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For decades, Delhi and Mumbai have competed for the title of India’s luxury fashion capital. Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel and Hermès arrived in India via Delhi and opened their second stores in Mumbai. Gucci, Jimmy Choo and Bottega Veneta, on the other hand, prioritised Mumbai first. Now, as India becomes the most populated country in the world and the fifth-largest economy (putting it ahead of the UK), brands are looking for the next city hotspots to tap into the local luxury consumer and expand.
“The strong economic growth experienced by the country in the past few decades has occurred in cities outside of Mumbai and Delhi, too. Hence luxury brands would have to take the same consideration and plan their distribution strategy accordingly,” says Anul Sareen, senior research analyst at Euromonitor International. Fashion designer Swapna Anumolu, whose label Mishru has flagship stores in both its home city of Hyderabad and in Delhi, echoes this: “Earlier shopping would happen in Delhi or Mumbai as people would travel, but not now [after the pandemic]. The retail scene has evolved to cater to the demand.”
Mumbai is India’s richest city with 59,400 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), according to the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023, published by migration consultancy Henley Partners – making it the 21st wealthiest city in the world and not far behind Dubai, which has 68,400. Delhi is 36th on the global list, with 30,200 HNWIs. But experts say international brands should pay closer attention to the next three Indian cities on the list: Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), which has 12,600 HNWIs, Kolkata (12,100) and Hyderabad (11,100).
Burberry and Ermenegildo Zegna are among the international brands with a presence in the southern city of Hyderabad, “a major tech hub that has a strong population base of young tech professionals who have high disposable income levels and are willing to try to bridge luxury products”, says Euromonitor’s Sareen. It also has a successful film industry. “There is a mixed consumer base that is interested in both pure luxury brands and bridge luxury brands,” Sareen adds.
Hyderabad is the erstwhile home of the Nizams of India – known for both their cultural patronage and lavish lifestyles — and is home to Telugu cinema (often referred to as “Tollywood”), which produces films in the official language of the Southern state of Andhra Pradesh. “Its heritage and the film industry means this is a city that enjoys the good things in life,” says veteran designer Tarun Tahiliani, co-founder of multi-brand fashion retailer Ensemble, which has stores in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad, and stocks Indian designers such as Sabyasachi and Amit Aggarwal.
Also in the south, Bengaluru is known as the Silicon Valley of India because it’s home to the Indian headquarters of companies like Amazon and Microsoft, but with new premium shopping centre Mall of Asia slated to open next year, it is also increasingly seen as a fashion destination. Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Coach and Rolex all have stores in Bengaluru.
The Collective, a multi-brand retailer launched in 2008 by Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL), which works with international luxury brands such as Kenzo, Moschino and Polo Ralph Lauren, says Bengaluru is its best-performing store in the south. Amit Pande, brand head at The Collective and International Brands ABFRL, attributes this to Bengaluru’s young working population and its aspirational mindset. Pande believes that brands need to offer “technologically integrated products, bespoke services and exclusive brand engagements” to cater to this market, tapping into tech such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and smart wearables.
Tahiliani agrees that Bengaluru has “great potential”, though the store has no plans as of yet to open there (it opened in Hyderabad last year and is currently looking to expand and refurbish the main store in Delhi).
Brands should think about opening at least one bricks-and-mortar store in a southern city, says Tahiliani. When it comes to high-spending activities such as weddings or festive occasions, consumers prefer to shop in stores, and a store is the best way for first-time customers to experience a brand, he points out. Meanwhile, the lingering impact of pandemic lockdowns means luxury consumers in India are more likely to shop locally. If not a permanent store, Tahiliani suggests brands consider pop-ups to “build up a client base”.
Old money in Kolkata
The opening of Quest Mall in 2013 first drew luxury’s attention to Kolkata, and now Gucci, Burberry and The Collective all have stores in its main shopping centre. The capital city of West Bengal is known for its penchant for art, literature and culture, and nicknamed the “City of Joy” thanks to French novelist Dominique Lapierre’s 1985 book of the same name. It is also the city that some of India’s foremost fashion designers come from, including Sabyasachi founder Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who has five stores in India and recently opened a flagship in New York’s West Village.
Kolkata’s location makes it a nervecentre of the east, which can attract customers from regional markets like Guwahati and Patna, as well as from across the border in Dhaka, Bangladesh. “Kolkata is known for its old money. Though it hasn’t experienced a similar economic growth phenomenon as Bengaluru or Hyderabad, it continues to hold a prominent position in terms of the presence of HNWIs in the north-east part of India,” says Sareen.
The city — which, under colonial rule, was the capital of India — has a reputation for its discerning taste. “It is proving to be a brilliant market for luxury brands and luxury lovers alike,” says Suvneet Ahuja, group vice president, business development at Reliance Brands Limited (RBL), India’s largest fashion distributor, which has partnerships with over 80 brands, including Tiffany, Bottega Veneta, and Valentino — and soon will bring Balenciaga into the Indian market.
