For 25 Years of Sabyasachi, the house’s 25th-anniversary show in Mumbai, we translated the nostalgia of old-world Calcutta into a contemporary luxury setting for a global audience. Research into North Calcutta heritage homes and archival imagery guided an Indo-European colonial lighting language of ornate chandeliers, wall lamps, and lanterns, held together by the warm glow of incandescent and halogen light. The design used 2700K lamps, locally sourced fixtures, artisanal ageing, and layered composition across interiors, corridors, facades and streetscapes. Custom patina, surface wear, selective breakage, dimming, and timed cues transformed this grandeur into an atmosphere that felt lived-in, timeworn, and faintly eerie, while maintaining technical precision and show functionality. Designed for a temporary event, the project considered afterlife from the start: reusable fixtures passed to production teams, while aged pieces entered secondary markets for upcycling and recycling.
