Customisation, India’s new luxury benchmark

Tailor-made, cut-to-fit suits and watches with one’s name engraved

on the dial are the new benchmarks of luxury for a growing club of rich Indians who are willing to shell out about 50 per cent more and wait for almost two months to get their choice of merchandise customised. The increasing demand for such customised merchandise includes niche products and services such as signature perfumes, personalised dials in watches, and name initials on handbags and T-shirts that helped luxury brands such as Brioni, Louis Vuitton, Paul & Shark, Rolex and Tag Heuer grow more than 20 per cent in this segment during the year 2011.

According to the Technopak data, customised services account for 15 per cent of the Rs 1,300-crores, luxury apparel and accessories market in the country. The growing trend has opened galore of opportunities for luxury brands. For instance, a customised Brioni suit costs between Rs 3-12.5 lakh and takes more than six weeks to get stitched but it has a huge clientele willing to wait and spend more on the range. Louis Vuitton offers its client select personalised initials, stripe patterns and colours to ensure that very few bags will ever be alike. LVMH had rolled out 200 pieces of limited edition Tag Heuer watches for the Airtel India Grand Prix Formula 1 race, priced at Rs 2 lakh each, and it was sold out in 10 days. Swiss watch brand Rolex has seen growing demand for personalised dial made of mother of pearl and gold, which cost anywhere between Rs 70,000 and Rs 2.5 lakh.