udacious and alluring, larger-than-life and luxurious, bold and oh-so-beautiful! That’s Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s line of high jewellery that the Calcutta designer unveiled at a private showing in New Delhi’s The Oberoi on December 18, presented by Kumar Mangalam Birla. t2 was invited for the beautiful evening that Sabya had put together, making the most of the Delhi winter chill. The dress code for the guests was “strictly black”, letting his creations shine bright in a sea of ebony. The showcase was uber chic — the jewellery was teamed with glittering gowns and separates, and statement Sabyasachi handbags. An interesting play of brilliant-cut diamonds with coloured stones of different kinds resulted in 24 blindingly beautiful pieces. Sabya took t2 through the jewellery line and shared with us his vision for Sabyasachi Jewellery. He also summed up his year gone by and what he expects from 2024. Excerpts…
Congratulations on a super show! So tell us what exactly the collection of ‘high jewellery’ means and how is it different from your regular jewellery?
High jewellery is the more exclusive part of the jewellery line, it’s not your everyday that probably our jewellery is the best in the country at this point of time and probably it is way ahead of competition. And this jewellery is finding very big traction globally, whether it’s the Middle-East, whether it’s Europe, whether it’s America... it’s not just Indians, but a lot of non-Indians are buying the jewellery and they are loving it. And I really think that when Sabyasachi becomes a global brand, the first category that will break out is jewellery. Like I work very very hard on my jewellery and for me it is a Bengal story and a Calcutta story, because the best karigars for jewellery are in Calcutta, and I am causing a lot of reverse migration by bringing karigars from all over back to Calcutta. So for me, jewellery is the true manifestation of the Calcutta and the Bengal story. I think the mission is, and Kumar (Kumar Mangalam Birla) and I are personally invested in it, that we are going to create India’s first luxury jewellery brand and I am very very sure that this is going to become one of the most important jewellery brands in the world.
In February the entire jewellery salon of Bergdorf Goodman (in New York) is going to be converted into a Sabyasachi experience... with the jewellery in all their show windows. In Damas in Dubai we are the only Indian jeweller who is showing alongside Graff and Mikimoto. We have done a jewellery exhibition at the Lancaster House (in London) for the Elephant Family and Prince Charles. So the jewellery story is beginning to grow bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger — Sabyasachi
Coming to the show, the music was super fun… from a Bengali song like Chokhe chokhe kotha bolo to Badtameez dil to Hawa Hawaii, it was an eclectic mix and we loved it. What was the idea behind the music?
I just wanted the music to be beautiful, flirtatious, romantic… it’s about good old times. I think it’s important to find reasons for human celebrations after Covid. And you know, the more you move into the worlds of artificial intelligence and the Internet, I think celebration of human spirit is going to become bigger and bigger. And you know when you put so many people in a room, everyone understands the music, people identify with the songs, they sing along, it gives it a little bit of a charming quality of good times. I was very clear with the music that people have to have a fantastic time.
You launched your jewellery vertical in 2017 and have completed six years with it. Have you realised the vision that you started the brand with?
Honestly, I will tell you, when I look at Sabyasachi jewellery... I don’t know about clothing, but I can say this with confidence jewellery; it falls in the category of important jewellery, that one would wear for important functions like weddings and anniversaries... they are basically like important special pieces which actually fall at the top of the spectrum.
The collection looks gorgeous! Please take us through the line in detail.
The collection was a mixture of three lines — one which was classic, one which was bohemian, and the other one was envelope-pushing... some in terms of price, some in terms of audacity…. The real focus in the jewellery was that the structure of the jewellery was in 18 karat gold, VVS, VS diamonds and then it was punctuated with a lot of different kinds of coloured stones, from emeralds to rubies to spinels to turquoise to sapphires to corals to amethysts to peridots... all different kinds of stones from different parts of the world.
Why did you decide to show the jewellery with Western wear, like gowns, and not Indian wear like lehngas?
We had done three saris also... so we were not showing any overtly jadau look which is normally associated with weddings. This was more like a cocktail collection which you will wear for a Sangeet or a reception, not mainly for the wedding day. But you know, people do not consume jewellery only for weddings, people buy jewellery for childbirth, for anniversaries, for graduations, for engagements… so many other landmark occasions. So you know the entire thing about the jewellery industry in India, it is a very myopic way of looking at it that people only buy jewellery for weddings. Jewellery is the only asset apart from real estate which you can use and which appreciates, so a lot of people keep budgets to pick up jewellery because you know you can enjoy jewellery and yet the product will keep appreciating.
Do you have plans of opening any flagship stores for your jewellery only?
Yeah we will... you know, jewellery is a business we are very serious about. We are building the brand, we are being very mindful about quality, very mindful about design. You know the brand has done very well. In February the entire jewellery salon of Bergdorf Goodman (in New York) is going to be converted into a Sabyasachi experience... with the jewellery in all their show windows. In Damas in Dubai we are the only Indian jeweller who is showing alongside Graff and Mikimoto. We have done a jewellery exhibition at the Lancaster House (in London) for the Elephant Family and Prince Charles. So the jewellery story is beginning to grow bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. So now it’s not only Indian celebrities, non-Indian celebrities are also wearing our jewellery. And the customer base is becoming stronger and stronger.
You know, a lot of people had written me off when I started jewellery, saying this is not going to last; I heard a lot of negative comments in the industry also. Slowly and slowly I think people are getting silenced and you know the good thing is I have found a partner, Kumar, who is as excited... we both are hyper focussed on jewellery. Both of us will put our might together to make this one of the most powerful brands from the East.
Now that 2023 is almost over, tell us what have been the highlights of the year for you?
I don’t count highlights any more... you know what I want to do is I want to work on improving my skills year after year. We are finally going to be moving into a new design studio (in Calcutta). It is going to be in the Kanak building on Chowringhee. We have already started shifting... it’s just a personal shift. Coming to this year, we have opened a jewellery store in Hyderabad. This year started with opening the Bombay flagship, then you know beginning to make New York stable... our handbag business, our resort wear business... all that is beginning to show a lot of promise. So this has been a year of a lot of internal and external growth.
And what is 2024 looking like for you?
2024 will be about furthering our global expansion. I think there will be many more partners that will come in, for expanding the Sabyasachi business. We are planning to have trunk shows in important parts of America, including Hollywood. And 2024 will also launch a giant collaboration which I can’t talk about now; it will be in the early parts of 2024. And then there will be factory building, store building, vertical building... I am also going to figure out how to take the jewellery story higher and higher. You know, our Western wear and our jewellery are becoming very big for us as business categories. I will maybe start a partnership for a Sabyasachi show on television; working with a few people... I can’t comment on it right now but that might happen in 2025, if not 2024. So 2024 will be a lot about internal and external growth as well.
