Sabyasachi joins forces with The Met for his biggest New York move yet |

Sabyasachi Mukherjee is heading back to New York, and this time, he’s bringing The Metropolitan Museum of Art into the story.Nearly two decades after his first New York runway show, the Indian designer will return to New York Fashion Week on September 15, 2026, with the first chapter of a multiyear collaboration with The Met. The debut will focus on fine jewellery, drawing from the museum’s vast collection of art and material culture.For Sabyasachi, the project is about more than looking back. It’s about showing how history can keep changing shape as it moves across cultures and generations.History does not exist in fragments. It exists in a continuum.In collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and inspired by 5,000 years of art and history, the collection looks at cultural exchange through the lens of the Byzantine Empire. Historic motifs and design references are reworked into high jewellery, turning pieces rooted in the past into modern heirlooms.The collection will launch during New York Fashion Week in September 2026.The choice of the Byzantine Empire is particularly fitting for a project built around cultural exchange. For centuries, ideas, materials, techniques and symbols travelled across borders through trade and movement, picking up new meanings along the way.Sabyasachi has built much of his own design language around that same idea. His work often brings together Indian craftsmanship, architecture, textiles, jewellery and art with references from elsewhere, creating something that feels rooted without being tied to a single moment in history.And now, that approach is being taken into one of the world’s most influential museums.The Met collaboration will begin with high jewellery, while future chapters are expected to expand into jewellery, accessories and clothing. The debut collection will sit alongside Sabyasachi’s cross-seasonal ready-to-wear and accessories, giving the designer a chance to present his wider vision during one of fashion’s biggest global weeks.This return to New York comes at a very different point in Sabyasachi’s career.When he first showed in the city in 2006, the designer was still building his reputation outside India. Nearly two decades later, the Sabyasachi name has become closely associated with Indian luxury, from couture and bridalwear to jewellery, accessories and ready-to-wear.The brand has also established a permanent presence in New York, making the city a natural setting for its next chapter.But the Met collaboration adds another layer.Rather than presenting Indian luxury as something separate from the wider history of global design, Sabyasachi is placing it within a much larger story of movement, exchange and influence.That may be the real point of his return.The September show isn’t simply about coming back to a city he once left. It’s about showing how an Indian luxury house can look at history, reinterpret it and create something that belongs to the present.