Luxury’s recent India missteps and triumphs

26 Jun 2025

India’s $17 billion luxury market is not to be overlooked, and the fashion industry has seen two consecutive months of missteps and wins.

Louis Vuitton’s Spring 2026 menswear show on Tuesday in Paris was an ode to India.

Designed by Mumbai-born architect Bijoy Jain, the show’s scenography transformed the Place Georges Pompidou into a life-size Snakes and Ladders board as an homage to the ancient Indian game.

The guest list, starring actor Ishaan Khatter (2.8 million Instagram followers), dancer and actress Nora Fatehi (47.2 million), and Jaipur’s Sawai Padmanabh Singh (557,000), excited netizens.

Meanwhile, other luxury houses showing in Paris and Milan appear to be missing out on connecting with the crucial Indian luxury consumer. Italian label Prada, for instance, faced a backlash all week for debuting lakh “leather flat sandals” nearly identical to Kolhapuri chappals, or “toe ring sandals,” without crediting the Indian artisans behind the centuries-old design.

As India’s $17 billion luxury market is projected to more than triple by 2030, according to Bain & Company, brands cannot afford to overlook cultural acknowledgment, or genuine talent representation.

“Fashion/luxury has historically been a European establishment selling to the American customer, and later on China. So, it hasn’t had the financial incentive to care about the Indian consumer or diaspora,” explains founder and CEO of Singapore-headquartered strategy consultancy Snowbird Global Gautam Ramdurai.

“That has changed dramatically over the last decade. Two of the largest, most opulent weddings in the world have been of Indian tycoons’ scions (the Ambanis). Fashion is yet to realize that India could be their next China. But the economics of it will get them there, eventually,” he adds.