Vogue Chaos Issue 7: Dior's Offensive Voyage to India
Breaking down everything Dior did wrong and explaining the cultural context of the Indian luxury market
There were several reasons as to why the Dior India show was just as offensive as I expected it to be. As one of the few Indians in the independent fashion commentary space, I feel it is my responsibility to start discussions and inform because I have noticed a lot of my friends have avoided speaking on this, afraid they might say something wrong. Lets look at everything that was wrong with the Dior Mumbai show
Offense 1: Showing their Pre-fall 2023 collection instead of a special capsule collection. When Dior presented their original collection back in December 2022, I gave it a positive review because of their incorporation of Indian craftsmanship, silhouettes, and colours, without appropriation. When they announced in January that they would be showing in India, I expected it to be a continuation of their relationship with the Chanakya School where they explore new ideas and present a limited edition collection in Mumbai. The show was labelled Fall 2023 on their Instagram which lead me to believe it will be a brand new collection, but in all their media mentions and even on vogue runway, it is shown under the Pre-fall collection, with a mix of old and new photos. It was genuinely messy and felt like an after-thought. It is as if they heard of the NMACC Gala and decided to piggy-back on the hype and international attention it would receive. Alas, the NMACC completely overshadowed this event but more on that in another newsletter.
Offense 2: Acting like acknowledging their use of Indian craftsmanship is a favour to us all. This is not just Dior’s fault but also a sentiment echoed by the press. In a New York Times article from 2020, it was revealed that all top luxury brands including Valentino, Versace, Gucci, Hermès, and even Chanel who own their own embroidery atelier Maison Lesage, produce in India. Here, they are able to get away with wages as low as $225 per month, and sometimes do not even meet this minimum. India’s expertise in textiles and embroideries is well known to anyone who buys luxury regularly. Not just this, several designers have openly shown their appreciation for Indian craft including Schiaparelli, Yves Saint Laurent, Balmain, Alexander McQueen, among others. Even the idea that we need this acknowledgement from the West has its roots in orientalism.
Offense 3: The level of disrespect and lack of effort. From the very moment they decided to show at the Gateway of India, a monument of British colonialism, the show was cursed. With a Toran, a doorway decorated with embroidery to welcome guests, as the backdrop and marigold infested panels along the runway, the set showed minimal effort. I have seen better sets at Indian weddings. The guest list was a standard Bollywood affair and every brown person from the diaspora they could think of.
LVMH’s motives are very clear - from picking Deepika Padukone as their brand ambassador, to forcing us to live through this insulting experience, they have realised that the Indian market has money. As the world struggles with a recession and the effects of the pandemic, Indian economy is set to grow despite it all because of its sheer size. The Indian diaspora based in the Western markets represents an elite with deep pockets that the luxury market has not targeted till now. We saw this phenomenon play out with the ‘Chinese customer’ in the last decade when the West made several wrong moves in their attempts to pander to them. These are mistakes you can expect when you see a group of people as a mindless mass of a customer rather than someone real.
The question now isn’t whether other brands will rush to acknowledge their ties to India. They will go wherever money is. The problem is that it is hard for European brands to crack the Indian market because the customer is very unfamiliar to them. Here, most of the luxury spending goes to traditional wedding wear. Unfortunately, as we see in Dior’s attempt, they cannot target this customer with their watered down creations because you can get something infinitely better from a local designer. They are also far behind Gucci, Prada, and Armani in their branding. These brand names rhyme easily with Punjabi songs and Dior doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Jokes apart, they need intense cultural training before they decide to step foot here or they will be laughed off.
The government is not too friendly to foreign luxury spending either with taxes as high as 28% on imported goods. This leads to most of India’s foreign luxury spending taking place in Dubai or Europe during travel. This creates further complexity because Dior needs to brand itself in India while the transaction takes places somewhere else. All you can buy at the two Dior stores in India right now are their basic bags, shoes, scarves, some accessories, and makeup. I am very interested to see how they will navigate these challenges but since LVMH is behind this effort I have no doubt that money will open the Gateway of India.
thank you for this! great insight especially for the ones like me who don't know much the context. Feels like a new yassified colonialism. very sad
Great Insights-and so true for big brands and especially for Dior. They have also took a similar approach in their collection shown in the Panathenaic Stadium here in Greece. No understanding of both the Greek aesthetics/sensibilities and the history of the location. Nothing has changed since their out-of-context autumn/winter 1951 haute couture collection in Acropolis.