What sort of role do you think Indian royalty plays today in relation to luxury? They are custodians of a unique heritage, which is something to be very proud of. The world comes to India to see its heritage, not to see its modern factories. In the past the rulers patronized all the arts and crafts of India, they wore Indian clothes made by master craftsmen, they employed the best chefs, ordered the most fabulous jewelry, were entertained by the best musical performers. After their rule many of these areas of the arts deteriorated. Today we’re trying to ape the ugliness of the West, and a lot of our history has disappeared. But many royals have converted their ancestral palaces into successful hotels. They’ve found a way to honor the past, but they don’t live in it. Many also hold elected office now, elevated by the descendants of their family’s former subjects to these posts. They voluntarily gave up what was theirs for thousands of years to merge with modern India. They’re modernizers and examples of how to move forward.
Can you describe your lineage? My family traces its ancestry from the kingdom of Jaisalmer. It goes back 900 years. Our modern era started with my great-grandfather, who was born in 1870 and became the ruler at the age of five. He was brought up by wonderful English tutors, who educated him in a unique way. He set off on world travels at the age of 19, to Europe and America. He gave an Oriental view of what he saw in Europe and America in his diaries, which were published. He was warmly received everywhere he went, as no one had seen a turbaned ruler, ever. He ruled for 75 years and was known as one of the most refined and sophisticated and elegant rulers.
Your great-grandfather had a reputation for being a bon vivant. Can you share any anecdotes about his relationship to the good life? He patronized the great brands—Cartier, Boucheron, Chaumet, Lalique, Vuitton, John Lobb, Schiaparelli and Worth for his wife. Whenever he went to Paris he would take over the entire Ritz, with his entourage of 150 to 160 people. The Ritz chefs had to leave and make room for his own personal chefs. His own servants would occupy the hotel. His artists would redo the menus, which were hand-painted with his court of arms. The French were perhaps the snobbiest people, and refinement was their birthright, but he beat them at their own game.
Can you describe your family’s relationship with the Vuitton brand? My great-grandfather, Jagatjit Singh Maharajah, was a traveler, and he needed special products for his travels, so he ordered 50 or 60 trunks for his turbans, his swords, his clothes, because he was on the high seas for six months of the year. They painted his initials, his coat of arms, his family seals on all of his luggage. He was the ultimate customer for them because he represented exactly what they looked for in a customer: he was glamorous, modern, sophisticated, a discoverer, a traveler. He was discovering the world, and they were discovering the world through him.
What is your role at LV? My role is to advise Mr. Carcelle on everything relating to India: new store locations, issues related to strategic communication, public relations, a whole gamut of things. Promoting India within Europe. It’s a very free-flowing role, to be creative and help a company that is a very large organization to think out of the box. To get the right attention, customer, press, stars. Being in India, it’s a really interesting time, because the whole world is watching you and wants to interact with you. It’s a role my great-grandfather would be delighted to see me playing. Sometimes life takes a full circle.
How have you seen the Indian luxury market evolve in the past five years? Until five years ago the markets were closed. Today there is a middle class, which is aspiring and wants to be recognized, and there is an extremely wealthy class. There are Bollywood stars, young politicians, tycoons—different segments in society that have achieved great success. And many of these people grew up with stories of the great maharajahs who patronized these brands, so the modern generation in India has been exposed to these brands indirectly for a longer time than, say, the Chinese market. The potential five years from now is enormous. The only thing holding us back right now is that luxury infrastructure is so bad, in terms of a retail environment.
How did people access luxury brands before the companies set up shop here? Luxury has always been ingrained in us, so it’s not something alien. Most affluent people would travel and see what was happening and pick things up. It was difficult to bring things back, because there was a limited foreign exchange and customs was hard on people. But now it’s all different. Three hundred private jets were ordered by Indian customers last year. Perhaps the golden years are yet to come, but we are building a foundation.
What do you feel constitutes a particularly Indian idea of luxury? I think something which is timeless. A piece of jewelry or a piece of luggage which my great-grandfather used, and now I use. Wonderful things that can be passed on to future generations. Western luxury companies became successful because of Indian patronage from the rulers that revived them after they had collapsed after the Great Depression. A lot of credit must be given to the maharajahs. They also built the reputation of these companies because of the extravagant pieces they commissioned. India is the last frontier in which you still have these kinds of luxury products.
Where do you think the luxury market is headed in the next five to 10 years in India? Look at the automobile market. Growing up there were these awful small cars, uncomfortable, badly made. Today if you go to a party at someone’s home you’ll see Bentleys, Jaguars, Porsches. If you go out in the evening, women are carrying the latest bags, the newest watches. They want the best and they have the money. We just haven’t been able to deliver our goods to them. I see a radical change in the landscape coming. Developers are beginning to understand what luxury retail is all about, and they are starting to create the right environment, a destination where people can come and spend money.
Traditionally, luxury has been a category that could be enjoyed by only a tiny percentage of the Indian population, but today that is shifting. What kind of effect do you see this democratization having on the kinds of goods and services offered? Well, there is a price point for everything, and at the highest levels the exclusivity is still intact. If you’re a tycoon you might have everything custom-made, whereas someone with less funds might just be buying a wallet or a belt, then might move on to buying a bag or a watch. There are thousands of products at different price points. In this sense, luxury is accessible to everybody who is interested and can afford it.
What is the difference between the way imported vs. national brands are perceived in India? We don’t really have what we would consider our own big luxury brands in India today. We have master craftsmen, but for some reason we don’t have the brands. Perhaps it’s because we never marketed our products. The master tailor who made my shervanis remained small, but in the West he might have been packaged and sold to the public and could have become a huge brand. It’s also a different psyche—the individual wasn’t as important. History doesn’t know who cut the Koh-i-Noor diamond, but we do know who recut it and remounted it after the British took it.
India has a strong tradition of elaborate handwork and lavish embellishment. How does this specifically Indian aesthetic influence global brands? Anything handmade is the ultimate luxury today, and we still have this handicraft that is being used by the West to help them revive and preserve their own ways of doing things, using Indian craftsmanship to embellish their couture garments, or to have jewels set here. To preserve their own brands they’re using Indian skills. It has switched: the maharajahs used Western skills to realize an Indian aesthetic, whereas today it’s the West using Indian skills to preserve their Western aesthetic.
What is your idea of absolute luxury? I think it’s to have something made only for you, something that no one else will ever have.
