Luxury Retailers Are Following the Money to India's New Affluent
Hermes, Christian Louboutin are among those willing to pay skyrocketing rent for space in historic real estate
A luxury shopping center in New Delhi. Around 1.66 million people in India are forecast to have more than a million dollars’ net worth by 2027.
Photographer: Brian SokolA few blocks from the Reserve Bank of India’s headquarters in Mumbai lies the true marker of the country’s rising wealth — a new store from Indian fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee in a restored building dating from the early 1900s.
The opening of the four-story flagship makes Sabyasachi the latest luxury retailer to follow the money to southern Mumbai, which has been the home of India’s financial services industry since the precursor to the Bombay Stock Exchange began there under a banyan tree in 1875. In more recent years, Hermes International, Christian Louboutin and others have set up shop, willing to pay the neighborhood’s skyrocketing rents for space in historic real estate and access to a rising upper class.