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Global Fashion & Luxury

Paris, Milan, London and New York Fashion Weeks, luxury fashion houses, haute couture, runway showcases and retail trends.

Fashion & Luxury

At GQ Men of the Year 2025, Indian Tailoring Steps Beyond the Binary

In Mumbai, the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2025 turned the red carpet into a site of fashion argument and reinvention, with Indian tailoring taking on sharper, more experimental contours and gender-fluid dress codes moving decisively into the mainstream. Designers and attendees alike used cut, drape and finish to challenge the old hierarchy of menswear, signalling a more expansive luxury language for India. From sculptural bandhgalas to fluid jackets, archival textiles to precision-pressed trousers, the evening framed non-binary dressing not as novelty but as a credible, market-shaping expression of contemporary Indian style.

By Rhea Malhotra, Fashion Correspondent, RDU Global India Desk

4 min read•2025-09-08T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

At Kalakshetra, a Symposium Reasserts the Future of Natural Dyeing in Indian Fashion

In Chennai, the Kalakshetra craft center convened a symposium on natural madder and indigo dyeing that framed ancient technique as a contemporary design and sustainability imperative. The gathering drew artisans, designers and textile scholars around organic cotton as a material for both cultural continuity and market relevance.

By Rhea Menon, India Fashion Bureau

4 min read•2025-09-14T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Durga Puja Fashion Preview: Dhaniakhali Cottons and Tussar Silks Set the Tone for Kolkata's Festive Streets

As Kolkata prepares for Durga Puja 2025, the city's style vocabulary is turning decisively toward handloom. Dhaniakhali cottons, prized for their crisp comfort and subtle texture, and Tussar silks, with their quiet sheen and earthy depth, are emerging as the season's defining fabrics across boutiques, marquees and neighbourhood markets. The result is a festive wardrobe that feels both rooted and contemporary, shaped by craft, climate and cultural confidence.

By Ananya Sen, RDU Global India Bureau

5 min read•2025-09-20T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Myntra Luxe Sees 40% Surge in Tier-2 Demand for Luxury Watches and Designer Sunglasses

Myntra Luxe has reported a 40% year-on-year rise in demand from India's tier-2 cities for luxury watches and designer sunglasses, underscoring how premium accessories are moving beyond the country's major metros. The trend points to a more distributed luxury market, shaped by digital discovery, aspirational purchasing and a growing appetite for branded self-expression outside Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.

By Rhea Menon, India Fashion Bureau, Bengaluru

4 min read•2025-09-28T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

FDCI and Amazon India Fashion Week Archive Goes Digital, Opening a National Design Resource

The Fashion Design Council of India has digitized the archive of Amazon India Fashion Week, creating a searchable visual record of a formative era in Indian fashion. The initiative is expected to serve design students, researchers and industry professionals seeking access to collections, craft narratives and runway documentation once confined to private archives and institutional memory.

By Rhea Malhotra, India Fashion Bureau, RDU Global

5 min read•2025-10-05T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Jaipur Rugs Turns to Milan for a New Language of Hand-Knotted Luxury

Jaipur Rugs has unveiled a new series of hand-knotted wool and silk tapestries created in collaboration with Milanese architects, bringing a distinctly architectural sensibility to one of India's most established luxury craft houses. The collection, shown in Jaipur, reframes the rug as a wall-bound object of design - part textile, part structure, and part cultural statement.

By Aditi Mehra, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-10-12T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Tata Starbucks and Sabyasachi Unveil Festive Drinkware Collection in a Meeting of Café Culture and Indian Luxury

Tata Starbucks has joined hands with Sabyasachi to present a limited-edition festive drinkware collection in Mumbai, bringing together the polish of global café culture and the ornamented language of Indian design. The collaboration arrives as the season's retail calendar intensifies, positioning everyday objects as collectible luxury pieces with a distinctly Indian sensibility.

