The Indian Couturiers Courting the West
Where do you go when you’ve already dressed the biggest stars in your country?
When Rihanna stepped out at the Fenty Hair launch in June, it wasn’t her red leather ensemble — a custom Khaite slouchy jacket and scrunched maxi skirt — that stole the show. It was her jewelry. The singer and beauty mogul wore two necklaces by India’s most prominent designers: the first, an intricate choker with star-shaped rubies paired with diamonds from Manish Malhotra; the second, a cascading three-stone rubellite, tourmaline, and diamond pendant from Sabyasachi. Not only did the look garner heart eyes all over social media, it also made history — no celebrity had paired the two designers before.
While European brands like Dior and Louis Vuitton have been chasing growth by targeting India’s luxury market, expected to grow to $90 billion by 2030, a group of Indian designers are taking on a completely orthogonal strategy: going after audiences beyond Indians around the world. When everyone wants to be in your country, why look outward? We spoke to the designers to find out why.