‘This collaboration will go beyond Indian wear’

Designer Manish Malhotra and MD & CEO Reliance Brands Limited, Darshan Mehta on their new collaboration

Despite the impact of Covid-19 that many industries continue to reel under, the luxury market seems to have had a remarkable recovery. Is this collaboration, therefore, strategically timed?

Darshan: I have been blown away by the sheer way the luxury market has recovered in the JulySeptember quarter. We have already overshot our 2019 numbers by 20%. It’s a tide that is clearly rising, if you look at the long-term trajectory. The personal and luxury market, and the bigspend events such as weddings have only seen an upward trend. But in terms of this announcement, this timing is immaterial. We have been analysing the potential of this partnership over a long time. It comes from a deep-rooted belief that our partnership with Manish will be the answer to the question that’s been asked for years now – why has there not been a luxury brand from India? Time will tell, but I believe that with Reliance and Manish coming together, people will stop asking this question three years from now.

Will this collaboration only focus on Indian ethnicwear, or go beyond?

Manish: It will certainly go beyond. Of course, we’ll showcase the best of Indian wear too, but it’s all about taking India international. It’s not just about going and doing a show abroad, the vision is to become a truly global player on international fashion platforms. We already have globally renowned fashion designers from places like Lebanon, or from countries in Southeast Asia. But we’d want to see a designer from India on the global map.

Darshan: Let me add a perspective from my ‘fresh eyes’ as opposed to someone, who is deeply looking at fashion everyday. I don’t think Manish’s design philosophy is in any way confined to Indian wear. In fact, in my team, nobody dare address a designer as an Indian designer. We would like them to be known as designers out of India, while having a truly global sensibility of style and fashion. Manish works a lot with Indian traditional craftsmen and artisans, but he takes these crafts and interprets them in a very millennial way.

Manish: It’s like speaking in a very international glamour language. Showcasing our Indian heritage, and still doing it in a very globally understood way. There is synergy and fluidity that’s all pervasive now.

What shape and form would this global expansion take?

Manish: It’s going to be an amalgamation — from our own International stores, to being part of stores that have a cultural mix of designers, from using technology and e-commerce to hosting trunk shows all over the world.

Darshan: Manish already has a very rich cache of customers across geographies in the world. Increasingly, we are anyway becoming channel agnostic. Channels are getting blurred and reshaped. Maybe in the near future, we could look at having a Manish Malhotra store on Instagram, or a pop-up for customers from across the world. We definitely have plans from this partnership, and while the endgame remains clear, the form that the outreach may take could evolve dramatically in the days to come. It’ll eventually be Manish’s vision, and as an ally we will support him in every way. To him we say, as the Def Leppard song goes, “I’ll be two steps behind you”.

Manish Malhotra’s brand has the USP of ultraluxury. Could this partnership mean there would be a value-version in future?

Darshan: We are clear at not looking at the Balkanisation of Brand Manish Malhotra. Just as there is one Dolce & Gabbana, one Prada, there is going to be one Manish Malhotra. There may be creative interpretations, but we are not looking at a diffusion line of the brand. That’s a thumping No. There will never be a volume-play just because a corporate has come in.

Manish: We would never take away the essence of the brand. At all. We will of course expand globally, but not compromise on the aesthetics.

What’s that one thing that made this partnership happen, and will make it thrive?

Darshan: It’s a leap of faith for us. And there are no half-way measures to that.

Manish: I have a very strong belief in myself, and my capacity to work towards making this work. I’ve taken my time in deciding that I wanted a partner for my label, but once I’ve taken that decision, there is no more thinking. This is exactly how I wanted it.