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| Indian designer champions homespun | Indian designer champions homespun |
| (about 13 hours later) | |
| By Catriona Luke | By Catriona Luke |
| Sabyasachi uses a lot of hand-woven fabrics | Sabyasachi uses a lot of hand-woven fabrics |
| In a mission that recalls Gandhian ideals, one fashion designer wants India to boost its rural industries and return to homespun - and even Bollywood is heeding his call. | In a mission that recalls Gandhian ideals, one fashion designer wants India to boost its rural industries and return to homespun - and even Bollywood is heeding his call. |
| Sabyasachi Mukherjee is a young, hip, Bengali designer who has taken India's chattering classes by storm. | Sabyasachi Mukherjee is a young, hip, Bengali designer who has taken India's chattering classes by storm. |
| He is insisting that to be well-dressed at Delhi and Mumbai's best cocktail parties, you have to be wearing not glittery Western-inspired tube dresses and leggings, but khadi - the simple homespun weave that was championed by Gandhi in the 1930s to boost the rural economy and give India a sense of nationalist pride during the fight for independence. | He is insisting that to be well-dressed at Delhi and Mumbai's best cocktail parties, you have to be wearing not glittery Western-inspired tube dresses and leggings, but khadi - the simple homespun weave that was championed by Gandhi in the 1930s to boost the rural economy and give India a sense of nationalist pride during the fight for independence. |
| Apart from the beauty of the fabric, whose history in India goes back well over 5,000 years, Mukherjee's reasoning is simple. | Apart from the beauty of the fabric, whose history in India goes back well over 5,000 years, Mukherjee's reasoning is simple. |
| He finds it odd that Indian designers tend to steer clear of local hand-woven fabrics. | He finds it odd that Indian designers tend to steer clear of local hand-woven fabrics. |
| Khadi, he says, is refined, sophisticated, eco-friendly and comfortable, and has too long been regarded as the poor man's fabric. | Khadi, he says, is refined, sophisticated, eco-friendly and comfortable, and has too long been regarded as the poor man's fabric. |
| To wear it is a sign of being well-dressed and cultured. | To wear it is a sign of being well-dressed and cultured. |
| Best of all, in his view, it should help India's rural craftsmen and women to share in the country's growing wealth and economy. | Best of all, in his view, it should help India's rural craftsmen and women to share in the country's growing wealth and economy. |
| Wooing Bollywood | Wooing Bollywood |
| Given that the fashionable elite will spend thousands of rupees on his homespun saris, and that new collections leave the shop shelves in minutes flat, it's a trickle-down effect that he thinks may actually work. | Given that the fashionable elite will spend thousands of rupees on his homespun saris, and that new collections leave the shop shelves in minutes flat, it's a trickle-down effect that he thinks may actually work. |
| Mukherjee is also aware that celebrating the timeless appeal of India's national cloth means getting the message across to India's biggest media outlet - Bollywood. | Mukherjee is also aware that celebrating the timeless appeal of India's national cloth means getting the message across to India's biggest media outlet - Bollywood. |
| Increasingly, 2009 looks like the "year of khadi". | Increasingly, 2009 looks like the "year of khadi". |
| Sabyasachi Mukherjee is inspired by traditional Indian designs | Sabyasachi Mukherjee is inspired by traditional Indian designs |
| He has dressed superstar Aishwarya Rai in homespun for two films currently in production - Ravana and Guzaarish - and the actress Vidya Balan in Paa which is due to be released in November. | |
| He maintains that Bollywood has to be prised away from its fixation with polyester bling - a 30-year habit which has trickled down into street wear for ordinary Indians - and back into the cool simplicity of clothing that is healthier for the body and that film stars of the 50s and 60s enjoyed. | He maintains that Bollywood has to be prised away from its fixation with polyester bling - a 30-year habit which has trickled down into street wear for ordinary Indians - and back into the cool simplicity of clothing that is healthier for the body and that film stars of the 50s and 60s enjoyed. |
| The nostalgia may be part of the style, but Mukherjee is very much in the new wave of Indian designers - a graduate of India's National Institute of Technology and recipient of the Femina British Council/Times of India prize. | The nostalgia may be part of the style, but Mukherjee is very much in the new wave of Indian designers - a graduate of India's National Institute of Technology and recipient of the Femina British Council/Times of India prize. |
| He spent an internship with Georgina von Etzdorf in London and in 2004 showed at Milan Fashion Week. | He spent an internship with Georgina von Etzdorf in London and in 2004 showed at Milan Fashion Week. |
| 'Intellectual' | 'Intellectual' |
| He's now 32 and lives in Calcutta, where he grew up. He says he has been influenced by the beauty of Bengali textiles, the films of Satyajit Ray (notably Charulata - the 1964 Indian version of Madame Bovary) the writings of Nobel prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore, the vibrancy of Calcutta theatre and the city's on-off love affair with communism. | He's now 32 and lives in Calcutta, where he grew up. He says he has been influenced by the beauty of Bengali textiles, the films of Satyajit Ray (notably Charulata - the 1964 Indian version of Madame Bovary) the writings of Nobel prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore, the vibrancy of Calcutta theatre and the city's on-off love affair with communism. |
| Fashion writers have labelled him "intellectual", but he describes himself as a modern, practical and a socially aware businessman. | Fashion writers have labelled him "intellectual", but he describes himself as a modern, practical and a socially aware businessman. |
