Sabyasachi Mukherjee is part of the 2 am creative club

“It’s like when you crack a really stupid joke at a party and only you laugh and nobody, not even your audience, gets it,” says Sabyasachi Mukherjee when we meet at the re-see for the collection that has been all over Instagram since last Saturday. He’s referring to the stories behind the pieces that were showcased to a 600-strong audience to mark 25 years of his eponymous brand at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. There’s a pair of pants that he describes as, “Shatranj ke Khiladi meets Willy Wonka”; slogan blouses inspired by the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’; a leather tote embellished with fabric eggs that he shows us before diving into a parable about loneliness; a T-shirt that references the Bengali love song ‘241139 (Bela Bose)’.

It’s hard to imagine Mukherjee at a party without a rapt audience, because one thing that he’s proved time and time again, is that he knows how to tell a good tale. To layer it with meaning, build up your empathy for the characters, and reach the punch line just in time so that you’re hooked right to the end. Because he isn’t just selling dresses, lehengas, jewellery, bags, and more things, although he certainly wants you to buy them. And they have sold, in spades—there’s a rumour about how he outsold Chanel one day at Bergdorf, with sales of over $1 million. But he’s also selling a sensibility: eclectic, inclusive, and craft-forward. And he’s telling this story with all the tools at his disposal. 

Right from the beginning, fashion has been a serious business for Mukherjee. The designer started his brand when he was 25 (which makes this anniversary all the more portentous) and as we walk around his multi-storey Mumbai store he opens up about his early beginnings: “I started working when I was 17. My father lost his job when I was a child, and as a result, my parents’ marriage almost fell apart. I was so scared that they would get divorced, and it really shocked me you know, that this is what money can do. So, I promised myself that when I have the power I would create more jobs in Bengal.”

Since then, he’s gone from a team of three to employing 3,000 people across the country, along with a core team of 1,200. He’s collaborated with everyone from H&M, Christian Louboutin, Pottery Barn, Asian Paints, and Forevermark, and in 2021, received an investment of ₹398 crores from Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL), who now have a 51 percent stake in his company. Ananya Birla, scion of the family who was a guest at the show in a custom Sabyasachi mini dress paired with leather tights, recalls the first time they met. “He said something truly kind. He mentioned that the reason he believed he would be a great fit for the [Birla] group was because he had witnessed the kind of freedom my dad gave me to pursue my dreams. That sense of freedom really resonated with him.”

Shortly after the cash injection, Mukerjee added a store in New York to his retail outlets, his first in America after Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Hyderabad, and today, he casually mentions that he’s opening a new accessories-only store in Hyderabad in the next few days. Does he ever sleep, you might wonder—it seems like he doesn’t. According to Tarun Vishwa, “The best time to message Sabya is actually between 2 am and 6 am.” The photographer, who has worked with Sabyasachi on multiple campaigns and shares his extremely early morning routine, says that the quiet time is when they both like to do their thinking.

Other collaborators and clients talk about his unwavering clarity of vision. On the sets of his ‘Namaste New York’ campaign in 2022, the fashion designer easily flitted through multiple roles, including that of a choreographer. “He literally told all the models, walk like this, turn here,” recalls Nitish Kanjilal, founder, Paraffin Films, who makes the brand’s marketing videos. “He knows exactly what he wants, he is able to visualise the outcome during the shoot.” Lawyer and model David McCoy, who was scouted by Mukherjee himself, shares a similar account, “On one of our shoots together in Rishikesh, I remember we were on the banks of the Ganges late in the afternoon. Sabya kept telling me to go further and further into the water even though I was fully dressed. In the end it was a beautiful image.” 

Filmmaker Shaana Levy-Bahl was a Sabyasachi bride back in 2013. Her wedding film ended up going viral, catapulting her cream, tea-stained bridal lehenga look to Internet fame. She calls herself a “disciple” of the designer. “One of the reasons I chose his lehenga for my wedding was because when I went to his store, instead of just giving me five minutes of his time, we ended up sitting and chatting for what felt like 45 minutes. It was a creative brainstorm and so inspiring to see him work.”

On the evening of his 25 year anniversary celebration in Mumbai, signs of Mukherjee’s growing global fandom were clearly evident—guests were flown down from around the world, and the city’s top hotels were filled to the brim. 

Models walked down in woollen trousers perfect for après-ski lounging, a leather pencil skirt with horn and walnut buttons that would look at home in any Milan office, the softest cashmere sweaters (“the cashmere is from Mongolia and it’s probably the best in the world”) for winters in the Hamptons, and saris draped with pearls that you could wear to a sangeet night in Delhi or Diwali at the White House. And then there were the bags—bejewelled clutches, ladylike top-handle totes, crossbody bags and slings, many of them with his signature Bengal tiger logo. “I have a system that gives us the information on what customers in each region want. Whether it’s New York or Bombay, people might get different products, but the core philosophy stays the same,” he explains. Mukerjee knows how to make ordinary clothes extraordinary—by elevating fabrics, embellishments, prints, or silhouettes while retaining their wearability. You have to get up close, touch, feel, and experience the details—the alpaca from Peru, the sequins from an artisanal studio in Brazil, hand-dyed leather from Turkey, all of course finally worked upon by his karigars in India. “A lot of what you see on the runway isn't fabric; it is pure embroidery. The clothes can be extremely deceptive. For instance, some garments look like tweed but they are not. They are embroideries in two layers that mimic tweed. Instead of focusing on volume, we prioritise quality and the sleight of the hand. The future of modern couture is actually going to lie in ready-to-wear.”

This collection is also the first time that Mukherjee has created jeans—louche, straight-leg, high-waist trousers made of small-batch Japanese denim. “Denim has become almost the foundation for a modern wardrobe. I wanted to make pieces you can wear again and again, and a lot of really smart people wear their couture with jeans. It’s like a canvas that instantly makes things cooler.” 

It’s a reminder that while his aesthetic and ethos might be consistent, he’s still constantly innovating. Think of the embroidered tops with slogans like ‘Cat Mom’, ‘Dog Dad’, ‘Table for One’, or the knitwear with the Bengal tiger splashed across the front—products made for the Instagram grid. It helps that he’s surrounded by a young design team (the youngest person on it is 23): “It’s important to listen to their voices, after all, we’re building the business for them.”