Sabyasachi Mukherjee prefers it if you addressed him by his full name. “I hate any abbreviated version of my name, particularly Sabya,” he says, right at the outset of the interview, setting a rather candid yet casual tone for the conversation that followed.
We are talking to Sabyasachi almost a week ahead of his show at Lakmé Fashion Week’s Winter/Festive 2013 edition. Now, what is noteworthy about this show is the fact that he will be showcasing his collection at the grand finale of the fashion week after a hiatus of five years. “It is not a hiatus in the real sense of the word because I was never away. It is just that I am doing the grand finale after five years,” he promptly points out.
About the collection he’ll be showing, we learn that the theme of the collection is Royalty.
Revealing further details, he says, “There is no particular period the collection seeks to hark back to. It is contemporary, architectural and city-slick. It is for a modern-day, people’s princess like Kate Middleton who is royalty but easily reaches out to the people; a princess who can live in a palace but prefers to stay in an apartment.”
As someone who’s been an active participant in the various fashion weeks — the last one he showed at was the Delhi Couture Week in July — to the question of how important it is for a designer to take part in the fashion weeks on a regular basis, Sabyasachi avers, “There are different kinds of designers — some who give into the pressure of the media and so take part in fashion weeks just to be in the news, and then there are designers who have built a wall against it. As a designer, I belong to the latter category. And at the risk of sounding arrogant, as an industry leader, my honest opinion is that you’re better off focusing your energies on what you need to do for your label and not necessarily what others think you need to do.”
As a case in point, the designer chooses to delve into Cannes 2013 where, as we all know, his clothes made more news than the movies that were screened there. “Half of India wrote off the clothes. And though I will take responsibility for the draped veil look, it didn’t come off as well as we expected it would, I stand by my designs.”
Unequivocally self–assured as he sounds, we nevertheless wonder if despite all the vitriol that was generated, he is glad that fashion in India today has become a subject of discussion for the masses too, and not just the fashion elite? “When Vogue had interviewed us (Vidya Balan and Sabyasachi) as part of a Cannes fashion preview, I’d said then that the designs would become conversation starters,” he states, quickly proceeding to add, “I believe that if you put up a collection that is safe and without repercussions, one that doesn’t evoke a dialogue in the society, then you’ve failed as a fashion designer.”
Getting back to the show, Sabyasachi, a self-confessed perfectionist — “if you have a job to do, you must ensure you do it well,” he asserts — concedes that each and every collection of his is “an amalgamation of love, despair, happiness, thoughts, and beliefs of mine.” “If you haven’t invested yourself emotionally into your clothes, they will not speak out to your customer. That is my belief, which is why every collection of mine is personal and is a reflection of me,” he warmly concludes.
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