Sabyasachi at Bergdorf Shop 2-21 (2).jpg

Returning in Feb to Bergdorf Goodman, Sabyasachi Mukherjee Finds New Home in New York

Designer and artisan visionary Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s much publicized investment deal with Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Limited came to fruition in the first week of February 2021.

As fashion world celebrated the 51 percent controlling investment worth about $55 million, the couturier announced that on February 18, he would launch his second exclusive collaboration with New York-based luxury department store, Bergdorf Goodman.

“We had a very good first session at Bergdorf where we sold close to $2.5 million of jewellery. Realising the power of the brand in America, Bergdorf invited me to do a second round. I would like to see more Indian designers going to the west and selling their clothing to the big Indian diaspora, which can be found everywhere. It’s a testament to the power of the Indian consumer. By selling Indian clothes, Bergdorf is raising the bar on inclusivity,” Mukherjee told Vogue India’s Akanksha Kamath over a late night Zoom call.

Now members of the Indian diaspora, and Sabyasachi fans in North America will be happy to know that the second Bergdorf Goodman collection will also offer clothing, shawls and scarves, and accessories and a new line of bags, in addition to its fine jewelery.

Japanese rose growers have achieved the unattainable, and they’re not shy about proclaiming their brilliance and good fortune. The ‘blue rose’ (yes, it looks mauve or purple to us also) will be for sale in both the US and Canada this fall, writes Wired.

Named ‘Applause’, the rose has been genetically modified to synthesize delphinidin, a pigment that’s found in most blue flowers. Researchers at the Suntory laboratory have worked for 20 years on ‘Applause’ which was first released in Tokyo in 2009.

Because they have eluded the best of rose growers for centuries, blue roses have a near mythic quality that’s associated with unrequited love or a quest for the impossible. As is so often the case in life, the solution to breeding a spectacular blue rose was an unassuming, delphinidin-producing gene from a simple pansy.

The pansy’s genetic pedigree became a true Cinderella story, when she hooked up with an Old Garden ‘Cadinal de Richelieu’ rose. After its Japan debut, ‘Applause’ sold for ten times the price of an ordinary rose.

Perk up girls; most of us won’t be able to afford the blue rose anyway.

NYC Low Line?

The Renderings for the Delancey Underground Park on the Lower East Side New York Magazine

Three urban entrepreneurs—James Ramsey, a satellite engineer turned architect; Dan Barasch, an executive at the technology think tank PopTech; and the pedigreed money manager R. Boykin Curry IV have a big idea.