Apparel Online India Magazine February 1st Issue 2019 | Page 32

FASHION BUSINESS
EXPERT’S OPINION
WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN VERSIONS OF
F A S H I O N L U X U R Y. B U T, W H A T I S T R U E
‘LUXURY’?
The state of luxury fashion today
is a state of identity crisis. While
sneakers, logo T-shirts and
hoodies have profitably entered
the luxury scenario since the
past few seasons, the old school
houses of the luxury business
are quietly maintaining their
status of what is defined as ‘true
luxury’ since centuries. Also,
luxury in the Indian market is
significantly different from luxury
in the West. Somewhere along
the fashion curve over decades
and the launch of new entrants
in the industry across the fashion
globe, there have been surging
headlines questioning the real
meaning of ‘luxury’ and its fate
in times to come.
To understand it better, we are in
conversation with luxury industry
professional Saurabh Banka, an
alumni of NIFT, New Delhi and
Founder of LAÏTEworks.
S
aurabh Banka graduated
from NIFT Fashion Design
Course in 2007 following which
he persuaded a Masters Course
from IFM (Institut Français de la
Mode), Paris in 2008-09. For a few
years, he worked as an embroidery
designer for a brand called Rue
du Mail. The doors of the luxury
industry opened for him through
the retail industry when he started
working for Prada as their sales
associate in 2015.
In 2016, Banka launched a brand
of hand-embroidered scarves and
accessories called LAÏTEworks.
This brand combines design
inspirations from France and
handcrafted skills from India.
According to him, while he
was working as an embroidery
designer for Rue du Mail, he
realised that most of the couture
houses or design houses of Paris
get their embroideries done from
India as Indian embroidery is rich
and diverse. Therefore, it was a
conscious decision on his part to
promote the embroideries and its
craftsmen from India. LAÏTEworks
as a brand participates in
Maison&Objet, Paris and currently
retails from several stores in Italy,
France, Switzerland, United States
and Japan.
How would you define
‘Luxury’?
Luxury Brand is like a five-
star rating for hotels. It’s like
Rolls Royce amongst the cars;
flying business class in flights.
32 Apparel Online India | FEBRUARY 1-15, 2019 | www.apparelresources.com
Everything has to be on the top of
the line – the products, the quality,
the price, the stores, the services
and the ambience.
Clients queue up an hour before
the store opens its doors, in order
to buy bags worth € 5,000 and
above. Such a brand is a luxury
brand. A single store making an
average of € 150,000 on a weekend
is called a ‘Luxury Store’. A dress
flown from Paris to London for a
client, because the client wants to
buy it and it is the last dress in the
collection, is what can be termed
as ‘luxury’.‘Luxury’ is also the
possibility to get certain products/
services custom-made.
It can also be related to providing
after-sales services for the
products bought in recent years.