Sabyasachi becomes the first Indian designer to walk the red carpet at the Met Gala
The man who, of his own saying, would rather be called a tailor than a designer, created history along with his delicate and sparkling expression of the theme for Alia Bhatt.
We have for a while now celebrated Indian craftsmanship on the global couture stage. Would it be a stretch to say if Beyoncé’s worn your creation you sure have made it? She’s worn Gaurav Gupta’s work at least three times. And there’s a long list that includes Cardi B, Shakira, Fan Bingbing, Jenna Ortega, and the latest Mindy Kayling. Rahul Mishra’s creations have been seen on Zendaya, Selena Gomez, and Gigi Hadid to name a few. Sarah Jessica Parker wore Falguni Shane Peacock on the Sex and the City reboot. Jennifer Aniston wore Manish Mahotra for Murder Mystery 2. And Kim Kardashian wore Sabyasachi for a magazine shoot. Of course, this is not counting the best of the Indian glitterati who have worn all of them.
With the Met Gala, there was a lot of wonder as to which Indian designer would showcase their works, who would wear them, and how they would interpret this year’s theme—‘The Garden of Time’ inspired by J. G. Ballard’s 1962 short story by the same name. As the story goes, Count Axel and his wife live a life of luxury and beauty in a grand villa that sits between a plush garden of crystalline bloom. But the rosy picture is disturbed by a mob nearby.
Wearing a Sabyasachi creation, Alia Bhatt was her perfectly blush self in a rendition of the garden with the crystalline flowers and glass-like stems. An exaggerated train, hand embroidered with silk floss, beads, sequins, semi-precious stones, and fringed with glass beads, with a hand-crafted blouse studded with emeralds, Basra pearls, tourmalines and multi coloured sapphires completed the look. Not to forget the jewellery that was also selected from the Sabyasachi High Jewellery’s Bengal Royal collection.
But while there is much to love and celebrate about the creation, we couldn’t take our eyes off a moment that made history—the designer himself walking the red carpet, becoming the first Indian designer to do so. This in a Sabyasachi special embroidered sherwani-style coat with of course tourmalines, pearls, emeralds and diamonds from the designer’s own jewellery line.
While some took to Reddit and X to criticise his look and compare it to the likes of Bappi Lahiri; from the king of maximalism himself, this is a surreal regal signature apt to the man who has put Indian fashion on the global map in its most authentic ways and yet again walked the path many from the country will follow on.
