DLF Emporio, New Delhi | Source: DLF

MUMBAI, India — According to Forbes, India has the fastest-growing population of millionaires in the world. But for Western luxury brands operating in the country, grabbing a piece of the market has proven more difficult than anticipated and many are in the process of re-conceiving their India strategies.

Part of the problem is that Western luxury brands don’t seem to understand Indian consumers. When they first entered India, they created splashy advertising campaigns targeting the old money elite. But the results were poor, largely because this customer segment consists of frequent international travelers who overwhelmingly prefer the experience of purchasing Western luxury goods abroad, where brands offer them wider choice, better service and more competitive pricing than what’s currently available inside India.

In response, brands are starting to refocus on new pockets of wealth emerging in regional hubs across the country. But a private report on luxury in India produced by management consultants AT Kearney and The Economic Times revealed that the newly affluent lack sufficient knowledge and awareness of luxury brands to drive significant sales. Furthermore, the current strategy of establishing a large retail footprint supported by traditional mass marketing is not working.

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A piece from the Battle Royal collection by littleshilpa

We’re wrapping up BoF India Fashion Week with the wonderful story of Shilpa Chavan, a Bombay milliner whose sophisticated urban headdresses have caught the attention of Style.com and ended up at the AlSabah Art & Design Gallery in Kuwait.

MUMBAI, India — There’s no doubt that India is a treasure chest of craft and creativity. Indeed, these were the two words most heard at the recently concluded IHT conference in New Delhi, after the two words in the program title: “Sustainable Luxury”.

While the images conjured up by the word craft are often of weavers in villages or hand embroiderers in factories, to prove that contemporary craft is alive and kicking in urban India, meet Shilpa Chavan—the maverick milliner of Mumbai and proprietor of littleshilpa, her nickname and brand.

Littleshilpa is a case in point of incredible Indian creativity in need of a bit of strategic guidance and fashion business savvy. But in the subcontinent’s burgeoning fashion industry, executives with grounded commercial experience are few and far between. And so the question becomes, how does India commercialise its craft and creativity?

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Cover of the premier issue of GQ India, courtesy of GQ

On Day Three of India Fashion Week on BoF, we take a look at the burgeoning menswear market, which is increasing in size, but also sophistication.

MUMBAI, India — We are witnessing a seismic shift in the menswear industry in India today. Indeed, the Indian man has finally come into his own. In a sartorial sense, he knows what he wants, isn’t afraid to experiment, and is willing to spend on the best. He has a deeper appreciation and understanding of quality and enduring style.

The market has responded to his debut with gusto. The arrival of international luxury menswear brands, an ever-increasing choice of men’s glossy magazine titles seeking advertising opportunities, and a growing number of Indian fashion designers that specialise in menswear, is evidence of this.

But the market has also been made more complicated and challenging given the economic downturn. So where do we find the modern Indian male now?

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Dries Van Noten, courtesy of IHT

It’s day two of the BoF India Fashion Week and today we turn our attention to Sustainable Luxury, the theme of the most recent IHT Luxury Conference, held this year in India, home of age-old craftsmanship and artisanale traditions.

NEW DELHI, India — “What does an economic collapse and a terrorist attack have to do with sustainable luxury?” Everything, strategist and author Jem Bendell suggested as he addressed the attendees of the International Herald Tribune’s annual conference on Luxury held last week.

The event was re-scheduled from December of last year, due to the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. The topic for this year’s conference was Sustainable Luxury—a phrase whose meaning has expanded to include more than just corporate social responsibility (CSR). The global economic downturn has precipitated a major shift in both consumer behaviour and expectations, affecting the bottom line of many luxury brands and calling into question the sustainability of the sector itself.

As Suzy Menkes, Fashion Editor of the IHT, noted in her opening address, “these are tough, rough times in the luxury world… and those sensitive to the shifting mood doubt that the 15 years of expansive growth can return in the same heady, crazy way”.

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Behind the scenes at Wills India Fashion Week, courtesy of PR Pundit

This week on The Business of Fashion we welcome several guest contributors to give us the scoop on recent fashion weeks, the IHT conference and local market trends in India. We’re calling it our own India Fashion Week, but as you’ll see, that might be the last thing India needs.

NEW DELHI, India — Bollywood, Cricket and Fashion. Everyday these three topics bring to life the popular culture pages of India’s leading national newspapers, The Times of India and Hindustan Times. And of this colourful ménage à trois, fashion is the relative newcomer, but is growing fast.

In the last year alone, the local scene has exploded to include three major prêt-a-porter fashion weeks, a bridal couture week, a regional fashion week in Kolkata, a proposed men’s fashion week and enough corporate sponsors to power each one. Multi-brand fashion boutiques and über-luxe malls featuring international brands have also recently opened. Local fashion media has reached critical mass, with Harper’s Bazaar, which launched an Indian edition last month, Vogue India, and countless other magazines all aimed at India’s it-bag aspiring middle classes.

