My favourite brand: Sabyasachi
Described as an ’International styling with an Indian soul’, Sabyasachi Mukherjee from Kolkata, India, is a luxury fashion designer who sells his merchandise using the world renowned label: Sabyasachi. Mukherjee had begun the building of his brand by borrowing his sister’s money – as his parents did not approve of his calling for fashion as it is culturally not considered a proper and well paid profession, making South Asian fashionmongers like myself relate to his story, and more determined to succeed in such a challenging industry. With his borrowed money, he opened up a store with a workforce of 3 employees and struggled to gain success for 5 years until he debuted at the Indian Fashion Week 2002, this brought him traction and caused his big break. Sabyasachi’s designs can now be seen in Bollywood and is sought after for bridal wear.
Being half Indian and growing up in the Western world, not seeing the appreciation and dealing with the discrimination of my culture, I was ashamed to parade my traditional clothes and jewellery. However, as Sabyasachi grew to fame and displayed the classical Indian style on diverse models, the culture was shared and open to everyone everywhere, and swiftly became adored by the public which sparked my pride in my culture. Through his promotion of the brand e.g. the elegant photoshoots flaunting his designs, the luxury designer made it the norm and trend to mix Western and Indian pieces in everyday wear.
To further praise his label, Mukherjee ensures his designs are based on the values of sustainability and ethical fashion, he hires over 3,000 traditional Indian artists to create his modern take on South Asian clothing. The variety of classical methods used in his textiles consist of; hand-dyeing, bandhani, gota patti (Indian embroidery) etc. Sabyasachi claims that ‘sustainability in fashion is not a luxury but a need for our future’ making him the pinnacle of Indian designers as – as unfortunate as it is – it is demanding to find ethical, luxurious and captivating fashion brands which follow the 4 main pillars required for a faultless brand.