Sanyukta Shrestha and her newfound love for fashion design, lead her to win the “Best Design Award in 1998” with an innovative creation, handcrafted by local women artisans in Nepal. With the first creation in her design career already winning an award, at 17, the young designer sets her first international mark as she designs couture gowns for Miss World 1998 and Miss Asia Pacific 1998 Beauty pageants.
In 1999, she wins “Best Designer of the Year 1999 in Nepal. The fast rise of her design identity leads Sanyukta to showcase her first Bridal Couture Collection in Nepal and design for Miss Nepal for Miss World 1999. Being a rising young voice in the field of Nepalese fashion, Sanyukta was honoured as one of the “Best 8 Young Achievers of the Country’.
Sanyukta’s career is booming, as she continues to be a leading young voice in the Nepalese scene. Sanyukta opens her own Bespoke Studio cultivating a niche following Miss Nepal Contestants and celebrity clients. Same year She starts to create custom designs for Nepali Films, and she lands her first covers for top listed Magazines in Nepal.
In 2001, Sanyukta joins as a fashion mentor for a well-known modelling agency in Nepal and starts to design bespoke creations for top celebrities in Nepal, with media publicity and famous clients going at her atelier on a daily basis the designer was known as “the Youngest celebrated designer in Nepal”.
In the same year she is invited to Volunteer for WOREC; A movement-based organisation that functions with the premise of women rights and social justice as a prerequisite for peace, social justice, and sustainable development to share her fashion knowledge in the sustainable projects run by the organisation. This was her first personal experience of cultivating an ethical mindset: Empowering deprived women through sustainable projects in one of remote Villages in Udaipur, Nepal. She then starts working with ethical handmade fabrics from villages, establishing the first steps of the “giving back to the community” philosophy that follows her brand till today.
2002 finds the designer writing for the Nepali Women’s Magazine ‘Nari’ as a way to educate the general public about the impact and importance of fashion using her creativity and growing popularity for the greater good. Her appointment as the official designer & fashion design mentor for Miss Nepal 2002, creates an incredible buzz around her brand and finds the designer with a strong vision about the business profile of her brand.
In 2003, her love for ethics is growing stronger, and by that time she volunteers for WWF World Wildlife Fund in Nepal, she has a first hand experience of realising the harsh cruelty of the fashion world to the endangered animal and its natural habitat. It is then that Sanyukta introduces her Fur Free Fashion show designed to educate the media and consumers to consider ecological diversity and community effort to protect endangered species.
As her Country’s well-established fashion designer, mentor and columnist, Sanyukta joins the Judging Panel of “Miss Nepal Beauty Pageant 2003”. At the height of her career, she was again appointed as official designer for Miss Nepal Beauty Pageant 2004 and Miss Nepal for Miss World, Miss Asia Pacific and Miss Earth 2004. Same year, she introduced her ‘Fashion is Art’ Fashion show in Nepal, advocating for the importance of Art, Craft, cultural heritage and religious amalgamation for peace through fashion.
After graduating from the prestigious London College of Fashion in 2005, Sanyukta explores international fashion, studies western culture and researches in depth the understanding of global fashion and its impacts. She finds that the harsh pollution in the fashion industry is much bigger than she imagined. After working in the industry for several years, Sanyukta decides to take her professional career to the next level by exploring a new business model that is kind to people and the planet, the harmonious pairing that she always dreamed of.
By celebrating cultural diversity and following an unexplored sustainable route, Sanyukta showcased her first Bridal Collection in London and went on to design for Miss England 2009 for Miss Globe and for Princess of the World UK Winner 2010. In 2010, her Brand was selected amongst 20 sustainable businesses in Greater London ‘Aimed for the next generation of socially and environmentally aware fashion businesses’ by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion.
Sustainable and ethical at heart, Sanyukta’s collections evolved to handmade creations from hand spun and hand-loomed organic cotton and bamboo fabrics come from the Tulsi Mehar Mahila Ashram which houses homeless and destitute women. The decision to establish her presence in London came in 2011 with the launch of her eponymous sustainable bridal brand which received international attention featuring her collection on Fashion TV, Vogue Sposa and top UK Media praising “Sanyukta’s amazing new vision for bridalwear has taken the industry by storm”. In 2011, she won the Best Newcomer Award Winner ‘Perfect Wedding Award’, Best Innovation Award and received special reception from the UK’s Culture Minister Ed Vaizey for the first sustainable collection during the Ecoluxe, London fashion week in 2011.
Her purpose driven ethos receives another milestone in her career when she created a sustainable couture creation made from a 30 year old newspaper she found under her floor board as part of upcycle education ‘Trash to Treasure’ for which Sanyukta received many applaud from media and then preserved in the prestigious Fashion Museum in Bath, making a historic entry of its type of becoming the first Nepalese fashion designer and also sustainable bridal designer to be housed in Fashion Museum in Bath (listed by CNN as one of the world’s Top 10 fashion museums) in 2012.
After the Launch of Flagship in 2013 in Fulham London, the unique character of her brand helped her to stand out, winning more awards and attracting a cult following of brides across the world into her Fulham boutique. In 2016 she launches her 1st Evening Collection with Victoria’s Secret Supermodels like Candice Swanepoel wearing in her designs and several Hollywood stars (actress Amy Wren, Jasmine Armfield, Raquel Cassidy, Amy Nuttall, American girl band Fifth Harmony and Soprano’s Natalie Coyle & Laura Wright) celebrate her creations to this date.
Staying true to her eco-friendly nature, the sustainable philosophy of the brand shines through the media coverage from iconic media platforms such as Conde Nast Brides Magazine, Rock n Roll Magazine and former Y&YW Magazine Fashion Editor Peta Hunt praising brands effort “ One of the First designers to talk about Sustainability”, while Love My Dress praising Sanyukta as “The Greta for Wedding World”.
In 2020 Sanyukta Shrestha wins “Best Wedding Boutique of the Year, London” and honoured with the ‘Good Brands Award’, the designer fighting for craftsmanship and the sustainable future of bridalwear. With Sanyukta’s team turning the sustainable handmade and hand spun fabrics by skilful women into wearable art, a staggering 50% of the brand’s fabric producers are from remote and mountainous areas. By supporting these remarkable women they are given the chance to employ their traditional skills in their own homes to generate extra income. Sanyukta Shrestha leads by example, dreams big and shares kindness in a unique journey that continues.
