Clothes Make the Man. Styling Urban India with Ethnic designs
Indian Fashion Ka Badshah — Sabyasachi Mukherjee SEASON 2 | from ZERO to HERO | Stories of Inspiring Indians
More than two decades ago, the author of this blog was happy to curate some of the earliest designer fashion shows in India, with her pioneering Event Management company, Razzmatazz — one of the first registered companies in the country. This was the time of the Global Pageants where Indian beauties were rocking the world. One such show was the Y2K show she had organized for the Sheraton group of hotels and the designer fashion weekend featured top models from the glitzy ramps including Celina Jaietly, Koyena Mitra and a very young ethnic designer fondly called “Pepsi”.
The audience sat up and witnessed a “talk of the town” show but the highlight was not just the beautiful ladies who walked the ramp that night, but also the two ethnic sequences dedicated to tribal India in a modern world that showcased a riot of colors and designs. Uniquely matched clothes with artifacts and jewellery, highlighted with the large “bindi” or vermilion dot on the forehead of each model, was a beautiful sight to behold. Young Pepsi made a point with his brilliance and quiet yet bold statements of the Modern Indian Woman — surely a maverick at work!
Many years later, on enquiry about this youngster, it transpired that his real name was Sabyasachi Mukherjee and that he was the most sought after fashion designer in the country. SABYASACHI … Today this Kolkata based Indian Fashion Designer and Couturier, enjoys a cult following, especially among the brides-to-be.
Indeed a fitting story of a middle class simple Indian boy moving from Zero to Hero, meet Ace Designer and Celebrated Brand creator, Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee is an Indian fashion designer who led a very difficult life since his childhood years and fought his family in order to attain his dreams of becoming a fashion designer. He graduated from NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) in 1999. Once he graduated from the institute, he opened his own small workup and starting there, his talent helped him climb the stairs of success very quickly. His first major career break happened in 2001 when he won the award for Femina British Council’s Most Outstanding Young Designer of India and got a chance to do an internship in London with the world’s best fashion designers. In 2002 and 2003, he participated in several fashion shows across the world and ended up winning the ‘Grand Winner Award’ at the New Asia Fashion Week in Singapore. Since 1999, he has been using his label Sabyasachi, which has been one of the most successful fashion houses not only in India, but in the entirety of Southern Asia. He also happens to be one of the topmost designers working in the Indian film industry and has provided his services to films such as ‘Guzaarish’, ‘Laaga Chunari Mein Daag’ and ‘English Vinglish’.
Background and Early Years:
Sabyasachi Mukherjee was born on February 23, 1976 in Kolkata, India to middle class conservative Brahmin parents. His mother Sandhya Mukherjee was a government employee who worked in handicrafts and taught in a government art college. His father Shukumar Mukherjee was a short tempered man and after he lost his job, he turned his frustration on to his kids.
Sabyasachi was 15 years old then and was interested in arts ever since he was a kid, owing to his mother’s influence and the fact that Kolkata has always been known as the cultural capital of India, which had a great impact on his psyche. Sabyasachi grew up in the family with a younger sister who was born seven years after him.
The family went into a deep financial distress when the father lost his job and hence, he compelled Sabyasachi to study hard to land a decent government job. But he had different plans altogether and wanted to pursue fashion designing. Once he finished his 12th grade, Sabyasachi applied to the National Institute of Fashion Technology to study in its Kolkata center.
When his family refused to pay for his entry form, Sabyasachi took it upon himself and sold off all his old books. He studied hard to pass the entrance exam and graduated from the Institute with flying colours in 1999. Upon graduating from the institute, Sabyasachi started his self-titled label in a small shop in Kolkata and hired two other designers to be his colleagues. But he was still very far from his career’s first major break, which came 2 years later.
Career
In 2001, he participated in the Femina British Council’s annual competition and won an award as Outstanding Young Designer of India. This further led him to gain a great appreciation in India and international fashion world. Following his award win, he was selected for an internship with Georgina Von Etzdorf, one of the most renowned designers in the international fashion circuit. Following the internship which went on for a few months, Sabyasachi came back to India and started working with India’s leading fashion brands as a designer.
In 2002, he debuted in Indian mainstream fashion world with India Fashion Week, where he presented some of his designs that received a strong critical reaction. The best models in the event wore his designer dresses and it was a strong mainstream beginning for Sabyasachi. It was also another major step in the direction of becoming one of the most successful celebrity fashion designers of India.
