What is ‘bespoke’?

In the simplest of terms it means something has been customised to fit the specifications of the buyer. While this logic can apply to absolutely anything in the consumerism roulette, most directly, it refers to the fashion industry – clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery – pretty much any facet you can conceive of. And in a world where high-profile events, red carpets and magazine shoots casually make up everyday itineraries, custom – and who’s doing it – is less of a nip and tuck and more of a statement. Wearing custom, especially when it comes to couture says something more than what pap photos catch. It’s an assertion of exclusivity and for decades on end has been honoured and encouraged as such.

Not for Sabyasachi though. He’s doesn’t bow down to the societal constructs of fashion. At the opening of his flagship store in New Delhi, during a casual huddle with those previewing the heritage-clad otherworldly space, the designer dismissed the entire point of custom couture, taking a controversial, but though-provoking stance.

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In a glimpse shared by Anannya Sarkar, the designer asks, “Who decides what is couture?”, adding, “Let me be very honest with you about two things. One of the reasons I don’t dress a lot of celebrities is because I can’t be bothered with doing custom because when you are doing something custom, it means the client doesn’t have confidence. They want to show this status by showing exclusivity.” He proceeds to dismantle the notion of what it means to be a ‘star’, or in non-red carpet terms, a ‘confident dresser’, taking ‘what’ they’re wearing completely out of the equation: “…a real star or a real confident dresser can pick up something from a rack that 500 other people have access to and wear it differently and make it their own. Because if you are going to wear custom, it really means you have no individual style.” Sabyasachi’s stance then is also telling of the fact why you won’t see even the biggest of stars casually strutting around their nth red carpet appearance in a Sabya: “I don’t do a lot of red carpet dressing because everybody wants custom and I said ‘If my clothes are not good enough for you to wear from the rack then please don’t wear them.’ “

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For all the hullabaloo the ‘custom’ tag has demanded over the years, Sabyasachi dismantles its aura with a very matter-of-factly debate – that of style versus fashion – and he uses pop culture queen and icon Madonna to make his point: “Come one, Madonna became an icon by wearing pantyhose and fish-net stockings and ripped T-shirts. She didn’t have to go and get custom clothing. I said, ‘if you’re a real fashion rock star you can wear Levi’s and H&M and still make it your own, make it look wonderful. I think all the people that (I) have admired in history are stylish – they are not fashionable – because fashion is more like a community thing.”

Long story short: going ‘custom’ with your already precious couture isn’t all that – and this comes, right from the horse’s mouth.