of the luxury world and helps elevate fabrics to luxury artefacts. This collaboration with Tanishq is the perfect match of values. The collections used also are a reminder of Nature (Sunderbans) and Luxury (Red Carpet).