When Heritage Meets Privilege

Posted by Sonia Seehra on May 4, 2025

Author’s Note: My reflections in this piece are offered with deep respect for the Sabyasachi brand’s artistry and vision, which I have long admired (you don’t have to scroll far on my Instagram page to see). This is not intended as an accusation or condemnation, but rather as an invitation to reflect on the complex intersections between heritage, history, and global luxury. I share these thoughts in the spirit of conversation, not criticism, honoring both the beauty we celebrate and the responsibility it asks of us.

Luxury, when done well, is about more than beautiful fabrics or fine craftsmanship. It’s about storytelling, preserving memory, honoring culture, and giving history a place in the present. Few brands have embodied this idea as richly as Sabyasachi (the only other one I can think of is Sonia Seehra). The brand’s work has long been synonymous with a reverence for Indian tradition, a deep commitment to craft, and a resistance to the flattening forces of globalization. Their pieces feel less like clothing and more like heirlooms- tangible echoes of a living, breathing heritage. Recently, I found myself reflecting deeply on what it means for brands like Sabyasachi to rise onto the global stage, especially in moments where the intersections of heritage, history, and privilege become more visible. And so, when photos surfaced of Maye Musk, (mother of Elon Musk) wearing Sabyasachi for her 77th birthday celebration in Mumbai, it felt like a moment that asked for more than admiration. It demanded reflection.

A Brand Built on Memory

Sabyasachi Mukherjee, has built a brand that prides itself on preserving dying crafts, centering artisans, and telling stories rooted in historical authenticity. The brand’s ethos has often been framed as a direct response to the cultural erasure caused by colonialism and commercialization, a defiant act of remembering. At its best, Sabyasachi isn’t just selling garments; it’s offering a conversation between past and present, between the silent hands of history and the visible bodies of today. Yet global recognition also comes with its own questions: about who heritage is shared with, how it is worn, and what responsibilities come with global influence. Which is why this moment, this “collaboration”, feels more complicated than it first appeared.

The Complexities We Carry

Luxury today travels across borders faster than ever, but history travels with it too. It’s not always simple; the people who wear these pieces may come from backgrounds tied, directly or indirectly, to systems that once marginalized or exploited the very cultures luxury now celebrates. So it’s not so much about blame, as it is about awareness, about honoring the full weight of the traditions we lift up, even as we move forward.

This tension feels even sharper when we consider how carefully Sabyasachi, as a brand, has built its jewelry collections around ethically sourced gems, making a point to distance itself from exploitative mining practices.
It’s a powerful, principled stand, insisting that the beauty we celebrate should not come from suffering we ignore. And yet, it raises a quiet, necessary question:

If we are so careful about sourcing our materials ethically, should we not also be thoughtful about the histories and narratives we weave into the fabric of our brand?

The Unspoken Histories Behind the Glamor

Maye Musk’s life story, like that of many public figures, is carefully curated for the public eye, but when you dig deeper, history lingers beyond curation. The Musk family's early affluence was shaped during South Africa’s apartheid era, a system of violent racial segregation that advantaged white families while brutally oppressing the Black majority. Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, has claimed involvement with an emerald mine during that time. Although details and narratives have shifted over the years, it's difficult to separate the family's early prosperity from the broader context of apartheid South Africa, where systemic advantages were afforded to white families. Maye Musk herself has faced criticism for spreading misinformation during election cycles and for controversial comments related to race. To date, public discourse from Maye Musk has rarely addressed the complex historical context of South Africa during apartheid or acknowledged the systemic advantages that shaped her family's opportunities.

It’s not about punishing individuals for their ancestors' sins. But when a brand like Sabyasachi, that chooses to position themself in the luxury market using narratives of survival, identity, and post-colonial pride, lends its artistry to beneficiaries of historical oppression without acknowledgment, it creates a jarring dissonance.

What This Moment Reveals:

This isn’t about Maye Musk as a person. It’s about what she, consciously or not, represents in this context:

The beneficiaries of colonial extraction.
The global elite, for whom heritage can become an accessory rather than a responsibility.
The uneasy merger between old-world oppression and new-world glamour.
In trying to achieve international fame, brands often end up appeasing Western wealth and whiteness, even when it betrays their own roots.
Brands like Sabyasachi seem to want to have it both ways: "We honor the struggles of the past... but we'll also dress the rich beneficiaries of those struggles without comment."

When a garment born from centuries of Indian resilience is casually worn by someone whose family profited from a system not unlike colonialism itself, it’s no longer just a dress. It becomes a question of:

Whose history are we honoring?
Whose histories are we willing to forget when the cameras start flashing?
If you build a brand on preserving cultural memory, why erase memory when it’s inconvenient?
Who is luxury for, and at what cost?
Where will brands draw the line, or will they not? Afterall, business is just business, right?

Sabyasachi had, and still has, an opportunity to show the world that heritage luxury can mean something deeper than aspirational global fame. That dressing the world’s rich and famous need not come at the expense of remembering the millions whose labor, stories, and suffering built the very culture being sold.

A Different Way Forward

Had this moment been framed differently (let’s entertain the thought), maybe centering the artisans, acknowledging the complexity of dressing someone like Maye Musk, or even styling her with a deliberate humility, it could have been a powerful cultural commentary rather than a quiet contradiction. Luxury has the capacity to hold contradictions. But contradictions, when left unspoken, don't disappear. Instead they fester into something that looks a lot like complicity. This brand had the upper hand, but they gave it away.

Luxury and Responsibility

As South Asian craftsmanship, fashion, and culture rise on the global stage, the stakes get higher. Heritage brands face an uncomfortable choice:

Chase global validation at the cost of moral clarity,
Or insist that true luxury honors not just beauty, but memory and responsibility.

Sabyasachi’s garments are stunning, just as much as the brand’s storytelling. They always have been and it is undeniably the reason why it's now well-settled on the global stage. But in a world where history is often treated as background noise to aspiration, perhaps the true mark of luxury is not just who wears the garment, but how consciously it is worn.

Because true heritage deserves more than admiration.
It deserves accountability.

Dreams for the Future of Heritage Fashion

I write these reflections not as criticism, but as hope. Hope that the global future of South Asian luxury remains rooted in deep memory, in thoughtful choices, and in a commitment to telling full, honest stories. Sabyasachi’s work has always made me believe that fashion can carry not just beauty, but meaning. As someone who wants to see greater inclusivity in fashion, especially as a disabled designer/ artist myself, I look forward to the day when global heritage brands incorporate even more voices, histories, and bodies into their storytelling.

We are entering a time where the traditional idea of luxury, built on scarcity, spectacle, and status, is slowly losing its grip. Now in its place, a quieter luxury is beginning to emerge: rooted in memory,in intention, in the hands of the maker. A luxury that isn’t mass-produced for fame or mass-marketed for validation, but created slowly, thoughtfully, and meaningfully.

Maybe the true future of heritage should not be about who can wear it, but about how it’s made, and why.

Because true heritage doesn’t just survive by being worn.
It survives by being remembered for what it truly is.