While she’s still trying to get the hang of walking in her brand new pair of six-inch stilettos or adjusting her bodice, Swapnil Shinde, reborn at age 39 as Saisha Shinde, appears ready to upstage all the fashionistas that she has been dressing for the past two decades.
Transgender visibility in the country reached new heights after Shinde—a fashion designer known for dressing Bollywood actors such as Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor and Sunny Leone—came out to the world on Tuesday with a new name and a new face as a transwoman, becoming one of the first to break grounds with her trans identity in India’s pop culture sphere. With a picture of her freshly minted porcelain skin with perfectly arched brows and a delicate glance, a far cry from the heavy stubble and pompadour haircut that previously defined the Wadala-based designer, she shared a long note on social media where she spoke of her struggles with gender identity that led to “loneliness, aches and pressures” since childhood.