By Rhea Malhotra, India Fashion Bureau

4 min read•2025-10-18T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Heritage Jadau and Polki Jewellery Set Festive Revenue Records as Mumbai Buyers Return to Craft

Mumbai's festive jewellery market has entered a conspicuously gilded phase, with heritage jadau necklaces and polki ear pendants driving record revenues across luxury counters and high-jewellery ateliers. As weddings, Diwali gatherings and winter celebrations converge, buyers are favouring hand-crafted, heirloom-style pieces that signal both cultural continuity and conspicuous refinement.

By Rhea Mehta, Fashion & Luxury Bureau, RDU Global India Desk

5 min read•2025-10-28T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

South India Fashion Awards in Bengaluru Celebrate Silk Innovation and Karnataka's Handloom Vanguard

At a Bengaluru ceremony steeped in craft and commerce, the South India Fashion Awards spotlighted designers reimagining silk with modern restraint and handloom innovators preserving Karnataka's textile lineages. The evening framed sustainability not as a slogan but as a design discipline, with collections that balanced heritage technique, market relevance and architectural precision.

By Ananya Rao, Fashion Correspondent, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-11-02T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Patan's Double-Patola Weavers Win UNESCO Heritage Recognition for a Geometry of Silk and Dye

In Patan, Gujarat, the double-ikat Patola tradition has received UNESCO heritage recognition, placing one of India's most exacting textile arts on a global cultural stage. The honour acknowledges a centuries-old discipline of natural dyes, geometric precision and handloom mastery that continues to define the region's luxury craft economy.

By Meera Khanna, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-11-08T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Diwali's New Luxury Code in New Delhi: Zari Brocade Jackets and Metallic Tissue Sarees Take Over Festive Galas

This Diwali season in New Delhi, the city's most closely watched festive gatherings have settled on a new luxury vernacular: sharply tailored zari brocade jackets worn over fluid separates, and lightweight metallic tissue sarees that shimmer without heaviness. The result is a more architectural, less ornamental idea of occasion dressing - one that reflects both the climate and the current appetite for restraint, craft and polish.

By Rhea Malhotra, Fashion Correspondent, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-11-14T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Dev Deepavali Turns Varanasi's Ghats into a Study in Banarasi Silk, Light and Ceremony

On Dev Deepavali, Varanasi's riverfront became a living tableau of textile heritage, where Banarasi silk drapes, jewel-toned brocades and the golden shimmer of pure ghee lamps transformed the ghats into a spectacle of fashion and ritual. The evening offered a rare convergence of devotional pageantry, craft economy and luxury dressing, reaffirming the city's place at the heart of India's sartorial imagination.

By Meera S. Iyer, India Fashion Bureau, RDU Global

4 min read•2025-11-20T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Aditya Birla Fashion and Christian Louboutin Deepen India Luxury Alliance with Mall Expansion Plan

Aditya Birla Fashion and Christian Louboutin have announced an expanded joint venture aimed at widening the French maison's retail footprint across India's leading luxury malls, underscoring the market's growing appetite for high-end accessories and occasionwear. The move signals a more assertive phase in India's premium retail story, where global maisons are recalibrating for a consumer base that is younger, more style-literate and increasingly mall-led.

By Rhea Menon, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-11-27T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

At Jodhpur Royal Polo Trophy, Jodhpuri Breeches and Bespoke Bandhgalas Reassert Marwar Tailoring's Quiet Authority

Against the sandstone grandeur of Jodhpur, the Royal Polo Trophy became an elegant stage for Marwar's most enduring menswear codes: sharply cut Jodhpuri breeches, precision-made bandhgala suits and equestrian dressing rooted in function as much as ceremony. The event underlined how heritage tailoring, when recalibrated with modern restraint, continues to shape India's luxury menswear conversation.

By Rhea Malhotra, India Fashion Bureau

5 min read•2025-12-04T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

FDCI Sets Out Sustainable Luxury Manifesto in New Delhi, Backing Zero-Chemical Dyes and Living Wages for Weavers

The Fashion Design Council of India has unveiled a Sustainable Luxury Manifesto in New Delhi, positioning ecological restraint and artisan dignity as the new markers of Indian luxury. The framework calls for zero-chemical dyes, traceable supply chains and living wage guarantees for weavers, signalling a more formal alignment between couture ambition and responsible production.

