What a Room Full of Dreams Taught Me About My Own
By Shafaque Ali, Founder & Designer, SHAFAQUE Designs Pvt. Ltd. | Mentorship Partner, LP4Y Malvani
I am Shafaque Ali, a fashion designer and founder from Mumbai, trained at Polimoda in Florence, Italy, and recognised as a CCIFI France-India Young Talent 2026.
My introduction to LP4Y came through the French Embassy in India, as part of a broader initiative connecting French-backed youth development programmes with young Indian entrepreneurs. When I was first approached to visit LP4Y's Training and Development Centre in Malvani, I said yes without fully knowing what I was walking into. I walked out changed.
The session was an interactive mentorship exchange with a group of young women enrolled in LP4Y's programme. I was invited to speak about my entrepreneurship journey: about leaving Mumbai for Italy to study fashion, about working in New York at Hugo Boss, about coming home post pandemic and starting SHAFAQUE with very little capital and a great deal of optimism.
What struck me, within the first few minutes, was the quality of their attention. These were young women from Malvani. One of Mumbai's most underestimated communities, who were leaning forward, not just listening, but thinking. One of them asked me a question: "When you were afraid, how did you decide to keep going?" I paused. Because the honest answer was complicated. And she knew it. She had asked the question because she already knew something about fear and continuation. That exchange redefined what mentorship means to me. I had arrived as someone with experience to share. I left with a question I am still answering.
At SHAFAQUE, giving back is embedded in our DNA. As a Youth Delegate at UNCTAD 16, co-author of the UN Youth Declaration, and spokesperson at WIPO, I advocate for youth-led craft clusters, especially women in rural India. Their hands shape the future. What LP4Y does in Malvani is the same work in a different form: making visible the intelligence, the ambition, and the capacity of young people who have been systematically overlooked. The bridge they build from margin to mainstream is not a charitable gesture. It is a correction.
As a France-India Young Talent, I am part of a bilateral conversation about what young leadership looks like between two cultures. LP4Y, with its global and deep presence in communities like Malvani, is one of the most honest expressions of that conversation I have encountered.
I would say to any founder, designer, or business leader reading this: Not to give a talk. Go to listen.
The young women in that room are not waiting to be saved. They are waiting for the room to acknowledge what they already carry.
That acknowledgement costs nothing. And it changes everything.
Shafaque Ali is the founder of SHAFAQUE Designs Pvt. Ltd.," is a contemporary design house for humans who lead, built from Indian craft, cut for the world." She is a UN/WIPO Youth Spokesperson, CCIFI France-India Young Talent 2026, and a graduate of Polimoda Institute, Florence.
She can be reached at info@shafaque.com and at shafaque.com.
Reading about your experience in that room of dreams truly resonated with me. It reminded me of my own journey, where surrounding myself with ambitious and hopeful individuals ignited my passion to connections hint pursue my dreams. Thank you for sharing such an inspiring perspective; it’s a valuable reminder that our environments shape our aspirations!