THE NEW WAVE OF LUXURY VISUAL MERCHANDISING IS HERE IN INDIA!

Trends come in waves.

Actually, it would be accurate to compare it with waves. They announce their presence with authority, drowning everything in their path.

After the crescendo, it recedes back into oblivion, leaving a sort of wild west for other trends to capture and dominate.

Be it anything - fashion, technology, business - the trend life cycle helps us understand that innovative ideas aren;t truly groundbreaking, but rather, a ‘better; repackaged version of what-has-gone-by to suit the modern sensibilities of the world.

India, the fastest-growing major economy in the world, has a middle class that’s getting richer by the day. To cater to that said middle class, major global brands, from high luxury to fast fashion, are opening up shops in the country.

Calling some of the biggest and busiest cities home, Indians belonging to the aforementioned middle class love a good value and greater hospitality-esque experience.

These approaches have roughly taken shape into four approaches – drawing on motifs of the world gone by and the world to come and combining them to weave something that’s truly novel.

1.) Heritage Simplicity

Nothing sails the boat of Indian luxury quite like the consumption driven by big-fat-Indian weddings.

Retailers are turning to their own backyard (figuratively speaking of course), drawing inspiration from the interiors of the palaces that dot our land.

Others are collaborating with home-grown talent who blend their take on India’s culture and history and combine it with modernity, which ends up with Indian furniture and wall decor with contemporary lighting, often expressed through clever visual merchandising and store layout design.

2.) Curatorial Spaces

There’s a new, truly 21st-century cascading effect in play today, which goes something like ‘rising education lead to rising middle-class lead to the rising class of people enjoying finer arts’.

Satisfying the need for the said finer art, they frequent museums and art galleries and consume expensive products.

Coinciding somewhere in between lies a retail store that borrows from museums and galleries, proudly showcasing sculptures and arts donned in a share closer to white.

The use of Roman-inspired aesthetics and splashing rough textures next to glossy finishes in monochrome creates a dramatic, awe-inducing environment. These elements are carefully woven into store layout design and visual merchandising to elevate the overall experience.

3.) Indian Motifs

There have been many great civilizations in the history of the world. Indian civilization would come in every single conversation over it.

The culture that gave birth to, the culture that almost 20% of the world’s population subscribes to, the motifs of the culture are finding new homes in the form of retail stores.

Indic fonts that mix the local culture with modernity are being incorporated by offshore brands setting up shop here to create that sense of connection with their audience.

Indian cultural icons and red tones are also being inculcated to ground the brands within the culture, which further symbolizes a sense of love, strength, prosperity, and celebration.

4.) Classic minimalism

If there was a lingua franca in the world of design, it would be minimalism. Here in retail stores, it seems to be the case as well.

Offering clean, minimal, and pastel palettes in architecture, coupled with wood and industrial details would speak volumes.

Associating the minimalist design language with the heritage of that particular city - be it a typical old family home or an industrial complex of yesteryears - is another such approach that has seen a revival in the recent past.