Our Story

The Beginning

Sayantan Sarkar's journey began not on the runway, but on the factory floor. After graduating from NIFT Kolkata in 1999 and cutting his teeth as a senior merchandiser in knitwear exports, he founded his own production house in 2003 — supplying T-shirts and kidswear to domestic and export markets, eventually running an in-house workshop of over sixty skilled workers.

Building the Label

But it was a deeper calling that would define his name. In 2007, Sayantan launched his couture label, SayantanSarkar — a return to the villages and weaving clusters of Bengal, in search of the region's disappearing craft. Batik prints, self-developed Jamdani weaves, unusual block prints, rare fabric blends: he began building a label that fused contemporary silhouette with the textile language of traditional India, for both men and women, prêt and couture.

A Journey Through Craft

That pursuit took him far beyond the studio. He represented Indian Khadi at Bangladesh's first-ever Khadi Festival, stood among India's delegates at an Indo-Italian trade meet in Rome and Milan, and signed on with the Ministry of Textiles to train weavers and artisans across clusters in Cooch Behar and Udaynarayanpur, Howrah — reviving fabrics like Gamcha and Khadi that would later walk the ramp at Lakmé Fashion Week. His collections have shown across multiple seasons at Lakmé Fashion Week, from Children of War, a suiting line born from Katwa's zari-khadi weaves, to a Usha Silai collaboration that trained women artisans of South 24 Parganas for a sustainable capsule collection.

Recognition

His work has found its way onto some of India's most recognised names — Vidya Balan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan, Shahid Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin, and Paoli Dam, whose red-and-white Dhakai Jamdani saree turned heads on the Cannes red carpet.

The Next Chapter

In 2023, after two decades of running production at scale, Sayantan made a deliberate shift — closing his manufacturing floor to focus on strategic design consultancy, helping knitwear start-ups navigate everything from sourcing to quality assurance. And in 2026, the story came full circle: a relaunch of his sustainable streetwear line — first shown at Lakmé Fashion Week — now live as a pan-India e-commerce label, built entirely from indigenous handloom textiles.

Twenty-five years in, Sayantan Sarkar's work still asks the same question it started with: how do you carry heritage forward without leaving it behind?