AHMEDABAD, India—At a fashion boutique in one of India’s industrial boomtowns, the wives of factory owners and textile exporters sipped tea and mulled spending hundreds of dollars on a handbag covered in thousands of gold-colored crystals. Shalini Garg, whose husband is a property developer, plopped down $2,000 for a clutch with an inlaid chevron design. She said she likes to have a fancy bag when she makes an entrance at parties. “I usually hold it for an hour and send it back to the car,” she said, noting that it was rather...
As sales growth slows in China, luxury-goods makers are looking to the new wealth growing in India, which is being combined with an increase in appetite for luxury brands. The number of millionaire Indian households worth hundreds of dollars has grown by 17% from 2014 to 2015, and this is expected to triple over the next five years. Additionally, luxury sales in India rose 25% in 2014 compared with 7% in China, says Euromonitor.