When Monica Bhargava walked into the Sabyasachi store in Mumbai a few months back, she had no clue who he was. But it took minutes for her to fall in love with the Sabyasachi sensibility. So much so that the executive vice-president, design and product development of Williams-Sonoma Inc., one of the world’s most prestigious home development stores based in America, sought Sabya out and convinced him to design a collection for Pottery Barn, one of their upscale brands.

t2 met the vivacious lady, who quickly informed us she was born in New Alipore (!), on the sidelines of a dinner hosted by Sabyasachi at The Leela Palace in Delhi on Friday night. Over to Monica for Sabya’s Pottery Barn story.

How did the collaboration with Sabya happen?
Well, I was visiting India with my design team, we were travelling for inspiration and we happened to be in Mumbai. We saw this amazing store, which happened to be Sabyasachi. We had no idea what store we walked into and there were 10 of us, the entire Pottery Barn design team, and we fell in love, without knowing a lot about Sabyasachi. We went nuts about it... we spent about an hour in that store... just looking at the amazing sensibilities... the way he layers, the colours... none of us had seen that sort of expression before. That night I was talking to some friends, some locals and everyone told me who Sabyasachi was. And that night I stayed up and I watched his show. I was having cocktails with a friend and I mentioned to him that I wanted to meet this designer called Sabyasachi and he was like, I went to school with him. So he called Sabya right away and Sabya said he wasn’t interested in the collaboration because he thought it was Serena Williams and not Williams-Sonoma... and not that he isn’t a fan, but he doesn’t design tennis outfits he said! I called back the next day and explained I was from Williams-Sonoma and I was interested in a collaboration for Pottery Barn, which is one of the many brands that Williams-Sonoma has. We got talking and we spoke for 40 minutes and both of us knew instantly that our creative minds were going to work together. 

So tell us about the collection he made…
Sabyasachi was amazing to work with. So we talked about all the products and we wanted him to do a holiday collection for us. So he did these amazing plates... I think my favourite part was how he interpreted it for both dinnerware and bedding. So he did a bedroom collection, he did jewellery boxes, plates, pillows, rugs, so we were able to create an entire Sabyasachi design capsule (pictures above).

Did you have a design brief for him or did you give him full creative freedom?
We spoke a lot and we did a lot of design compositions together, because we had to make sure whatever Sabyasachi was doing was right for the customer. We both had the customer in mind and we wanted to make sure the collection worked for the market and that our customers loved it. I didn’t want to influence him too much because the reason we wanted to work with him is because we wanted to have his point of view.... And the response has been amazing. Our dinner plates have practically sold out and everybody’s loving the bedding. We have had a global response because I think he reaches out to the global market. 

How do you plan to take the collaboration forward?
That’s something I need to talk to Sabya about now. We haven’t seen each other since the collection launched and this is the first time I am seeing him now.

Have you looked at any other Indian designer? Do you follow Indian fashion? 
We develop our products all over the world. We develop some of our rugs in Calcutta. I wouldn’t say I follow Indian fashion, but having grown up in India I am obviously watching Bollywood, that’s my favourite thing to do when I have free time! But since I have got to know Sabya I have started following some Indian designers whom he has introduced me to.