Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee has announced a multi-year collaboration with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, reimagining its 5,000-year global collection as handcrafted jewellery made in India. The first chapter, a high jewellery line inspired by the Byzantine Empire and its cross-cultural influences, will debut at NYFW on September 15 and retail through Sabyasachi’s global stores.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee is taking on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 5,000-year collection and turning it into jewellery made by hand in India.
The designer and the museum announced a multi-year collaboration on August 11, his first, and one of the more unique partnerships either institution has entered into. Under the partnership, Sabyasachi will draw on The Met's collection spanning art and culture from around the world and reinterpret it through the Indian craftsmanship lens.
The collaboration's first chapter is a high jewellery collection inspired by the Byzantine Empire, debuting at a runway presentation during NYFW on September 15.
The Byzantine Empire, the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire, centred in Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, from the fourth through the fifteenth centuries sat at the crossroads of continents, and became one of history's great centers of commerce, culture and artistic exchange as a result.
Over centuries, it absorbed and transformed influences from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia, as well as the civilizations of the Far East connected via the Silk Route through India, producing a visual language of unusual richness and complexity.
The Met's holdings in Late Antique and Byzantine art are among the most comprehensive in the world, encompassing monumental sculpture, mosaics, icons, metalwork, jewellery and luxury objects from across the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and West Asia and anchor the collection. Sabyasachi has pulled references from the museum's Greek & Roman, Medieval and Islamic art departments: imperial medallions, architectural ornament, ancient statuary, religious iconography.
Specific pieces reported to be in the line include an 18- and 22-karat gold wrist cuff set with garnet cabochons, drawn from a third-century Roman marble sarcophagus, and a tourmaline-and-jade tiger-claw necklace inspired by a 12th-century Byzantine casket. Every piece is being handcrafted in India.
"The Byzantine world was not defined by a single geography," Mukherjee said in the announcement. "It was shaped by the movement of people, ideas, and craftsmanship across continents including India. What fascinates me is not only Byzantium itself, but the civilizations that informed it and the extraordinary artistic dialogue that emerged from interactions through trade. I find similarities to my home, Calcutta, itself a commercial hub influenced by trade and exchange."
Stephen Mannello, The Met's Head of Retail and Global Licensing, framed the tie-up as a way to give historical objects new visibility: "Engaging with Sabyasachi and his team allows us to view works from antiquity through a new lens, shining a spotlight on stories of the past through his creative viewpoint."
Every piece in the collection is being conceived, developed and handcrafted in India by Sabyasachi's network of master artisans — a dialogue between the Met's holdings and one of the world's richest living craft traditions. For Sabyasachi, the partnership marks a deeper engagement with historic works of art, and a recognition of India's place in that history not as an emerging participant, but as one of its enduring authors.
The collection debuts at a NYFW presentation on September 15, and will be available at Sabyasachi's flagship at 160 Christopher Street in New York's West Village, other global Sabyasachi stores, and select specialty retailers worldwide.