“In 2013, Sabyasachi envisioned Opium—a glamorous tale tinged with the melancholy of the forbidden. A secret corridor linking North Calcutta and South Shanghai: two ports strung together by culture and trade, music and smoke.

Twelve years later, we present a revival of this collection from the Sabyasachi archives.”

"Glamour is a condition, not a commodity."

THE TROPICAL MINAUDIÈRE

Cane and rattan, gilded pillars, tropical fruit and washed linen. A heady mix of unassuming hedonism and rustic glamour. That's Calcutta.

Opium was about the shimmer of something already slipping away, a reminder of empires and the rooms where empires ended.

THE NANI

“My mother’s mother, my grandmother, was an exceptional woman and one of my greatest influences. She was exuberant, excessive and an absolute maximalist. She was never without her potli, a draw string pouch lined with a delicious pomegranate pink velvet. We spent the sweltering summer holidays together, and I remember her dipping into her handbag to buy us all kind of treats—ice-lollies, turmeric laced popcorn and matinee movies at the cinema.”

Smoke hanging in a room, perfume lingering long after she’s walked away, memories of those who wanted to belong but never could, these are the dragons chased by Opium.

The Music rooms of North Calcutta and South Shanghai were dimly lit and upholstered in velvet, full of longing and exhaustion. Orientalist dreams filtered through a haze of sadness and memory for those who wanted to belong but never could.