| His surprise hit earlier this year was the ankle-length chhotu sari | His surprise hit earlier this year was the ankle-length chhotu sari |
| It's vital to him that the rural poor share India's growing economy - a Gandhian concept and one that puts India right at the centre of being Indian. | It's vital to him that the rural poor share India's growing economy - a Gandhian concept and one that puts India right at the centre of being Indian. |
| In 2008 he set up cooperatives of rural craftswomen across India, starting with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Barasat in West Bengal. | In 2008 he set up cooperatives of rural craftswomen across India, starting with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Barasat in West Bengal. |
| Inspired by the workers' co-operative models of the Nobel prize-winning Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, Mukherjee has aimed to cut out the middlemen. | Inspired by the workers' co-operative models of the Nobel prize-winning Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, Mukherjee has aimed to cut out the middlemen. |
| Half of the money that the co-operatives earn they take home, and the other half is ploughed back into the community bank account for development. | Half of the money that the co-operatives earn they take home, and the other half is ploughed back into the community bank account for development. |
| "I am capable of taking their craft to the international level and getting them the money they deserve." | "I am capable of taking their craft to the international level and getting them the money they deserve." |
| Meanwhile at the glitzy end of the market, things couldn't be going better. | Meanwhile at the glitzy end of the market, things couldn't be going better. |
| Film stars and society hostesses wear his clothes. | Film stars and society hostesses wear his clothes. |
| Naomi Campbell is a fan, walking the catwalk in a Sabyasachi sari in March this year for a charity show at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai and then purchasing two saris for the auction. | Naomi Campbell is a fan, walking the catwalk in a Sabyasachi sari in March this year for a charity show at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai and then purchasing two saris for the auction. |
| Expensive | Expensive |
| But he has attracted criticism as well. For simple homespun, the prices are astronomical. Sabyasachi collections of khadi, cotton saris and dresses start at 6,500 rupees (£80) and rise to 100,000 rupees (£1,230) for bridal and special wear. | But he has attracted criticism as well. For simple homespun, the prices are astronomical. Sabyasachi collections of khadi, cotton saris and dresses start at 6,500 rupees (£80) and rise to 100,000 rupees (£1,230) for bridal and special wear. |
| His creations are popular with many Bollywood stars | His creations are popular with many Bollywood stars |
| High prices in a national fashion industry that the Indian Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry expects to be worth 7.5bn rupees (£93 million) by 2012 don't stop Mukherjee's shops being cleared out when new collections arrive. | High prices in a national fashion industry that the Indian Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry expects to be worth 7.5bn rupees (£93 million) by 2012 don't stop Mukherjee's shops being cleared out when new collections arrive. |
| He is big enough and interesting enough to the fashion press to forgo the shows at Mumbai, Delhi or New York fashion weeks this autumn. | He is big enough and interesting enough to the fashion press to forgo the shows at Mumbai, Delhi or New York fashion weeks this autumn. |
| He's not showing and is more likely to be found in the wild parts of Orissa or Madhya Pradesh. | He's not showing and is more likely to be found in the wild parts of Orissa or Madhya Pradesh. |
| Time is deliberately spent off the beaten track in India, looking at traditional designs and working out how he can translate them into modern catwalk clothes. | Time is deliberately spent off the beaten track in India, looking at traditional designs and working out how he can translate them into modern catwalk clothes. |
| His surprise hit earlier this year was the chhotu sari - the sari worn for hundreds of generations by women in the tribal areas that are woven to calf length for freedom of movement. | His surprise hit earlier this year was the chhotu sari - the sari worn for hundreds of generations by women in the tribal areas that are woven to calf length for freedom of movement. |
| It was, he decided, the perfect metropolitan sari for young women - long enough to give them the flowing shape, but short enough to differentiate them from their mothers and to allow them to show off their ankles and shoes. | It was, he decided, the perfect metropolitan sari for young women - long enough to give them the flowing shape, but short enough to differentiate them from their mothers and to allow them to show off their ankles and shoes. |
| Saris, Aligarh pajamas, gharara pants, lehengas - it's a long way from the Western designer gear that has flooded into the wealthier parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta. | Saris, Aligarh pajamas, gharara pants, lehengas - it's a long way from the Western designer gear that has flooded into the wealthier parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta. |
| As he told Indian Vogue last year: "I wish Indo-Western was never explored. It almost sounds like a pathetic attempt to woo your insecure Indian woman to try her hand at Western clothing. She's better off in her sari!" | As he told Indian Vogue last year: "I wish Indo-Western was never explored. It almost sounds like a pathetic attempt to woo your insecure Indian woman to try her hand at Western clothing. She's better off in her sari!" |
| Catriona Luke is a London-based writer and editor. | Catriona Luke is a London-based writer and editor. |