The Year of Sabya

With two of his recent international collaborations making a splash, fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee may just have entered the golden phase of his career, says Sujata Assomull

If ever a book were to be written on how to be a successful fashion designer in India, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, or Sabya as he is lovingly called, would make for a great case study. Not only has he changed the face of Indian fashion, he is also among the few designers who can boast of an INR120 crore turnover. In the past few months, he has collaborated with celebrated shoemaker Christian Louboutin and the United States-based upmarket home furnishing store Pottery Barn. He has also opened a flagship store that spreads across a whopping 13,500 square feet in New Delhi's Mehrauli area. If these signs are anything to go by, 2017 looks set to be the year of Sabya.
His aesthetic sensibilities may be par excellence, but Sabyasachi admits that he is more of a businessman now than a designer, a marketer rather than just a creative director. In short, he is all about the "business" of fashion. This, to an extent, was inevitable, given how rapidly brand Sabyasachi has grown in the past decade. In 2002, his first collection made it to the Lakme India Fashion Week's runway. Called Kashgar Bazaar, the line may have been Indian in spirit, but its silhouettes had a western touch. The collections that followed - namely The Nair Sisters and Frog Princess - echoed these sensibilities. His intellectual and international take on fashion soon got him noticed. Be it the veteran fashion editor Suzy Menkes or the trade journal Women's Wear Daily, Sabyasachi was one of the few designers showing at an Indian fashion week that the international press cared about. The positive publicity helped; just two years after his first outing at the India Fashion Week, he showed at the prestigious Milan Fashion Week.
Despite the critical accolades, his collection did not receive commercial rewards. It was during this time that one noticed a change in Sabyasachi's aesthetics. From having western influences in his work, he began to focus on 'being Indian' and entered spaces where one wouldn't have imagined him otherwise. When he tied up with the popular makeover show on television called Band Baajaa Bride, his critics felt he may have given in to the market dynamics. He was, in fact, exploring the cash-rich 'big, fat Indian wedding'. "I have sold my soul to the Indian wedding market. When I was young, it was all about I, me, myself. Right now, I have a business to run, which has a bigger responsibility, and I am equally committed to the people who work with me. I have to make sure that I create stable working conditions for them," he says. In that business mantra lies the answer to why Sabyasachi has tried to stay away from prêt. "I have often told many members of the press that I am too poor to create prêt because unless you are backed with dollops of money, you cannot really focus on it. Prêt requires a bigger investment, distribution and marketing system."
Like most prominent Indian designers, Sabyasachi too has had a tryst with Bollywood. Today, while most celebrities love to wear his outfits, there was once a time when he received flak. In 2013, actress Vidya Balan, who was the toast of Tinseltown then, was making one stunning appearance after the other in Sabyasachi sarees. Soon, she began to be known as the designer's "muse". When she got an opportunity to be a part of the jury at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival that year, she chose to wear her favourite designer's outfit at the red carpet. For one of her appearances, the actress wore a lehenga with a dupatta resting on the head. The look was panned by the fashion pundits at the festival with the infamous incident now being called the 'Dupatta Debacle'. Sabyasachi may have moved on from that episode, but not before learning a few lessons. "Celebrity dressing is like a double-edged sword. Sometimes, it's best to dress them up when you have complete control over the imagery. But at times when you are at the mercy of a stylist, a perfectly beautiful garment can be completely ruined in translation. The designer gets to bear the brunt of it, so the partnership has to work seamlessly."
Following this episode, Sabyasachi further cemented his place in the Indian bridal market. Opening his own flagship store, each with elaborate bridal rooms, his bridal couture has come to define the idea of a bride who is understated, mature in her aesthetics and proud to be Indian.
Sabyasachi's retail style has often been compared to American designer Ralph Lauren's. While the latter sold the "American dream", Sabyasachi is all about the "India story". When fashion weeks first started in India, it was quite unusual to see Indian silhouettes like sarees, kameezes and churidaars on the ramp. Making the Bengal tiger his recurring motif, Sabyasachi worked on the weaves, dyeing and textile revival. Today, he is quite vocal about the importance of keeping the crafts heritage alive in India. "I am an Indian designer. My work speaks of India because I try to use a lot of resources from the hinterland. Having said that, I am a designer first, so if a certain craft from anywhere in the world excites me, I will imbibe it happily," he says, emphasising that Indian designers' current love affair with weaves is just a fad as they are not thinking of creating classics.
In 2014, Sabyasachi moved into a new plush flagship studio in Mumbai's Kala Ghoda. Back then, it was larger than any other fashion flagship. With a Burmese teak staircase, 22 vintage chandeliers and 52 collector-quality rugs (not to mention the 400 bottles of ittar), it looked like a vintage museum. "I am a loner to the point of being almost elusive," he says. "People do not get to interact with me easily. Sometimes, when you are selling your own clothing - which is such an integral part of who you are - in stores that do not reflect your own personality, people do not get a holistic picture of the brand. So, I create stores that are my vision of my own house, my own living room. I want people to enter these spaces to have an intimate connection with the brand without me having to intervene or step in." Those who have known the 42-year-old designer personally will understand his need to be away from the spotlight. Despite his phenomenal success, he prefers to keep to himself, doesn't give interviews to the media very often, nor does he attend fashion events frequently. So what does Sabyasachi do when he is not busy designing or marketing his clothes? He says he is a good singer, even though he has hardly ever performed publicly.
With every Indian bride wanting to get married in Sabyasachi, his designs have become the benchmark for the richness of Indian designs and textile. Today, his clientele also includes some members of the Middle East's royal families. His penchant for understated opulence makes him a natural fit for this region, and yet he will not divulge any details of when he is likely to open a store here. "Sabyasachi is already in the Middle East, in all the right families. All I have to do now is open a store there," he says. Given that his collection for Pottery Barn is making its way to stores across the UAE where his popularity is soaring, there are ample signs that Dubai perhaps - just perhaps - could be the next stop for the talented designer.
sujata@khaleejtimes.com