Sabyasachi Mukherjee is the first Indian designer to walk the red carpet of the Met Gala. Well, let us have a look at how he reached a level with sheer dedication, hard work, and determination.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee is a well-known name in the world of fashion. The founder of the label, 'Sabyasachi' is a much-loved designer. From dressing up celebrities on their red carpets to making their wedding dreams come true with his creativity and craft, Sabyasachi knows how to showcase his skills through his unbeatable designs. Over the years, Sabyasachi Mukherjee has proven his mettle by dressing up the A-listers of Bollywood with some mesmerising bridal outfits, including Rani Mukerji, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Anushka Sharma, and Bipasha Basu among others.
For those who don't know, Sabyasachi Mukherjee is also the youngest board member of the National Museum of Indian Cinema and an associate designer member of the Fashion Design Council of India. Not only did he dress up the celebrities on their wedding days or red carpets, but Sabyasachi's timeless designs also took place on the silver screens. The designer created a lot of remarkable costumes for several Hindi movies.
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The journey of this designer maestro was not a bed full of roses, and he had his fair share of obstacles and struggles. Recently, the designer made his Met Gala debut and became the first-ever Indian designer to walk the red carpet of such a prestigious event. Today, we will learn bits and pieces about Sabyasachi Mukherjee's early life and journey.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee was born into a middle-class Bengali family and hails from Kakinara, West Bengal. Since his childhood, the designer has been attracted to the idea of craftsmanship. The designer received his formal education at a school named Sri Aurobindo Vidyamandir, Chandannagar. Sabyasachi's mother was a professor at a Government-associated art college, and she also had a keen interest in handicrafts, while his father was also employed. Being hailed from a middle-class family, Sabyasachi's parents wanted him to do something big in his career and chose Engineering. However, at the age of 15, Sabyasachi decided to open up about his love for fashion to his parents.
Unfortunately, the designer's father lost his job at the same time, so providing him with the required funds seemed a bit hard for his parents. So, they denied it as they thought the field wouldn't be fruitful and their son would possibly not achieve success in the fashion world. Left with no other options and a heart full of dreams, Sabyasachi then decided to run away from his home. If the reports are to be followed, the designer worked as a waiter in Goa for a short period to collect the required funds for his education in fashion and NIFT examinations. The designer also reportedly sold his books to bear the expenses of his formal education at the National Institute of Fashion Technology India.
It was in 1999 when Sabyasachi Mukherjee completed his graduation from the National Institute of Fashion Technology India. With two eyes full of dreams to rule the realm of fashion and to make his own label, Sabyasachi borrowed Rs. 20,000 from his sister, Payel, and made his own label. With a workforce of a total of three employees, he started to take slow steps to achieve something big in his career.
As per several reports, during that time, Sabyasachi used to fix beds and the workshops, and he worked on his designs at night, which continued for several years. In 2001, the designer started getting recognised for his work and won Femina British Council’s Most Outstanding Young Designer of India award, which brought him an opportunity to fly off to London for an internship with famous textile designer, Georgina von Etzdorf.
Coming back to India with a lot of ideas, Sabyasachi Mukherjee started doing wonders. In 2002, the designer made his debut at the India Fashion Week and won a lot of recognition for his work. In the following year, Sabyasachi tried his hand at his first-ever international runaway fashion show at the Mercedes-Benz New Asia Fashion Week in Singapore with the Grand Winner Award, followed by a workshop in Paris. The young designer continued to leave everyone in awe of his craft and creativity with several fashion shows.
With a lot of praise and applause, Sabyasachi got an offer to showcase his collection at The Nair Sister, to the prestigious Oxford University annual black tie charity dinner fashion show, which was the turning point of his career. After that, he took part in several prestigious shows, including New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week, Bridal Asia, and Miami Fashion Week, among others.
In 2015, Sabyasachi collaborated with Christian Louboutin on his Autumn Winter 2015 collection at Amazon India Couture Week. He introduced his label to the silver screen with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black, and then the rest is history. Apart from decking up celebrities on their special days, the designer also started a project named 'Save The Sarees'. In this project, the designer sells Indian hand-woven sarees at a minimum price of Rs. 3,500 (now reportedly it's around Rs. 1,850). The project aimed to promote Indian sarees and to save the livelihood of the weavers near Murshidabad.
Apart from being a prolific figure in India's fashion, Sabyasachi Mukherjee likes to keep his life away from the public eye. However, he had been quite open about a severe depressive phase in his life during his teen years. Reportedly, in an interview with ETPanache, the designer said that he got into depression when he was only 17 years old, and it even led him to attempt suicide. The designer also talked about mental health at length and shared how creative people often get stuck in the loop of lacking self-expression, which happened to him also. He had said:
"I got into severe depression when I was 17. I tried committing suicide. It was a failed attempt. Mental health in today’s day and time, with this quick pace of life, is becoming more pronounced. And people need to understand that it is not something that one needs to be ashamed of or fear because it’s quite normal.”
If the reports are to be believed, Sabyasachi Mukherjee has a net worth of Rs. 114 crore as of 2022. Regarding his assets, the designer has several stores in cities like Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, along with some foreign merchants in California, Atlanta, London, and Dubai.
Apart from that, he is also an owner of a 7,250-square-foot lavish mansion in Alipore, Kolkata. The designer has a total of 1,900 employees as of now. Talking about his hard-working employees, the designer had said to the IANS in an e-mail interview that when he started, he just wanted to have enough money so that he could travel around on flights, and now he has a family of 1,900, to whom he has to pay salary every month and it's a big responsibility as those workers also have their families to run.
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Sabyasachi Mukherjee left everyone's jaw dropped with his Met Gala debut in 2024. For the unversed, he is the first Indian designer to walk the prestigious beauty exhibit. For the day, he opted for an embroidered cotton paired with beige pants. The addition of exquisite jewels added an oomph factor to his look, and the fashion junkies are going gaga over his jaw-dropping fashion quotient.
Well, Sabyasachi Mukherjee's journey is as phenomenal as his timeless creations are. The designer who started his label with 3 employees has now made it to a level, which is beyond reach. We hope we will see some more striking creativity from the king of the realm of fashion.
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