New Delhi, Aug. 28 -- Sabyasachi Mukherjee called himself a "businessman" five times during the course of this interview. Not once a designer. Perhaps unsurprising, given his ambition to build a "global clothing brand that outlasts" him. More than a year has passed since Kolkata-based Mukherjee introduced a new silhouette-a deliberate choice, he tells Lounge, as he moves towards building a business that extends well beyond clothes. He has expanded further into jewellery and has sunglasses, footwear, leather goods and make-up in the works.

His multi-year collaboration with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, or The Met, only underlines this ambition. Since 2019, the Met has pursued short-term collaborations with brands such as Band-Aid...