“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.
At his 25 year anniversary celebration in Mumbai, 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 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. “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.
The Nod's Butool Jamal chats with the designer, as well as a few of his long-time collaborators and clients about their favourite memories of him.