By the year 2003, his talent was already making waves internationally as he made his runway debut in Singapore during the Mercedes Benz New Asia Fashion Week. By the time the event culminated, he was named the recipient of the ‘Grand Winner Award’, which further contributed in him getting more offers from the international fashion brands. Furthermore, he got the chance to work alongside maverick designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier. During the Lakme Fashion Week 2003, he introduced a new design ‘Kora’, which received a thunderous response from the national and international fashion critics.
In 2004, Sabyasachi experimented and mixed the traditional Indian attire with Bohemian fashion and named the line ‘The Frog Princess’. He introduced the designs in Miami and Kuala Lumpur Fashion weeks. One of his stores in London was further named by Vogue as the best shopping destination in the world, which established Sabyasachi there as well, which was yet another major feat.
In 2005, he went a few steps ahead with experimentations and during his spring-summer collection for the year he introduced ‘The Nair Sisters’. The collection featured some hand block printing, bagru and embroideries and the intricate use of cotton and hand woven fabrics became its signature. The collection was showcased at the Browns & Selfridges store in London and got sold within a few days of getting showcased. Later in the same year, he was requested to present his designs at Oxford University’s black tie charity dinner which happens to be a yearly event.
The New York Fashion week 2006 further turned out to be a major feather in his hat as his label Sabyasachi finally started selling worldwide. To make the collection unique from other designers, Sabyasachi went bold with his choices of colours and designs. For the maximum impact, he used the glamour and folklore in an effective way and mixed them with the paintings of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Europe to enhance the artistic credibility.
In the same year, he became the first Indian designer to feature his collections in all three major fashion weeks in the world- New York, Milan and London. Sabyasachi gave the rich Indian culture and traditions credit as one of the major reasons for his international success. He emphasized on the point that most young Indian designers copy the West in their designs and that is one of the reasons for the unoriginality that keeps them away from attaining international fame.
In 2012, Sabyasachi’s collection closed the PCJ Delhi Couture Week held in the national capital of India. There he showcased his new collection called ‘New Moon’, which featured five different world cities as its theme. The cities that he based his collections on were Berlin, Kolkata of British Raj, Paris, Barcelona and New York. The former Bollywood Diva, Sridevi was the showstopper for the show and showcased the sari designed by him.
In 2008, Sabyasachi collaborated with GAJA brand and introduced a jewellery line and the collection was further showcased in the Vogue Wedding Show 2016 and garnered major critical acclaim. At the 2015 Amazon India Couture Week, Sabyasachi collaborated with a French designer to present a collection of footwear, which had the trademark Sabyasachi embroidery on them.
Apart from being one of the well known designers in the national/international fashion weeks, Sabyasachi has dominated the Indian film industry as well for many years. Over the years that he has been active, he has designed costumes for films such as ‘Guzaarish’, ‘Black’ and ‘Laaga Chunari mein Daag’. For his work on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2005 film ‘Black’, he won the National Award for Best Costume Design.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee presently lives in Mumbai, Maharashtra and has stores in all the major cities of the country.
LEARNINGS FROM PEPSI’S LIFE:
Passion and out of the box creativity is infectious! When one thinks of Sabyasachi, what one remembers is the saree and the lehenga. And that is how the two of them have been connected for several years in Indian Fashion. Sabyasachi’s creative vision has soared to great heights while staying rooted in the inherent glamour and tradition that India has to offer in Fashion. His designs are considered as the designs of past, present and future, and that’s what makes him a leading contemporary designer.
Sabyasachi has described his style as the personalised imperfection of the human hand. He draws his ideas from his surroundings and childhood. Kolkata’s imprints and backdrops have left a never-changing impact on his mind that is visible in all his designs and creations. Even if it is gypsies, deserts, antique use of fabrics, textiles, and embroideries, everything gets woven in a beautiful sari. His trademark is different patchwork designs on vibrant colours. A unique blend of colours and fabrics gives his designs a unique twist to it. One can’t normally think of putting four different shades in 4 different sections of a Sari with a different design, but the final product by Sabyasachi is really amazing and perfect as well. And finally, customers get compelled to think that yes, it is possible and achievable.
Today he is a name to reckon with. Sabyasachi Mukherjee is one of the Associate Designer Members of Fashion Design Council of India and the youngest board member of the National Museum of Indian Cinema.
Despite his “not so favourable” environment, Sabyasachi took this disadvantage in his favour and shines like a beacon in his chosen field. It would be apt to describe this simple Indian boy with Bohemian expressions as a maverick who has his colorful designs to counter his plain and staid countenance and simple life.
Kudos Pepsi…take a bow.
