Sabyasachi Mukherjee and the making of modern Indian luxury

Who would think that Sabyasachi M u k h e r j e e , who is today s y n o n y m o u s with opulence and eccentricity, India-love and post-colonial ‘re-membering,’ had to struggle with his choice to embrace a career in fashion, studying at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kolkata? 

The struggle began when his father, Shukumar Mukherjee, a chemical engineer in a jute-wool mill, lost his job when plastics took over. Sabyasachi was just 15. The son of a refugee from Bangladesh, Shukumar was raised by a single mother. Financial instability thus became a backdrop to Sabya’s student years. 

There was also a time when his mother, Sandhya Mukherjee, a bohemian artist who taught at the government art college in Kolkata, had slapped the young schoolboy following his suicide attempt, telling him, “Depression is as common as the common cold. If you’re not depressed, you are not normal.” 

Fortunately for Sabyasachi, despite sevenand-a-half years of depression as a young boy (confessed in an interview to Business of Fashion Editor-in-Chief Imran Amed in 2019), life proved to be a portal of creative possibilities, and sadness had no place in it. 

In what later proved to be a breakthrough moment in grade four, Sabyasachi was asked by his school drama teacher to handle scripting, set design, costume, lighting, jewels, hair and makeup for a school production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This super-hit experience revealed his deeply creative capabilities, tailored for “either the performing arts, in fashion or cinema—I wasn’t sure what exactly.” 

Just 35 years later, the 1974-born designer stands tall at age 50, with 25 years of stratospheric success behind him. Creating luxurious clothes and then moving to jewels and bespoke interiors, in a relatively insular Kolkata with middle-class roots, his tale is surreal. “I didn’t have money, but I did have a middle-class idealism” is how Sabya sees his story. He certainly was in the right place to create a new language of fashion, an aesthetic that would be layered, intelligent, playful and, eventually, global. 
New silhouettes in fashion & business
 

New silhouettes in fashion & business    

Sabyasachi has declared the math: the combined verticals of his business (fashion, leather goods and interiors) brings in a turnover of Rs 500 crore. The jewellery vertical alone has earned close to Rs 150 to 175 crore till date; the handbag business is touching Rs 60 crore; and in the interiors space, Asian Paints pays him Rs 40 crore a year to design wallpapers. The rest is generated by his garments. As his business expands globally now, the couturier anticipates a turnover of US$2 billion (over Rs 17,000 crore) by 2030—“and I am being conservative!” he laughed in an interview with The Week.

As we can see, Sabyasachi himself will never be a wallflower. What’s more, his dreams take on a far deeper nationalistic relevance. His businesses empower 3,000-odd craftspeople who are the beneficiaries of his profits.

“I look at the global luxury market today, and I’m so deeply disappointed that a country like ours, with such a rich and incredible history of luxury, doesn’t have a single brand that has broken through. I want to change this narrative,” the fashion designer had famously said in an interview to an Indian newspaper, two years ago. He has also been widely quoted saying, “India is not a thirdworld country; we are a first-world civilisation.”

The recent corporatisation of fashion has also helped to streamline and organise processes, verticals and roles. Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Limited bought a 51 percent stake in the Sabyasachi brand in 2021 for a whopping Rs 398 crore. His game has only grown exponentially since! 

Value-driven luxury 

Today, the label follows global codes of luxury: no discounts or sales, high-value materials, no “cash” payments and no customisation. Dior may only just have revealed their sourcing of embroideries and embellishments from the Chanakya School of Craft in India, but as Business of Fashion has reported, Hermès, Gucci, Prada and Versace have all tapped ateliers in India to do exquisite handwork for the catwalk “but shroud their Indian connections in secrecy.” More credit to Sabyasachi, who claims that the new ‘it’ professionals to look out for will be India’s artisanal.

He has also felt adding value is not just about raking in millions. In his chat with Amed, he shared, “One of my big icons is Ratan Tata; I want to create something like him. I want to chase value more than money. So for 20 years of my life, I kept my head down and worked, and today, I can say that in these 20 years, I created the foundation for my dream. It’s now started to take wing and rise.”

