Shehnaz Ismail is a graduate of the National College of Arts in the faculty of Design. She is one of the founders of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, and heads the department of textile design. Her major focus is on education and the revival of the indigenous textile crafts of Pakistan. She has extensively researched on weaving and embroidery, covering the mountainous regions of Pakistan and the Potohar Plateau. The results have been published in magazines, catalogues and a book on Asian embroidery published by the Crafts Council of India in 2004. She is committed to teaching and training craft persons in Baltistan (and in the adjoining valleys of Hunza and Manshera) in natural dyes, weaving and product diversification, and to make the craft revival economically sustainable. It is in this function that she was strongly involved in the interior decoration of the Shigar Fort Residence.