The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sabyasachi have announced a multi-year collaboration, bringing together one of the world’s most expansive cultural collections with one of India’s leading luxury houses. At its core, the partnership is about creativity, craftsmanship, and the ability of historic works of art to inform contemporary design.
The opportunity for Sabyasachi opens a new relationship with The Met’s collection of more than 5,000 years of art and culture. Over the course of the collaboration, the designer will draw from select objects and their histories, translating them through the lens of Indian craftsmanship. While the first chapter centers on high jewellery, future installments will extend into accessories and clothing, creating an ongoing exchange between works from around the world and India’s living craft traditions.
“This collaboration is about engaging with one of the world’s great collections of art and the opportunity to reinterpret centuries of creativity through contemporary design,” said Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Founder and Creative Director of Sabyasachi.
Looking to the Byzantine Empire
Portrait courtesy of Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
Courtesy of The Met and Sabyasachi.
The inaugural chapter looks to the Byzantine Empire, the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire that was centered in Constantinople—modern-day Istanbul—from the fourth through fifteenth centuries. Rather than approaching the period as a single historical reference, Sabyasachi has looked across The Met’s holdings for the objects, motifs, materials, and techniques that reveal the breadth of Byzantine influence.
Drawing from the Museum’s departments of Greek & Roman, Medieval, and Islamic Art, the resulting high jewelry collection considers imperial medallions, architectural adornments, ancient statuary, stonework, religious iconography, and other objects of antiquity as points of departure. In Sabyasachi’s hands, these references move from the museum case into a contemporary vocabulary of jewels—one rooted in the grandeur and visual complexity of the past while distinctly informed by India’s own extraordinary history of ornament and making.
That exchange is perhaps the most compelling element of the partnership. Sabyasachi is not approaching The Met’s collection as a static archive to be replicated. Instead, the collaboration recognizes historic art as an active source of creative dialogue, connecting centuries-old objects with techniques and knowledge that continue to be practiced today.
For the house, it also represents a deeper engagement with the history of art itself. Historic works have long served as reference points for artists and designers, but this project places particular emphasis on India’s role within that history—not as a participant in the worlds of art, craftsmanship, and luxury, but as one of their leaders.
Crafted in India, Presented in New York
Courtesy of The Met and Sabyasachi.
Courtesy of The Met and Sabyasachi.
Every piece in the inaugural collection will be conceived, developed, and handcrafted in India through Sabyasachi’s network of master artisans. That distinction is important. The collection’s relationship with The Met does not end with inspiration; it continues through the process of making, bringing the museum’s objects into conversation with a living ecosystem of Indian craftsmanship.
Both the museum and the fashion brand are institutions with such strong relationships to cultural memory. The Met’s collection spans continents and millennia, offering a vast record of human creativity. Sabyasachi, meanwhile, has built a contemporary house deeply informed by India’s visual and material heritage, from its textiles and jewellery traditions to its architecture, painting, and decorative arts. Together, the two are considering what happens when those histories are not simply preserved, but reinterpreted.
The Byzantine focus also offers an expansive starting point. With its intersections of Roman, Greek, Christian, and Islamic cultures, the empire was itself shaped by movement and cultural exchange. Its art and architecture carried ideas across regions, influencing forms of ornament, religious imagery, craftsmanship, and design well beyond Constantinople. By looking at these objects through an Indian craft lens, Sabyasachi introduces another layer to an already complex history of cultural convergence.
The collection will make its debut during New York Fashion Week on September 15, when Sabyasachi will unveil the high jewelry pieces in a runway presentation. Following the presentation, the collection will be available at the Sabyasachi flagship at 160 Christopher Street in the city’s West Village, as well as at the house’s other global stores and select specialty retailers worldwide.
More than a single jewellery collection, the launch marks the beginning of a longer conversation. As the collaboration moves into future chapters spanning jewellery, accessories, and clothing, The Met’s encyclopedic collection will continue to serve as a point of departure for Sabyasachi’s contemporary practice.
“This collaboration is about engaging with one of the world’s great collections of art…”
Sabyasachi Mukherjee
Courtesy of The Met and Sabyasachi.
Courtesy of The Met and Sabyasachi.