Sabyasachi walks the talk. He stripped his own name off his handbag logo, preferring to let the Bengal tiger articulate everything. How’s that for modesty? He also started the Sabyasachi Art Foundation to support artists from u n d e r p r i v i l e g e d backgrounds, a nod to the artist in his mother, whose career was sadly compromised by her circumstances.

More is more!

In the present, we can see how Sabyasachi has “slayed” the global village. He knows how to sell Oriental exotica with Occidental restraint. His website is replete with remarkable portraits of models in monochromes or earthy hues, wearing his statement jewels. Clearly, the toned down garments make a better canvas for his tutti-frutti baubles. His museum-like retail spaces, which are like advertising for the brand wherever they are, further endorse his philosophy of luxury—more is more.

On top of that, Sabyasachi has confessed, “Because of my father, I have a little bit of an engineering eye, and I think we make jewels that are beautiful inside-out.” His Instagram account proves it with videos of detailing. As for the brand’s clutches and handbags, making them totems of luxury has been a 20-plus year-long journey, as well. In the early 2000s, Sabyasachi had wryly observed that socialites occupying front-row seats wore only international luxury brands. But in today’s fashion ecosystem, we have a Natasha Poonawalla proudly carrying a bag bearing a Bengal tiger logo to Buckingham Palace (in 2020). “I realised I needed to grow my accessory business, and that we have a beautiful logo,” he shared. 

Welcome baggage 

So what led to the quaint motifs on the Sabya bag collections? “A while ago, I came across this battered vintage leather bag studded with old copper coins at a flea market. And my mind started racing... pineapples and palm trees, the Taj and the tiger, dragonflies and alligators...” he has said.

Despite the burgeoning e-commerce possibilities, Sabyasachi feels that a rich dialogue of aesthetic resonance between consumer and creation is essential. He recently shared that there’s a six-month waitlist for his bags, which, though made in India, feature the work of the finest craftsmen in Italy and France. Also, the hardware is not Zamac (an alloy) but brass, plated with 1 to 2 microns of gold. Now who wouldn’t want to touch and feel such handcrafted luxe clutches, wallets, purses and slings?

Originality vs ostentatiousness 

Where does Sabyasachi get his quirky sensibility from? Clearly, his Bengali DNA. While his mother was an artist, both his grandmothers, “as different as chalk and cheese,” were a huge influence

“My father’s mother, Thakuma, was austere, spiritual and wise,” he shared. “My maternal grandmother, Dida, was exuberant, emotional and childlike. One taught me the power of restraint, while the other nudged me towards wanderlust and maximalism.”

Sabyasachi, the brand, is a love child of these two universes, as is evident in the many collections he has unveiled over the years. When he debuted at Lakmé Fashion Week in 2002 with the ‘Kashgar Bazaar’ collection, his multicultural bohemian worldview merged art, craft, culture, intellect and quality—but the collection itself was inspired by the prostitutes of Bengal! The next year, he went to the other end of the spectrum at LFW, from colourful to whites, with ‘Kora’—his angry response to the September 11 attacks in the US.

Jump to 2005, when his Spring/Summer collection at LFW, titled ‘Frog Princesses,’ had the media asking, “Is Sabyasachi selling our poverty to the West?” The look was hardly mainstream—models in smudged lipstick, a chaotic blend of prêt with couture flavours. Yet this outré experiment was showcased in the window of Browns in the UK—his first international window—by none other than Mrs Burstein, the owner, who was the first to retail the likes of John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. Thus, ‘Frog Princess’ opened many doors, and he got a chance to showcase at his first ever international fashion week in Milan.

His next collection, titled ‘Snail’ for Autumn/Winter 2006, as seen at New York Fashion Week, was a call for slow fashion. He showcased a conscious approach to luxury, much before the climate crisis became a hashtag. “The collection amplifies the pillars of the brand—fine quality, master craftsmanship and a commitment to creating modern heirlooms. Buy less but buy better. Where longevity is seasonless and is passed from one generation to the next,” we read on his social media. 