By Rhea Malhotra, Fashion Correspondent, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-12-10T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Sabyasachi Opens Opulent Jewelry Flagship in South Kolkata, Extending His Luxury Universe

Sabyasachi Mukherjee has opened a new flagship jewelry salon in South Kolkata, a richly layered retail space defined by antique chandeliers, hand-beaten gold surfaces and the designer's signature old-world modernity. The opening signals a deeper consolidation of Indian luxury in Kolkata, where craft, heritage and high jewelry are increasingly being staged as a cultural proposition rather than merely a commercial one.

By Rhea Banerjee, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-12-16T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Winter Bridal Season Lifts NRI Wedding Shopping at Mumbai and Delhi Multi-Designer Stores

A sharp winter wedding calendar has given India's luxury bridal market an unexpected second wind, with multi-designer stores in Mumbai and Delhi reporting a 30% rise in purchases from NRI families. The demand is being driven by destination weddings, heirloom-led styling and a renewed appetite for couture pieces that travel across ceremonies, continents and generations.

By Rhea Menon, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2025-12-22T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Year in Review 2025: How Indian Couture Moved from the Margins to the Main Stage

In 2025, Indian couture did more than appear on international red carpets; it helped define them. From the Met Gala to Paris Fashion Week, designers and celebrity ambassadors translated the language of handwork, drape and ornament into a global fashion vocabulary that felt both timely and unmistakably Indian.

By Aanya Malhotra, Fashion Editor, RDU Global India Bureau

5 min read•2025-12-28T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Surat Textile Hub Commissions India's Largest Recycled Polyester Filament Plant for Athletic Wear

Surat, long the nerve centre of India's synthetic textile trade, has commissioned the country's largest recycled polyester filament plant, a move that could reshape the economics and aesthetics of performance wear. The project arrives as brands and mills increasingly seek lower-impact fibres without sacrificing the sheen, drape and durability that define athletic fashion.

By Rhea Menon, India Fashion Bureau

4 min read•2026-01-05T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

India's Fashion Industry in 2026: Ten Trends Redefining Couture, Circular Textiles and Luxury Retail

As 2026 opens in New Delhi, India's fashion market is entering a more disciplined, design-led phase in which couture, craft and commerce are being recalibrated for a generation that expects provenance as much as polish. From modular occasionwear and regenerative textiles to the quiet expansion of luxury retail beyond metros, ten clear trends are shaping the year ahead.

By Aanya Mehra, RDU Global India Bureau

5 min read•2026-01-09T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Golden Globes 2026: Hollywood's brightest turn to Indian ateliers for uncut polki and Colombian emeralds

At the 2026 Golden Globes in Los Angeles, a discreet but unmistakable jewellery story emerged: Hollywood's leading women chose statement pieces shaped in Indian ateliers, from uncut polki diamonds to carved Colombian emeralds. The result was a red carpet defined less by spectacle alone than by craftsmanship, provenance and a renewed appetite for artisanal luxury with cultural depth.

By Aanya Mehra, India Bureau, RDU Global

4 min read•2026-01-14T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

At Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, a 200-Year Retrospective Recasts Indian Textiles as Living Heritage

In Mumbai, the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre has opened a retrospective tracing two centuries of Indian textiles, from courtly weaves and regional embroideries to the industrial and artisanal crossings that shaped modern dress. The exhibition positions fabric not as relic, but as a living archive of taste, power and cultural continuity in contemporary India.

By Rhea Menon, India Fashion Bureau

4 min read•2026-01-19T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Emerald Chokers and Velvet Bandhgalas Set the Tone at a Royal Rajasthan Winter Wedding in Udaipur

In Udaipur, a winter palace wedding unfolded as a study in restrained opulence, where emerald chokers, embroidered velvet bandhgalas and jewel-toned saris recalled the old grammar of princely dressing. The occasion signalled a renewed appetite for heirloom craft, with ateliers, jewellers and couture houses finding fresh relevance in ceremonial fashion shaped by Rajasthan's royal visual language.

