Pioneering sustainable bridal designer Sanyukta Shrestha’s sustainable wedding dress has been chosen as one of ten curated unique displays at the ‘You Choose’ exhibition in Fashion Museum, Bath until 30^th October 2022, alongside pieces from designers Kenzo, Ossie Clark, Junya Watanabe, Jean Paul Gaultier and Gareth Pugh, as well as historic treasures including a 1750s man’s worsted wool banyan, an 1881 beetle wing embroidered day dress and 1940s women’s cape.

Amongst over 100,000 objects in the Fashion Museum collection, ranging from Shakespeare era to today’s leading designers (Christian Dior, Vivian Westwood and Alexander McQueen), Sanyukta Shrestha is the first designer of Nepali origin to be documented in the history of The Fashion Museum in 2012 and the only item identified as made in Nepal till date. The historic moment for Nepal, making it the first Nepali woman to be documented in world fashion history. 

 ‘To receive this honour from one of the greatest museums in the world has been a real pinch myself moment. This historic moment has made me feel speechless and ecstatic’, says the designer. 

Recognised by the media as “the dawn of the sustainable movement” and “the Greta of the Wedding World’’, Sanyukta Shrestha’s sustainable Pippa wedding gown, first launched at White Gallery in London 2012 was handcrafted from 40 year old newspapers found under floorboards from 1981 to 1982, aided by Nepalese hand-loomed organic cotton and 3000 Swarovski crystals that took nearly two months to finish. Whether we call this ‘trash to treasure’ or ‘ordinary to extraordinary’, in the 10 years since the gown has been preserved in the Fashion Museum, it has served as part of educational and environmental study.

This time, it has not just been the interest of fashion enthusiasts, historians and environmental activists, but caught the core interest of Oakfield Park Junior School children who chose the Sanyukta Shrestha Couture ‘Pippa gown’ for its unique beauty of sustainable credentials. Sanyukta’s vision of sustainable fashion has truly touched its purpose to inspire future generations. The children who chose this sustainable dress inspire us to educate ourselves about not only the past at the museum, but also the future - ‘a future in which people and nature thrive together’.

The exhibition curator Fleur Johnson said: “We are thrilled that children from Oldfield Park Junior School in Bath have chosen Sanyukta Shrestha’s Pippa gown as their pick for the You Choose exhibition. The story of Sanyukta discovering the newspapers under the floorboards of her home and upcycling them into an elegant wedding gown resonates with current concerns around the sustainability of the fashion industry. The Pippa wedding gown has decades of stories literally printed into its folds and pleats and is a timeless example of how designers are finding creative new ways to source and use materials to create more ethical and eco-friendly clothing.” 

Our planet faces the interconnected crises of rapid climate change and biodiversity loss. We have no time to address these existential threats as the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. Sanyukta’s Pippa gown, a great example of slow and circular fashion, educates us to appreciate the things around us and to move beyond a philosophy of single use. Any raw materials or even trash can be recovered, recycled or upcycled if we think consciously. ‘We need to trash the throwaway culture, not the trash itself’, Sanyukta adds. 

Watch Sanyukta’s White Gallery interview here

To find out more, please contact Rose Carter at press@sanyuktashrestha.com

Image Credit: Courtesy of Fashion Museum Bath 2022