COURTESY: SABYASACHI.COM
At a time when celebrity dressing has become one of fashion’s most powerful marketing tools, Sabyasachi Mukherjee is questioning whether luxury has become too available.
The Indian designer recently spoke about his reluctance to create custom red-carpet looks for celebrities, arguing that constantly adapting a designer’s vision to suit an actor or stylist can ultimately compromise the identity of the clothes.
His position is refreshingly uncompromising: if something from the collection isn’t right for you, perhaps the brand simply isn’t for you.
It is an interesting argument in an industry increasingly built around visibility. Custom celebrity looks can generate millions of impressions overnight, while awards-season dressing has become an extension of a luxury house’s marketing strategy. For many designers, getting the right celebrity into the right dress is now almost as important as the runway itself.
Sabyasachi is proposing something different.
His approach places value back on scarcity, authorship, and the designer’s point of view—ideas that once defined luxury before social media made constant visibility a necessity.
That doesn’t mean Sabyasachi exists outside celebrity culture. His designs have been worn for some of India’s most visible weddings and global cultural moments. Rather, his argument seems to be about maintaining control over how the brand participates in that world.
The conversation arrives at an interesting moment. Sabyasachi is preparing to return to the New York Fashion Week calendar this September after a long absence, bringing one of India’s most recognizable luxury houses back onto an American runway.
Perhaps that makes his position even more compelling.
As fashion continues asking how to make luxury desirable again, Sabyasachi’s answer may be surprisingly simple:
Not everything needs to be available to everyone.
