He dresses Kim Kardashian, Priyanka Chopra, billionaires and Bollywood actresses – who is Sabyasachi Mukherjee, India’s A-list bridal designer?

Apr 13 , 2020

India’s bridal king Sabyasachi Mukherjee counts Kim Kardashian, Priyanka Chopra, Bollywood stars and billionaires such as Isha Ambani as clients. Photo: Instagram

Counting Isha Ambani, Bollywood actresses Priyanka Chopra, Anushka Sharma and Bipasha Basu and Hollywood celebrities Renee Zellweger and Reese Witherspoon as clients, he is known as the ‘king of bridal fashion’

Dressing billionaire heiresses, international celebrities, Bollywood actresses as well more than 50,000 brides, and with multiple collaborations under his belt, Sabyasachi Mukherjee has successfully built a business that embodies the balance between commerce and art. His designs resonate with not only Indian women but also the global market.

After two decades of building his business from scratch, Mukherjee’s label is now valued at around US$35 million with a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent, according to a report by The Business of Fashion. With a strong foundation, he raised the stakes further by diversifying to apparel, accessories and jewellery.

As Mukherjee steadily grew his label, he was able to establish his creative vision that would suit his entrepreneurial acumen and set the tone and image of his brand: revamping traditional Indian wedding ensembles using a luxurious maximalist aesthetic. Having a keen eye for the Indian market, this gave him an idea who the “Sabyasachi” woman was.

His designs, which he describes as “personalised imperfection of the human hand”, have been worn by billionaire heiresses such as Isha Ambani, Bollywood actresses Anushka Sharma, Sagarika Ghatge, Soha Ali Khan, Bipasha Basu and Vidya Balan, as well as international celebrities Kim Kardashian, Renee Zellweger and Reese Witherspoon.

Proving that he is, indeed, Bollywood’s most in-demand designer, he was commissioned by actress Priyanka Chopra in 2018 to create her wedding outfit when she married Nick Jonas. According to The Business of Fashion, Priyanka’s Kanauj-rose lehenga took 3,720 man hours and 110 embroiders to complete. At the end of the day, it was a successful marketing coup for Mukherjee: the bespoke outfit was seen by Priyanka’s 51.7 million Instagram followers.

But his creations are not just limited to VIP clients. Thanks to his award-winning reality show Band Baaja Bride, which gives Indian couples from various socioeconomic backgrounds a makeover, he has become a household name in his homeland, dressing an estimated more than 50,000 brides – ranging from aristocrats to middle-class Indian women – and grooms. This made his approach more accessible while remaining rooted in his identity as a luxury designer.