Niki Shamdasani ’15 on launching Sani, bringing South Asian-inspired formalwear to Rent the Runway

The Catalyze podcast returns with Season Four, headlining with Niki Shamdasani ’15, the co-founder and CEO of Sani Designs.People told Niki and her sister, Ritika, that they were “delusional” for aspiring to break into the fashion world with South Asian formalwear. But in the past two years, the sisters have proved the naysayers wrong in big ways.Sani recently launched a partnership with Rent the Runway, a fashion subscription service for luxury items, to increase access to Indian occasion wear for women across the globe. In between business trips, Niki stopped by the Foundation in Chapel Hill to share the news and what’s next for the startup.Niki graduated with a political science major and business administration minor from Carolina.You can learn more about the company on their website or Instagram, and you can shop Sani’s styles on Rent the Runway. The Sani Fashion Show, previously scheduled for April 5 as a benefit event for UNC Children’s Hospital, has been postponed to this fall due to the expanding COVID-19 pandemic.The music for this episode is by scholar Scott Hallyburton ’22, guitarist of the band South of the Soul. On your mobile device, you can listen and subscribe to Catalyze on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For any other podcast app, you can find the show using our RSS feed.Catalyze is hosted and produced by Sarah O’Carroll for the Morehead-Cain Foundation, home of the first merit scholarship program in the United States and located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can let us know what you thought of the episode by finding us on Twitter or Instagram at @moreheadcain or you can email us at [email protected] past month has been unlike any that Carolina—that the world—has ever experienced. We know that many of you have had your lives upended by the impact of the coronavirus. We want our scholars, from the incoming class to our graduating seniors, our alumni, and everyone else in the Morehead-Cain community, to know that we are here for you.