Sheetol Chawla made her debut in Paris during Haute Couture Week yet wonders whether her work is better suited to an art gallery display. While the jury in her head is still out, one thing is certain – Chawla is an artist and designer with a creator’s soul.
On the second floor of a light filled space in Auckland’s Chancery artisans are busy at work in Sheetol Chawla’s atelier.
The pace is slow, precision is paramount and Chawla’s creative vision scattered across mood boards like a kaleidoscope that pulses with creative energy.
Fibres of a silk organza skirt are painstakingly painted a specific yellow with the smallest of paint brushes. Across the room silver leaf is applied to a collection of miniature skulls that represent demons slain by the Hindu goddess Kali. Both are being touched for the New Zealand debut of Black Lioness for the centenary celebrations of the New Zealand Indian Central Association. First shown at Haute Couture Week, Paris 2024.
Designer Sheetol Chawla in her workroom in Auckland’s Chancery district, pictured here with a piece from her Black Lioness collection. Photography Carolyn Enting
Each ensemble in the goddess Kali-inspired Black Lioness collection took more four to five months to complete and in the three years since she began designing under her own name Chawla has created just two collections.
Eos – Inspired by the Greek goddess of dawn (2023) and Black Lioness (2024) which she showed again in Lake Como, Italy last year [2025] because people were asking to see it again. The six-minute show in Paris “was too quick”, though it provided was a beautiful backdrop for a photographic portfolio for 2025 French Fashion Award platinum winner haute couture category.
At work in Sheetol Chawla’s atelier in Auckland’s Chancery, an artisan paints silk organza fibres of a weighty skirt from the Black Lioness collection inspired by the Indian goddess Kali. Photography Carolyn Enting
Chawla and her team of three are currently working on her next collection, still under wraps, though it’s looking to be four ensembles, instead of eight as she originally planned. She doesn’t put timelines on her creations. “I’ve given up on deadlines because my team then struggle a lot to make things happen on time, so I do not work with deadlines now and I let the imagination go freely,” she explains.
Originally from Delhi, India, she was an interior designer before moving to New Zealand 11 years ago for love. She met her match and love of her life, Harry Chawla, online. Straight away they felt the connection. “We even fought our families to get married because nobody wanted us to get married. We love and adore each other and spend a lot of time together. He is very supportive.”
Black Lioness collection, Paris Haute Couture Week 2024.
When she first arrived in New Zealand she painted and sold portraits and studied fashion. First getting some practical skills under her belt through New Zealand Academy of Fashion Design, pattern drafting skills from JD Institute in Delhi (during the Covid pandemic), followed by a fashion degree at AUT graduating in 2022 and winning gold at the IDA design awards for Emerging Fashion Designer of the Year and the supreme award at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards in Gore the same year [2022]. She turned down an opportunity to do her master’s because she felt ready to follow her dream.
Designs from her graduate collection caught the eye of a European fashion agency and opportunity to show during Haute Couture Week where she presented a dreamy continuation of her graduate collection, Eos.
This and main image: Eos collection, Haute Couture Fashion Week, Paris, 2023.
It was an unnerving as well as uplifting experience. “When we presented for the first time, people were taking photos and photographers other designers had were taking photos and we didn’t know what to do. Or what the feedback would be, or if people might not like it. You have this fear,” says Chawla. “The music we choose helped create the energy and aura in the room and afterwards everybody said it was art – not something that you can just walk on the runway – that it needs to be showcased in a proper setting.”
When Chawla presented Black Lioness in Paris the following year she received similar feedback. People wanted time to examine the craftsmanship “because a six-minute walk people cannot see the hand painting and textiling. They need time to explore”.
Black Lioness collection, Paris Haute Couture Week 2024.
French Ukrainian artist, Iryna Kirshyna, who Chawla has since studied under, told her ‘You’ve served everything all together on one plate, which people need time to digest’.
“We’re slowly learning where my work sits in this market,” says Chawla. “Harry keeps telling me that you’re not creating anything for retailing purposes. We already have enough designers. If you can create, just push the boundaries and create something which we can leave behind.”
Her creations are like her children – which may explain her reluctance to let celebrities wear them, or even to sell them – as her long-term vision is to preserve them as a body of work for future generations. For Chawla is “really personal” and “every time she creates something [she] wants to level up”.
Black Lioness presentation, Lake Como, 2025.
“Harry and I went through IVF, but it did not happen, so this is my baby and I’m growing it slowly. Harry says, ‘this is the legacy you’re going to leave behind’. We might end up having our own museum one day or donate them to art galleries. Leave them as our children which people can admire for generations.”
Her latest masterpiece is Reinga, made from millions of tube beads, which was unveiled on a mannequin at New Zealand Indian Central Association centenary celebrations.
Reinga unveiled on a mannequin at New Zealand Indian Central Association centenary celebrations, Cordis Hotel 2026.
Inspired by an ancient pōhutukawa tree at Cape Reinga, the gown is intended as a respectful tribute to Māori culture and spiritual philosophy that wairua / souls pass through its roots to begin their passage towards Hawaiki, the ancestral homeland.
Chawla currently envisage the gown as being worn on the runway or red carpet “because it’s been created with a deep respect for Māori culture – unless someone is from that culture”. To date it is her masterpiece and indeed a taonga to be treasured.
Eos collection, Haute Couture Fashion Week, Paris, 2023.
Her focus is now on her current collection where she is using a technique taught to her by Iranya, with whom she spent 10 days from 9 to 5 in the historical town Tournus situated between Dijon and Lyon, eastern France following her Paris debut. On a tour to countryside Chawla saw Iryna’s artwork fashioned from centuries old fabrics on the wall in an exhibition hall near the church. (Tournus is known for its 11th century Abbey of Saint-Philibert). She was so moved by its beauty and storytelling techniques through textile art, handmade dolls, papier-mache works and decorative arts inspired by Ukrainian traditions that she and Harry spent days tracking her down.
Black Lioness, Cordis Hotel, Auckland 2026. Photography Carolyn Enting
“For a couple of years, an idea had been quietly growing in my mind, but I was still searching for the right technical way to bring it to life. When I saw Iryna’s textile work, it suddenly felt like a light at the end of the tunnel. I realised that her approach to textile art could be the language through which I could finally weave my ongoing inspiration.”
It was a meeting of creative minds and Iranya generously passed on her skills to Chawla who has a special interest in history and cultural stories.
“Wherever we travel I spend most of my time exploring art from old centuries,” she says. “It’s more than fashion or creating art. I tell stories through fashion, but I feel somehow calling it fashion is an insult in a way. And it’s not costume either or wearable art. I call it fine art.”
Black Lioness, Cordis Hotel, Auckland 2026. Photography Carolyn Enting
Explore more about Sheetol Chawla here.
