A Life Less Ordinary

WITH INCREASING PURCHASING POWER AND AWARENESS, MORE AND MORE INDIANS ARE LIVING THE HIGH LIFE, AND GLOBAL LUXURY BRANDS ARE RUSHING IN TO FULFIL THIS DEMAND.

- BY VINOD NAIR

JAGATJIT SINGH, THE Maharaja of Kapurthala, was a well-heeled traveller, who made multiple trips to Europe in the days when the voyage would take several weeks. A patron of the high life, his baggage was carried in a retinue of custom-made Louis Vuitton shipping trunks. His contemporary, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, was among those who carried hundreds of precious stones all the way to Europe, to get his jewellery made by luxury brands such as Boucheron, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels.

"The maharajas were well-read and well-travelled," says Tikka Shatrujit Singh, the great-grandson of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh and chairman of luxury consultancy JMC. "They used to check into the Ritz Paris and the owners of luxury brands themselves used to come with their merchandise to show them and make custom-made products."

The days of monarchy may be over, but a new set of Indians have the potential to keep that legacy alive. "There's a throughline in Indian luxury that goes back to the days of the maharajas—patronage, pageantry, and personalisation have always been part of the Indian luxury experience. What's changed is the identity of the customer and the source of their influence and wealth," says Imran Amed, founder & CEO of the London-based The Business of Fashion (BoF), a leading digital authority on the world of fashion.

Amed says the new consumers of fashion in India are billionaire entrepreneurs, technology founders, and second-generation business scions. "Like their counterparts in other parts of the world, luxury isn't about logos—it's about quality, craftsmanship, experience, and individuality." According to Amed, many of these high net-worth individuals (HNWI) are also drawn to traditional Indian craft but filtered through a modern lens. "This is the new maharaja mindset: confident, cosmopolitan, and culturally aware," says Amed.

GROWING LUXURY MARKET