“The Kolkata I have known has loved understated luxury forever. It is the antithesis of the sequin and bling brigade you find elsewhere in urban Indian cities,” says Kolkata-based designer Kiran Uttam Ghosh. “Undoubtedly, it offers potential for the luxe buyer as over the last two decades the city has evolved into one of India’s go to bridal shoppers’ destinations.”
Delhi and Mumbai remain the ‘arrival cities’
While experts say luxury brands should broaden their horizons in India, they also agree that Delhi and Mumbai remain the fashion capitals. “New Delhi and Mumbai are the two largest luxury markets in India,” says Ahuja. “Any brand should target having a presence in both the cities. The first store can be planned based on the right store location and adjacency availability in either of the two cities.”
Both have two malls each that offer the right environment for luxury brands, and this dedicated infrastructure makes them more attractive options for international labels. Delhi has DLF’s Emporio and Chanakya Malls, and Mumbai has Palladium Mall and Jio World Plaza. Mumbai also benefits from attractive real estate in the south of the city, where both Hermès and Christian Louboutin have chosen to locate their stores. French department store retailer Galeries Lafayette has opted to open its 90,000-square-feet store that will house 200 brands close by.
Most fashion retailers will find that their top performing store is in Delhi, even those who made their debut in Mumbai. The Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) — which encompasses Delhi and several districts surrounding it from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan — is The Collective’s largest market followed by Mumbai, says Pande. Ensemble, which first opened in Mumbai in 1987, has two stores in Delhi and has plans to expand its base in the city. Tahiliani says: “Today, if I was to launch a luxury brand in India, Delhi would be my first choice. Delhi should not be looked as a city but as a region, it has the catchment around it which includes the Northern belt where there is a lot of new money and therefore [people] spend freely.”
“As the capital of India, Delhi houses all major government offices and foreign consulates,” says Sareen. “With the economic growth in neighbouring Gurgaon and Noida due to IT and IT-enabled services (IT/ITES) setting up shop, it has become the startup capital of the country. Hence, there is a presence of the population that are in possession of both old money and newly acquired financial status. The city boasts of a consumer base that is highly fashion and brand conscious.” Unlike tropical Mumbai, the country’s capital is multi-seasonal, which means that consumers have a need for a wider range of clothes.
For many luxury brands, Mumbai is where they open their second store. Polo Ralph Lauren has three stores in Delhi NCR, two in New Delhi and one in Ambience Mall in Gurgaon (which is in the state of Haryana but is part of Delhi NCR) — it has just opened a store in Mumbai, five years after entering the market. In November last year, Valentino opened in Delhi’s DLF Emporio; it is expected to follow that with a store in Mumbai this year.
Mumbai, considered the commercial and cinematic capital of India, has been in the limelight since Dior held its pre-fall 2023 presentation in the city in March. Known as the “Maximum City”, Mumbai is always on the go — the New York of India. With temperatures rarely dropping below 18 degrees, it has a natural affinity for resort fashion. The ace card that Mumbai can boast of is Bollywood — and with luxury brands courting Indian film stars as brand ambassadors, there is a need for them to have a strong presence there. Deepika Padukone became the face of Louis Vuitton and Cartier last year and in May, Gucci announced Alia Bhatt as its first-ever Indian global ambassador.
Mumbai-based label Jade has stores in Delhi and Hyderabad and is looking to expand its footprint to Bengaluru and Ahmedabad shortly. Co-founder Monica Shah says Mumbai was the obvious place in which to launch. “There’s no other city that’s a bigger melting pot than this one. It’s the one place where history and modernism collide, creating a space that’s completely unique. Mumbai has something to offer for everyone,” she says.
Whichever cities brands choose, it’s important to treat each one as unique and seek to understand what drives the local consumers. “We must approach India as a continent and not as a country,” says RBL’s Ahuja. “India is a land of many cultures. We need to absorb various regional and cultural influences to create a unique brand persona in every market. It also goes beyond cultures to cater to the needs of markets [such as] varying climatic conditions, purchasing power and style sensibilities.”
An omnichannel approach is important to tap into a wider Indian consumer base, experts agree. “We see a healthy mix of consumers from different markets, with up to 40 per cent of our revenue coming from non-metro markets,” says Gitanjali Saxena, chief business officer of e-commerce platform Tata Cliq Luxury, which stocks both Indian and international brands, including Burberry, Paco Rabanne and Salvatore Ferragamo. She recommends that “luxury brands bolster their reach with an online partner so that they are able to drive brand storytelling and experience and be more accessible”.
Ahuja concludes: “Those brands which manage to deconstruct the complexity, look at the multiple ‘Indias’ and to address different audiences will become a big barrier to entry for the others.”
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