Becoming Sabyasachi Mukherjee: A 20 year journey

To say that Sabyasachi Mukherjee is one of the hardest designers in the country to pin down for a comment is not an exaggeration; frankly, it is understandable. He likes to keep himself busy—often forgoing a much-needed night’s sleep to strike off what he set out to do that day. On a one-track mission to create India’s most iconic brand, Mukherjee has dedicated two decades of his life to his work—and criticism, self-doubt, personal sacrifices have all came alongside meteoric success and worldwide recognition.

When I ask Mukherjee if he ever envisioned himself as one of the greats, he pauses, laughs, and tells me that at the risk of sounding immodest, he did. I’m not surprised—it’s an unspoken habit of the highly successful to visualise themselves in aspirational positions and then constantly push themselves towards the goal. When he started out as a young designer fresh out of NIFT Kolkata, Mukherjee tasted success so early—he wasn’t sure what to do with it. His first-ever collection for Lakmé Fashion Week was so well received, he became an overnight hit. “I made it to Page 1 before Page 3. I had never attended a fashion party, I didn’t know my customers, I didn’t know how retail worked, I had no idea of how press works for shows. At that point in time, there was no incubation [period] for young designers, so I had nothing and I went in there with just instinct and a little bit of common sense. I really had to wade my way through deep waters to be able to figure out what I was supposed to do.”

Inadvertently left feeling that this was a bit of luck shining down on an “obscure boy from Calcutta”, Mukherjee took it upon himself to work harder to feel as though he had earned every bit of his accomplishment. He secured scholarships to intern overseas—the V&A, Azzedine Alaïa and Jean Paul Gaultier—to absorb the workings of couture and the fine arts. Upon his return, Mukherjee worked with Sangita Kathiwada of Melange on an exhibition. Legend has it, as the designer finished setting up the stall in the store and went to his hotel for a quick change before the evening, he got a call from Kathiwada who asked him not to come back to the store, as his wares had already sold out.

“It put a lot of pressure on me because when so much is given to you in such short a time, you go through this huge period of self-doubt because you think that it was probably by fluke, and it’s going to be taken away,” he says. “I really had to work to centre myself and I wasn’t enjoying this attention because it was distracting me from my work. At that point of time, I made a resolution and I’ve kept it till date—if I need to sell myself to sell my clothes, I would rather not do this business at all. I started withdrawing, I let my clothes speak for themselves, I started creating a stronger language and a visual identity for the clothes so that people could see and identify the clothes without me having to be there to explain to them.”

Mukherjee’s work is seen in the right circles, but the man behind it is not. In the past few years, he has exited the formal cycle of fashion weeks in the country, choosing instead Instagram shows and the occasional private viewing for select press and couture customers. Twenty years of designer collaborations, dressing celebrities, creating couture for some of the most lavish weddings in the world and launching a jewellery brand later, what was his most important takeaway? “I have learnt two things—you grow if people grow with you, and secondly, I think that every person has a vested interest or a personal reason for which they want grow their empires or create their business. For some people, it could be creativity, it could just be a hobby that translated into a business. For me, because I come from a middle-class family and I saw my father struggling with a lot of jobs when I was 15 or 16, money has been very important. In many ways, money, if you look at it from a very practical pragmatic angle, gives you a certain sense of independence and also it’s very empowering because you can take decisions for yourself. The most gratifying thing about being in this business for 20 years is that a) I have been independent, b) I have been able to create opportunities of empowerment for a lot of people working with my brand. Every year I sit with my HR and recreate a policy where we hire at least 10-15 per cent more people. We hire more craftspeople, we adopt more villagers, we work with many more craftsmen to be able to create a demand and supply,” the designer gives us a large-scale picture of what he has been able to achieve during his time in the industry.

Mukherjee’s focus for the longest time has been bridal couture. “We have never really taken credit for it but I am happy that in some way or the other, we’ve created a big seismic shift in the way people dressed in this country,” he says. The high-waisted lehenga, the long-sleeved blouse with a conservative neckline that puts the spotlight on the bride’s face, old-worldly embroidery have all become synonymous to the brand. Not everyone can find Sabyasachi’s premium price points accessible and it is not uncommon for the designer’s work to be replicated in fakes.

“I get very excited about the prospect of my clothing being copied. I would be very disappointed if my clothes didn’t get replicated because somewhere down the line, you are creating a very big trend in the economy and you can’t do it alone. The fact that my clothes get copied means that there is a bigger audience for my clothes than the one that I can cater to. We use so many handicrafts, you know, so if you really do bad copies of my clothes, you would do them with machine embroidery. But a lot of the good copies are still made by hand. It doesn’t matter what kind of quality they adhere to, because it means that every time you are making a copy of a Sabyasachi, you are giving employment to other people. And that, for me, is exciting and the most important thing.” Creating a strong visual identity for his work meant repeating imagery until his work could never be mistaken for another. “I have had my share of people criticising my work, some calling it regressive, some calling it backward, many calling it repetitive, but the only thing that I have learnt in these 20 years is that it’s only through repetition that you can create iconism and I want the brand to be iconic. I want people to remember.”

When he does showcase ‘Kashgar Bagh’, it will be his first presentation of ready-to-wear in years. Having grossly underestimated the number of people who wouldn’t want to miss this rare opportunity of a Sabyasachi showcase, the designer and his team are currently in the process of knocking down a part of the ostentatious set to make more room for seating. On a parting note, I ask him about someone whose work he admires in the industry. Without a moment of hesitation, Aneeth Arora’s label Péro is the answer. “She has created a universe within the brand and her vision and language is so strong that people who buy Péro will consistently buy Péro for the rest of their lives. Aneeth is not busy trying to hog the limelight, she creates beautiful clothing. The other designers that I admire right now—they were great as a team together and they are great apart—are Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli. There is such a sense of dignity to what they do, both of them, individually and collectively, that I hope that someday they will reunite to create another fashion label that is theirs.”

Preparing for a show tinged with nostalgia, a celebration of a lifetime of effort, can only result in unprecedented waves of emotions and epiphanies. What’s the one thing Sabyasachi Mukherjee would have done differently? “If I could turn back time, I would tell myself to make more time for myself—work on personal relationships, keep your friends, travel more often.” Here’s hoping Mukherjee listens to himself for the next two decades.

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