By Meera Sethi, RDU Global India Bureau

5 min read•2026-01-24T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Gaurav Gupta brings sculptural 'Arom' to Paris Haute Couture Week's official calendar

Gaurav Gupta returned to Paris Haute Couture Week with 'Arom', a collection that deepened his signature language of sculptural drape, celestial abstraction and body-conscious architecture. Presented within the official French couture calendar, the show marked another assertive step in the internationalisation of Indian couture, while reaffirming Gupta's place among fashion's most technically distinctive voices.

By Rhea Malhotra, Fashion Correspondent, RDU Global India Desk

4 min read•2026-01-28T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

At Jaipur Literature Festival, Handloom Pashminas, Khadi Tailoring and Silver Tribal Jewelry Define a Quietly Luxurious Mood

At the Jaipur Literature Festival, the most persuasive style statements were not theatrical but deeply rooted: handloom pashmina shawls, khadi jackets cut with precision, and oxidised silver tribal jewelry worn with easy authority. In a city where craft and conversation have long shared the same public stage, festival dressing this year leaned toward texture, provenance and restraint.

By Rhea Malhotra, Fashion & Luxury Correspondent, RDU Global India Bureau

5 min read•2026-02-03T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Kallol Datta Brings Geometric Drape and Zero-Waste Volume Cutting to Mumbai in Solo Installation

In a solo installation in Mumbai, designer Kallol Datta turned pattern-making into a live proposition, foregrounding geometric drape and zero-waste volume cutting as both aesthetic language and design ethic. The presentation underscored his continued interest in clothing as structure, asking how Indian dress can be reimagined through precision, restraint and materially intelligent construction.

By Ananya Menon, RDU Global India Bureau

5 min read•2026-02-07T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Budget Duty Cuts on Raw Silk and Advanced Machinery Set to Recast India's Apparel Supply Chain

The Union Budget 2026-27's duty reductions on raw silk and advanced textile machinery are expected to lower input costs and accelerate modernization across India's apparel sector. Designers, manufacturers and exporters say the measures could strengthen the country's position in premium textiles, bridalwear and value-added fashion production.

By Ananya Menon, India Fashion Bureau, RDU Global

4 min read•2026-02-11T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

In Varanasi, Kashi Silk Returns to the Loom in Heirloom Shikargah Motifs for Museums

In Varanasi, a new generation of master weavers is reviving Kashi silk through the painstaking return of Shikargah hunting motifs, once prized by courts and now being recreated for museum collections. Worked in pure gold thread and woven on handlooms with extraordinary patience, the textiles bridge living craft, archival memory and the high cultural value of heirloom Indian luxury.

By Ananya Rao, Fashion & Luxury Correspondent, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2026-02-16T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

Ethical Diamonds and Bespoke Cashmere Lift Valentine's Luxury Gifting in India

Valentine's Day 2026 has underscored a shift in India's luxury gifting habits, with ethical lab-grown diamonds and bespoke cashmere wraps emerging as the season's most sought-after purchases. In New Delhi and beyond, retailers report record demand for pieces that combine intimacy, provenance and quiet status over overt excess.

By Aditi Menon, India Bureau, RDU Global

4 min read•2026-02-21T09:30:00.000Z

Fashion & Luxury

London, Milan and Tokyo Buyers Turn Out in Record Numbers for FDCI Market Weeks in New Delhi

International buyers from London, Milan and Tokyo registered in record numbers at the latest FDCI market weeks in New Delhi, underscoring India's expanding influence in the global fashion trade. The surge reflects renewed confidence in Indian design, with buyers responding to collections that balanced artisanal depth, commercial clarity and export-ready construction.

By Meera Sethi, RDU Global India Bureau

4 min read•2026-02-26T09:30:00.000Z