The Mumbai-based designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee hosted a launch party Tuesday night in his expansive Christopher Street store to help celebrate “The Great Elephant Migration” art installation.
Carolina Herrera, Martha Stewart, Nina Garcia, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslovia, and the “Real Housewives of New York” star Jessel Taank turned up for the event, which the designer held with help from the Elephant Family USA. Other design-focused guests circulating through the warren of rooms in the overelaborate boutique included Peter Som, Maxwell Osborne, Jonathan Cohen, Waris Ahluwalia, Fern Mallis and Antony Todd.
There was plenty of conversation about elephants, due partially to one of the 100 life-size Indian elephant sculptures from “The Great Elephant Migration” being stationed just outside the store’s front door. The global fundraising adventure started in Newport, R.I., last month and it will include stops in Miami (on the beach during Art Basel), Jackson Hole, Wyo., Los Angeles and other locales. Made of lantana, which looks similar to wicker, the elephants are offered in four sizes and are designed for gardens, schools, estates and other roomy environs. The effort features 100 life-size Indian elephant sculptures traveling around the world to promote peaceful human-wildlife coexistence. Prices range from $8,000 for a life-size baby elephant to $22,000 for a tusker. The money that is being raised will be used for human-wildlife coexistence projects and to protect migratory animals through the nonprofit the Elephant Family.
Love, Brand & Co. is the official retail partner for “The Great Elephant Migration 2024.”
Having supported the nonprofit for 10 years, Sabyasachi said, “They are like family to me. It’s a very personal relationship.”
The organization’s Ruth Ganesh said she could “not even get the words out to [adequately] explain how many wonderful remarks their have been on Instagram and all of the socials [about the installation]. We’ve had hundreds of people writing to us wanting to buy elephants. We aim to sell 1,000 and to raise $10 million for all of these conservation projects that help when animals overlap with humans.”
She attributed the appeal of elephant sculptures to “people’s ability to sense the animals’ presence, wonder and awe that you feel with something so big and so intelligent, but that is so gentle.”
Ayesha Shand, whose late father Mark cofounded the Elephant Family in 2002, said placing the herd of sculptures in such a commercial area will hopefully make people realize “how challenging coexisting with wildlife is, and how important it is to support causes that enable this coexistence.” But more than anything, the amount of joy that the herd brings to people has surprised her. “Unlike many installations, the herd is not polarizing. It doesn’t appeal to just one type of person. It seems to bring smiles to everyone’s faces,” she said. “To me it is a reminder of my father and Ruth Ganesh’s amazing transformation of his legacy.”
Some of Monday night’s designer-loving guests chatted about the other elephants in the room: New York Fashion Week. Sabyasachi said he was very excited that “a lot of important designers are starting to show here again like Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier. I think there is going to be a big resurgence. It’s wonderful to see that.”
Although India’s leading designer plans to show one day in New York, he has not set a timetable. “I’m too nervous. But I’ll get there.”