But, let’s start at the very beginning, to see how it all began.

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Priya Kishore, a beacon for Bombay's new creative elite, courtesy of Bombay Electric

NEW DELHI, India – When Priya Kishore and Bombay Electric hit Mumbai a few years ago, Mumbaikars didn’t know what was coming. No sooner had Kishore arrived than she became a beacon for Bombay’s new creative elite – one with a rightful place on the world stage.

A friend while she lived in London, Priya always had this wonderful creative streak, dressed in quirky clothes and popping colours. No wonder Mumbai has taken to her so well – she shares her love for colour with many of the denizens of India’s most populous city.

Of course, all hasn’t been rosy of late. With a terrorist siege that lasted well over three day, Indians have been in the streets, exercising their rights, in this, the largest democracy in the world.

But life goes on. Priya just opened Pocket Electric, India’s first pop-up store in New Delhi. Could she be testing the grounds for a Delhi invasion? We reached her there to find out more in our latest CEO Talk, a BoF Exclusive. … Continue Reading

LONDON, United Kingdom and MUMBAI, India – Over dinner at Milan Fashion Week last February, I got to talking to Bandana Tewari, Fashion Features Director of Vogue India, about the renewed energy in London fashion. Naturally, her first question was what Indian designers were doing to contribute to the London scene, particularly as India continues to emerge for a centre for world-class design.

The result of our conversation is this Vogue India article on Indian designers based in London. While writing the piece, I got to know three Indian designers with three amazing stories, each of which started in India and subsequently took them all over the world, until they finally ended up in London.

Between them, Ashish Gupta, Saloni Lodha and Aseef Vaza have lived and worked in Toronto, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Florence, Paris and New York — bringing quintessentially cosmopolitan energy to London’s design and fashion community.

MUMBAI, India and SHANGHAI, China – If it’s the Monday of Milan Fashion Week, it also means that the Financial Times has published its regular supplement on The Business of Fashion. We’re a couple of days late, so in case you missed it, here is a link to a PDF of the entire supplement available on the FT’s Partnership Publishing site.

Amongst the best reads are a fascinating article by Josh Sims featuring a brand that I have come to know well in recent times, Clemens en August. Founder Alexander Brenninkmeijer ably describes the counter-intuitive, but successful business model that underpins this innovative company. Another article, on A Bathing Ape, asserts that the Japanese streetwear company has a 98% sell-through on its goods and suggests they might be looking for an investor.

I also made my own contribution to the supplement in an article exploring the short- and longer-term potential of the Indian luxury market. I was fortunate to speak to Yves Carcelle of Louis Vuitton, Patrick Thomas of Hermes, Amin Jaffer of Christies, Mohan Murjani of the Murjani Group, Priya Tanna of Vogue India and the French jewelry designer Marie Helene de Taillac, to get their expert points of view from inside and outside the sub-continent.

So what’s the quick verdict? Is India going to be the next China? The answer appears to be ‘not just yet’.

One look at the current advertising campaign for Hermès, and it’s clear that India is on the radar screen of Western luxury brands. But this is not a new phenomenon. At the recent Walpole Seminar on China & India, Dr. Amin Jaffer, International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s, described the long relationship that India has had with European luxury brands, dating back to the late 1800’s.

Today, however, things aren’t as straightforward. Other Walpole seminar participants like Mohan Murjani (of the Murjani Group – partners to Jimmy Choo, Gucci and Bottega Veneta in India) also revealed that new luxury entrants in India are up against strong domestic players, labyrinthine bureaucracy, and inconsistent infrastructure. Break-even will take longer than some might have hoped.

On the Internet side, despite the naturally chatty and curious Indian nature, things have also been very slow to develop.  I explored this topic in an article in Luxeletter, an online publication from the Murjani Group, covering the luxury industry in India.

The entire article is republished below.

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While China may have the unyielding focus of many Western luxury brands today, many players are already beginning to set their sights on India for the next wave of expansion. But, as global luxury players begin to tentatively test these Indian waters, they are finding that India, which has its own vibrant indigenous cultural scene, may require a different expansion strategy altogether.

With Bollywood stars and local Cricket legends that get more attention in India than their Western cultural equivalents, there is no blank canvas in India upon which to paint Western tastes. Locals on the streets of Shanghai and Beijing have, by and large, adopted Western dress, but those in Delhi and Mumbai  are more likely to fuse East and West; a Tarun Tahiliani kameez paired with Seven for all Mankind jeans, Jimmy Choos and a Gucci bag or a Sabyasachi sari paired with Harry Winston jewels and Bottega Veneta minaudiere.

For international luxury brands, therefore, conquering the Indian market will require a lot more than a cut and paste — and, there is some formidable local talent to contend with.

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