The big apple milestone 

Sometimes, a designer’s ambition exceeds his actual power in a new fashion ecosystem. New York was a lesson for Sabyasachi, who shares, “Success in fashion is all about timing. It is not just about your clothes or creativity. It is so much more—geopolitics, economics, society… It is hard to overcome failure but I’m no quitter. On that fateful Air India flight from JFK, I told myself that I will come back when the time is right.”

Today, he has come full circle—from failing at impressing in New York back then, Sabyasachi now boasts a luxe boutique in the city’s West Village, the first international flagship store of an Indian designer. Housed in The Archive, a magnificent Romanesque Revival building at 160 Christopher Street, the boutique offers an undiluted, quintessential Sabyasachi experience across the pond—picture 16th-century Mughal miniatures, Indian pichhwais, low-hanging glass chandeliers and hand-knotted carpets, among curios sourced from souks. 

Foray into bridal couture 

It was as recently as 2007 that Sabyasachi turned his focus to the Indian bridalwear market, now valued at US$130 billion (Rs 11.3 lakh crore) in revenue. It was this collection that taught him that “pretty” artisanal fashion was more commercially relevant than rebellious fashion statements—be it around gender, politics, cultural dialogues or inclusivity.

His ‘Chand Bibi’ Autumn/Winter 2007 line and later his ‘Bridal Sutra’ collection “were my first taste of how beautiful Indian clothes could be. I did complete Indian shows, and I think they paved the way for the future of the brand.”

The next big landmark was the Opium collection, shown at India Couture Week in Delhi. This one opened the week, revelling in Indian crafts like generous hand embroidery, appliqué, zardosi and tilla work seen in silhouettes like angrakhas, toile de Jouy-print skirts and ghagras. Sabyasachi made sure the sets and music evoked an old-world magic as traditional incense filled the air. This became one of his most commercially successful collections.

Giving back: The Sabyasachi Art Foundation 

In 2014, the couturier founded the Sabyasachi Art Foundation as an homage to his artist mother, an “indomitably strong and courageous woman who helped shape my own creativity.” They make art and culture-related efforts economically sustainable through creative mentorship, upskilling and active commissions. Underprivileged fine artists from Bengal are offered a safe space and given all the tools required to consolidate their practice—a studio, a secure income, a mentorship programme and constant cultural exchange and dialogue.

The foundation is a for-profit initiative that works as an artists’ collective on both independent and commissioned projects for the brand. From restoring vintage art to creating modern renditions of Company paintings, Qajars and Mughal miniatures, as well as creating original art works, the work of the artists can be seen across all Sabyasachi stores. Their art has also been platformed across Sabyasachi’s headlining global collaborations, including Starbucks, H&M, Christian Louboutin and Pottery Barn. Their clay moulds of the flora and fauna from the Sundarbans are used as models for gold casting for Sabyasachi High Jewellery collections, and their hand-painted artwork—original interpretations from historic botanicals and portraiture—have gone on to become hallmark prints used across Sabyasachi creations. 

The shadow market 

He’s the designer who dared to deglamorise the country’s darling, Deepika Padukone, for his grand show celebrating his 25 years in fashion—trolls be damned. But Sabyasachi’s strength is that he lavishes his love on his native crafts communities, which synergises with ideas of circular economies, and sustainable and conscious fashion. His genius continues in reading signs from the universe, be it spotting trends from social media, cinema or books with a phenomenal buzz, or new US policies and India’s new spirit of self-discovery. It could be anything.

The past 25 years have shown us a versatile design sensibility, but it’s global markets that Sabyasachi seeks to venture into. That takes production and quality capabilities, a crosscultural oomph and massive aspirational appeal. Now imagine a “Made in China” Sabya jacket, paired with an imitation set of necklaces. When that happens, you know you have conquered the world’s imagination. 

This article originally appeared in Brides Today, January-March 2025 print edition.

Lead image: Sabyasachi

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