India on global luxury brands' seduction spree
Mar 30, 2007 - 1:29:36 PM
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Thus, whether it is seeking, probing, or just networking, the luxury conference will serve to throw up the untapped potential of India's lifestyle sector.
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By Ruchita Sharma Bharadwaj, IANS,
[RxPG] New Delhi, March 30 - Global luxury brand czars have descended here for a weekend soiree and dialogue aimed at understanding India's market potential for the creme de la creme of all that is opulent and chic.
The 'Hindustan Times Mint Luxury Conference - India Captivating the World' brings together international luxury brands and their Indian design sourcing houses, as also Indian designers, master franchisees, small store retailers hoteliers, recruiters, consultants, and realtors for what is seen as a seduction of the upper end market here.
The Hindustan Times had forayed into this affluent space last year with its debut conference in Mumbai. Now, the newspaper that has tied up with the Asian Wall Street Journal and launched its Mint financial paper, has once again stepped forward to push Brand India - with a luxury edge.
The notes of the seduction are very well pronounced this year with topics like 'India as a luxury destination', and 'The future of India and new markets' encompassing a broad sweep of how European luxury brands can look at India favourably, notwithstanding the lack of the High Street concept in this country.
What it comes down to is a search for a deeper meaning and relevance of the Indian market potential of the 15-35 year bracket that one report has pegged at $14 billion.
'With aspirations soaring in this segment and with no socialistic bondage of India's colonial past, they are living the maharaja's lifestyles of yore' says Anuradha Mahindra, editor of Verve, India's answer to Vanity Fair.
Thus, it's really two India's to project to the world. There's the affluent or the refined young India, also defined as the 'I want it, I have made it' segment in the metro cities. On the flip side is the political India being portrayed abroad on the TV news channels.
This dichotomy is palpable, and is the crux to getting 'Inside the Affluent Indian Space'.
But then, given that it is very hip and strategic to talk new markets, with the BRIC - economies being the pecking order for global lifestyle brands, it's not surprising that it's 'In' to be present in the Indian luxury segment.
So, issues like the right space, the right look, the right price and merchandise specific to India, are models still evolving at the strategic headquarters of groups like LVMH that owns Louis Vuitton among a plethora of well known brands in its stable, and PPR that owns the Gucci brand.
These two apart, family-driven and mainly Italian brands such as Ferragamo and Zegna have already forayed into the Indian market, the former with a store at Mumbai's Grand Hyatt Hotel, and the latter re-launching with its flagship store at Taj Mahal Hotel, also in Mumbai.
Quite aptly, Ferragamo CEO Ferruccio Ferragamo, on a recent visit here, commented: 'India is today what China was 10 years ago.'
Speaking of aspirations, market potential and India's burgeoning youth population, it would be pertinent to consider the most apparent bedrock of this trend - the changing style of the Indian woman.
In the 1990s the emergence of DINK - families and the new age Indian corporate woman changed the sari-clad scenario.
The look now oscillated between an Indian dress with pants and a kurta or a salwar kameez for the more conservative women, to skirt-suits and tailored jackets from Lafayette, Harrods, or Neiman Marcus for the globetrotting women executives.
These bright sparks rejected the literal and figurative restrain of tying themselves around six yards as they went about on a normal day from boardroom to bedroom.
These women were classified as 'liberal Indian fashionistas, clad in a Chanel suit at work to make a statement and defy tradition, and donning a lehenga, a wedding couturier's bling-studded skirt and midriff baring top creation at a family wedding to define the changing face of Indian fashion.
Thus, whether it is seeking, probing, or just networking, the luxury conference will serve to throw up the untapped potential of India's lifestyle sector.
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