This year the French luxury label has plans to bring LV apparel to India and not restrict their business to accessories only.
French luxury label Louis Vuitton, which has been selling only accessories in India, now plans to bring its apparel line to the country.
The Louis Vuitton store at the Emporio Mall in Delhi would be transformed into what it calls L’Appartement to sell men’s and women’s cloth line in the Indian market.
Currently, Louis Vuitton sells only bags, shoes, scarves and other accessories in the country through their three retail stores -- Bengaluru’s UB City, Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai and Emporio in Delhi.
According to sources, the apparel line of the French luxury brand would be launched at the Emporio store this September. Sources also say the brand would now have a two-level store with the introduction of the apparel line and new format of L’Appartement.
related news
Places like Singapore and Hong Kong already have their own L'Appartement where customers get exclusive access to the fashion powerhouse’s latest collections. It is said Louis Vuitton is working with two top artists to put together India’s first L’Appartement. According to sources, the brand is in talks with London based artist Lubna Chowdhary for the same project.
According to the latest numbers available, Louis Vuitton - part of the French luxury retail group LVMH - recorded over 50 percent rise in profit in its retail store business in India in the financial year ending March 2017. According to data from the Registrar of Companies, LVMH reported a profit after tax of over Rs 8 crore as against Rs 5 crore in the previous year for Louis Vuitton India Retail Pvt Ltd.
Rising luxury market
While numbers clearly show a rise in demand for Louis Vuitton products in India, according to brand strategist Saurabh Uboweja Indians spending money on luxury in India is no more a new thing. However, people are still skeptic about buying ultra-luxury brands from India. “There are close to one lakh HNIs in India who splurge on ultra-luxury brands and while they wouldn’t think twice to spend around Rs 4 lakh on a lehenga they would spend only 50 percent of it on western wear from Indian stores selling global luxury labels because the perception about these stores is that they generally do not have the latest stock. If one has to buy the latest piece of an outfit from the global brands they’d buy it from the brand’s stores in markets like Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore or even the Middle East,” said Uboweja.
According to Uboweja, the average spending on clothes from brands like Louis Vuitton in India is generally not more than Rs 2 lakh. However, as it turns out, revenue in the luxury apparel segment in India amounts to $840 million in 2018. According to the statistics portal, Statista the market for the same is also expected to grow annually by 4.8 percent by 2022.