Luxury Brands in India: Who Is Here and How to Buy

Luxury brands in India are concentrated in a handful of destinations, most of them in Delhi and Mumbai, while a few labels now also sell through their own Indian e-stores. Below we look at which fashion houses are here and how they arrived, how Indian customers tend to buy, and how to check that you are shopping from an official source.

A short history of luxury brands in India

Luxury retail in India is young. Louis Vuitton was one of the first major houses to arrive, opening in 2003 at The Oberoi hotel in New Delhi. It closed that boutique in 2010 and moved to DLF Emporio, a sign of the shift away from hotel arcades (Business Standard). DLF had opened Emporio in Vasant Kunj in 2008 as the capital's first luxury mall (India Retailing).

Hermès followed a similar path. After arriving in New Delhi in 2008, it traded first from the Oberoi hotel, then from DLF Emporio, before settling at The Chanakya (Journal du Luxe, in French). That shift, from hotel arcade to purpose-built mall, is a fair measure of how the market has matured.

The places where luxury trades

Three destinations come up in almost every conversation about luxury brands in India.

DLF Emporio, New Delhi

DLF Emporio in Vasant Kunj has been the capital's main luxury address since 2008. International houses and Indian designers trade side by side there, and newer malls have not displaced it.

The Chanakya, New Delhi

The Chanakya, in Delhi's Diplomatic Enclave, covers about 189,000 square feet. Its own site lists Hermès, Chanel, Rolex, Saint Laurent, Tiffany & Co., Ralph Lauren and Brunello Cucinelli among its tenants (The Chanakya).

Jio World Plaza, Mumbai

Reliance opened Jio World Plaza in Bandra Kurla Complex to the public on 1 November 2023. Its launch release described four levels and about 750,000 square feet, with 66 luxury brands, flagships for Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Cartier, Dior and Bulgari, and first Mumbai stores for Valentino, Versace and Tiffany, among others (Reliance Industries).

Beyond these three, luxury also trades from five-star hotels and from a few locations in other cities. Louis Vuitton, for example, already had stores in Bengaluru and Chennai by 2013. Compared with Paris, Milan or Dubai, the number of purpose-built luxury addresses is still modest.

How luxury brands enter India

Brands take different routes into India. The choice usually comes down to how much control a brand wants, how much capital it will commit and how well it already knows the market.

• Wholly owned entry. Since January 2018, India has allowed 100 per cent foreign investment in single-brand retail through the automatic route (Government of India). Conditions apply, including a local sourcing requirement once foreign ownership goes above 51 per cent (India Briefing).
• Joint ventures. A foreign brand takes a local partner for its knowledge of real estate, regulation and customers. Zara's arrival in 2010 with Tata's Trent is a well-known example in Indian fashion, although Zara is a high-street brand.
• Franchise and distribution partners. A domestic retail group runs the brand's stores under contract. Reliance Brands is one of the largest; India Briefing reported in 2023 that it had brought around 50 international brands to India.
• Official e-stores run with a local partner. This suits brands that want a presence in India before they commit to a boutique network.

Our companion piece on how international fashion brands enter India goes into these models in more detail, and the sibling guide to international clothing brands in India covers the premium and contemporary end of the market.

How Indian customers buy luxury

Luxury customers in India are far from uniform, though a few buying patterns come up often.

Research online, buy in store

Many customers research a piece online, on a brand's website, on social media or on a multi-brand platform, before buying. The purchase itself still mostly happens in a shop: Euromonitor International estimated that physical stores accounted for 81 per cent of personal luxury goods sales in India in 2025 (Business Today). Lower-priced pieces such as T-shirts, accessories and sneakers are easier to buy online.

Official brand stores and authorised platforms

Large retail groups also run multi-brand luxury platforms, such as Tata CLiQ Luxury and Ajio Luxe, and some brands sell through their own e-stores. Both reach buyers outside the main cities, who would otherwise need to travel to Delhi or Mumbai for a purchase.

Travel as a channel

Many Indian shoppers have long bought luxury while travelling abroad. Local availability has not ended that habit, but it does make buying, returning and servicing products easier. Warranties, exchanges and after-sales support are usually simpler when the product was bought in India from an official seller.

Where the growth is

The same Euromonitor research put India's luxury market at about US$12.1 billion in 2025, after growth of around 10 per cent. Much of that growth is not in clothing: premium and luxury cars led value sales, and experiences such as hotels, travel and fine dining were the fastest-growing segment. Fashion houses are competing for the same affluent and increasingly young customer.

Premium versus luxury: a useful distinction

People searching for premium fashion brands in India and luxury fashion brands in India often want different things, even though the terms overlap.

• Luxury usually means heritage houses and designer labels with global flagship networks, high prices, tightly controlled distribution and a clearly defined brand world.
• Premium usually describes labels priced above the mass market, with strong design or quality credentials but wider distribution and lower prices. Premium denim, contemporary labels and heritage workwear brands often sit here.

The line is informal, and brands move across it. Either way, a buyer needs to know that the product is genuine, correctly priced and supported after the sale.

How to be sure you are buying from an official source

Counterfeits and grey-market stock are a risk with any desirable brand. These habits reduce it.

1. Start with the brand. Use the brand's own website to find its India store locator or official e-store. If a brand has launched in India, its official site will usually say so.
2. Check the web address. Look carefully at the domain, the contact details and the policies page. Copycat sites often get one of these wrong.
3. Ask for a GST invoice. Genuine retailers issue a proper tax invoice and publish clear return and exchange policies.
4. Treat steep discounts with suspicion. New-season luxury pieces are rarely sold far below the official price outside sale periods.
5. Check multi-brand sellers. On a marketplace or multi-brand site, look for a statement that stock comes from the brand or its authorised distributor, and confirm it against the brand's own channels.
6. Keep paperwork. Invoices, authenticity cards and packaging matter for servicing and for resale.

Prices of imported apparel in India also reflect customs duty, GST and the cost of operating locally, so the same item may not cost what it does in Europe. Be wary of a seller whose pitch rests on a price being "the same as abroad".

An example: luxury streetwear, now officially in India

Luxury streetwear shows how a brand can enter without a store network on day one. Palm Angels, which began as a photography book of the Los Angeles skate scene and became a fashion label in 2015, now has an official Indian store at palmangels.co.in, brought to India by Zyvora Brands. Our Palm Angels page has the brand story and the current collection, and our note on luxury streetwear in India looks at the category more closely.

What to expect next

New malls and flagships, along with a growing number of official online channels, should bring more choice closer to where customers live. The advice for shoppers stays the same: buy from the source, keep your paperwork, and take the brand's own announcements as the reference for where it is sold.

Explore further

To see what we are bringing to India, explore our brands. If you are a brand or retail partner thinking about the Indian market, you are welcome to talk to us or read more about Zyvora Brands.