Dragonflies shaped out of gold with tiny diamonds making them sparkle as they catch the light. Frogs made of enamelled gold dangling from chains. Earrings and pendants with the Royal Bengal Tiger perched in their centre. These and many more exquisite pieces of fine craftsmanship strewn around casually but carefully on grazing tables, among bunches of roses and heaps of cheeses and chocolates. The display is breathtakingly poetic, bearing the signature of a man who can make luxury seem irreverent and the mundane seem oh-so-beautiful — Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
In a bid to make his much-coveted, uber luxury brand more accessible to the Indian market, Sabyasachi launched a jewellery collection exclusively for the digital platform, in partnership with Tata CLiQ Luxury. The launch was announced with a sneak peek of the collection at the designer’s store in ICP Fort Heritage in Mumbai on the evening of August 12. The “digital boutique” on the Tata CLiQ Luxury platform will go live on August 21.
The collection, with the tagline “New World. Old Wisdom. Timeless Value”, features a “curated assortment of fine jewellery” from Sabyasachi Calcutta, crafted in 18 carat gold, using VVS-VS EF colour brilliant-cut diamonds, natural pearls, precious gemstones, and the brand’s signature craftsmanship.
“The best way to create access (to the brand) is through accessible jewellery. Because if you can buy luxury and it becomes an investment, why not?” Sabyasachi told t2oS at the launch.
The collection being launched exclusively for the premiere luxury lifestyle platform is made up of a diverse range of fine jewellery, telling different stories. The Royal Bengal Heritage Gold Collection highlights the Bengal Tiger insignia in pure gold and includes the classic Sabyasachi Mangalsutra. The Royal Bengal Diamond Collection is studded with VVS-VS EF colour brilliant-cut diamonds, gemstones, and natural stone charms. The Royal Bengal Pearl Series features natural, cultured, and South Sea pearls. The Sunderbans Collection is a forest of time where the ancient wisdom of craft masquerades as flora and fauna. The Tiger Stripe and Shalimar collections are modern icons showcasing the house insignia in 18 carat gold with lacquer highlights, while the Tiger Eye group features a diamond-studded Bengal Tiger insignia. All the collections include earrings, pendants, bracelets, and rings, all crafted for everyday elegance.
Gopal Asthana, CEO, Tata CLiQ Luxury, said, “At Tata CLiQ Luxury, we celebrate both Indian and global luxury, and this launch reinforces our commitment to curating the finest names in the world of luxury. Sabyasachi is renowned for its exquisite craftsmanship and deep-rooted Indian heritage, offering a distinctive blend of traditional aesthetics and global appeal. With the debut of their fine jewellery on our platform, we are not only elevating our luxury jewellery portfolio but also making one of India’s most iconic brands accessible to discerning consumers across the country, including those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. As India’s leading luxury platform joins hands with the country’s most celebrated designer, this exclusive partnership is set to redefine the fine jewellery experience for the digital era.”
Sabyasachi said, “I’m proud to introduce Sabyasachi Fine Jewellery on Tata CLiQ Luxury. This collection is crafted with the same soul, the same uncompromising standards, and the same extraordinary value for which the brand has always been loved. Our pricing isn’t aspirational; it’s grounded. Yet this jewellery remains everything you’d expect from the House of Sabyasachi: refined, rooted, timeless.”
At the launch at his larger-than-life, museum-like flagship store in Mumbai, Sabya — as the Calcutta boy is lovingly known in the world of fashion — took the select audience through the backstory of the new venture. Over to Sabyaspeak:
This is an amazing country… over the next few months, a lot of changes are going to happen worldwide, a lot of countries will begin to realise that it is very important to support the local economy, and create domestic consumption.
This took me 25 years to build... you know, when I say today that I was born Indian, a lot of people roll their eyes, but that’s true. I knew what it felt like to be excluded, at a time when five of us had to go to a restaurant to have Chinese food just so that we could have one hour of air-conditioning…. People often said to me you have built such a beautiful brand in India, why don’t you give access to people... and I said that when the time is right, we will. Building a luxury brand is like planting a tree, you have to wait for the tree to flower and when the tree gives you fruit, you plant the seeds and you build another tree. There is no quick way to build a luxury brand that is going to last you all your lifetime.
So I told myself that by the time I reach 21-22 years of the brand, I am going to give the brand away… I sold 51 per cent of my brand to Kumar Mangalam Birla, a great personal friend, because he is going to nurture the brand. And I told Kumar one thing, I said Mr Birla, the brand does not belong to you, it does not belong to me, the brand belongs to India at large and we will nurture this together.
I told myself that once I celebrate 25 years of the brand I am going to create meaningful access.
You know, I have this wonderful opportunity of working with Tata CLiQ because the Tatas are another business family that I deeply admire… the Tatas are probably the first family of nation-builders of this country… and to have a partnership with the two (Birla and Tata), and to have Sabyasachi in the middle... sorry for my hubris when I call this the holy trinity (laughs).
Let me tell you something, when you build luxury brands, you build it to the best of your ability, it intimidates a lot of people. The store that we are standing in today has been declared by the French UNESCO as one of the seven best stores in the world. It is an honour for India but it also scares a lot of people away. My family would not have the courage to enter the store because they will be like, I will be judged, I don’t speak English, I don’t carry a Louis Vuitton bag, so I don’t think people are going to talk to us nicely. But they all want to buy Sabyasachi, and they sometimes want to buy Sabyasachi from the comfort of their homes... so that is one of the reasons I did this.
When we talk about the middle class and the upper middle class of India, for them luxury is something that can sometimes be a distant dream, because so much of luxury is based on myth-making. But if you can give them a luxury brand, with luxury design, great values, with integrity and truly ground-breaking prices, which is not aspirational but grounded, that’s when you are creating a modern business.
The children today don’t want to buy jewellery to just store in their lockers, because they don’t want to emulate what their parents have done. I think the children today want to build luxury consumption, but by consuming products and not keeping it in their lockers; they want to wear it every day. They are also trying to build a national identity...
When I was building the Sabyasachi brand I was very clear that I would not have S and M, I said we have to build a logo that is a symbol of all of us, that’s why we decided to keep the national tiger... the Royal Bengal Tiger, up front and centre, because that tiger doesn’t belong to me, doesn’t belong to Sabyasachi, but to the whole country... when you wear the tiger on your neck, you are wearing your own identity.
I tell people that I like a challenge... it was very very difficult for me to build the jewellery business, because there was a lot of myth, hype, a lot of negativity surrounding the growth of this business. Lot of people said the jewellery is not good enough, the quality is not good enough. I am someone who is always very patient and silent. We have taken the jewellery to extremely big heights all over the world, from Bergdorf Goodman to Neiman Marcus to Harrods, to some of the most important doors and windows and families all over the world. From Hollywood to Bollywood, its graced many necks and many ears, and I thought it was time to bring it back and distribute it to the whole of India. Because the people of India, some of them have been friends, some of them have been customers, some of them have been admirers, but we have built the brand together and I thought this was great time to bring it back and give it to them.
We have never let price discovery happen in India because it was always shrouded in mystery, so when on the 21st the jewellery comes out in full glory, with all the break-ups and all the prices, come out with your calculators and you will realise that the jewellery is actually better priced than some of the biggest brands in the country. You know, in India we always talk about price, we never talk about value, but I think value is very important and for the first time people will understand the incredible value we have built around the brand. And like I said, it comes at an opportune time when the whole of India will be focussed on building the economy together. We have all realised that we can’t grow rich alone, we have to grow rich together for the country to be robust.