DECOR | 07th Aug, 2025
From Nagaland’s hills to London’s galleries, Shivangi Vasudeva redefines furniture as cultural dialogue, not just decor
Shivangi Vasudeva didn’t draft a business plan. She followed questions. Based in London with deep ties to India, the designer operates at the junction of material culture and memory. Her studio was not born out of ambition, but out of curiosity about underappreciated craft, underrepresented artisans and the ways objects can carry narrative weight. Raised in a family of textile merchants, Shivangi was never far from the language of cloth. But it wasn’t until her Master’s at Central Saint Martins that she started using it to say something new.
The turning point came during her research in Nagaland. What started as a design question turned into a cultural exchange, in reverberation with long conversations with craftsmen and personal involvement. The resulting collection, The Alchemy of Our Fibres, reflects this collaborative process. These are sculptural objects that reference grain-pounding tables, weaponry fastenings, and rituals that predate product design. Each form invites interaction, low seating that aligns with land, silhouettes that recall function without mimicking it, and textiles woven on the indigenous loin loom.
The pieces don’t arrive fully formed. They begin with stories- oral, tactile, or inherited. Take the Takhat armchair: solid white ash wood, handwoven cotton, and brass come together in a form that feels both grounded and deliberate. Its reference to traditional Naga grinding tables is subtle but specific. What matters to Shivangi is not replication but continuity- objects that carry lineage forward without erasing the context they come from.
Working across continents means managing production at a distance. Shivangi doesn’t pretend it’s seamless. There were delays, mistranslations, and moments of doubt. But instead of compromising, she leaned into the challenges, letting them shape her process. Each decision, from materials to makers, is deliberate. Her collaborators, like the team at Heirloom Naga, aren’t footnotes, they’re co-authors.
From Left: Priyamvada Golcha and Simon Marks, founders of Khanoom Jaipur.
The work has made its way to major platforms, including Future Heritage in London, India Design ID, and the India Art Fair. But the exhibitions aren’t the end goal, they’re part of a longer conversation about how design can be rooted in place, people, and process. Shivangi isn’t chasing market trends or visual gimmicks. Her studio is a response to the invisibility of craftspeople in design narratives, and a proposal for how that can change.
Her forms are modular, flat-packed, and easily disassembled- by design. It’s not just about convenience; it’s about reconsidering permanence and power. These pieces can move, adapt, and travel, just like the knowledge systems they represent.
Shivangi doesn’t call herself a product designer. She prefers “custodian.” It’s a role that reflects her intent: to protect, interpret, and transmit rather than merely produce. Her work isn’t neutral, it takes a position. It values the slowness of hand-weaving, the specificity of local forms, and the weight of cultural memory.
In a space where craft is often reduced to décor, Shivangi Vasudeva insists on something deeper: objects that carry stories, respect labour, and offer a new way to see the old. Not rebranded. Not romanticised. Just honestly built, and rigorously considered.
GLOSSARY: PEACOCK’S EDITION
Fancy some spatial vocab with your coffee?
MONOLITH, BUT MAKE IT MODULAR
Think her pieces are massive sculptures that need a crane? Plot twist: they flat-pack. All it takes is an Allen key and some trust issues with mass production.
DESIGN WITHOUT BORDERS
Shivangi lives in London. Her materials come from northeast India. Her exhibition calendar spans continents. Call it “global design,” but make it grounded.
LOOM WITH A VIEW
What’s a Loin Loom Anyway?
Forget Jacquards and power looms—this one’s personal. The loin loom is a backstrap weaving technique traditionally used by women in Nagaland. It’s portable, minimal, and deeply symbolic. One loom, one weaver, one story at a time.
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