Valentino in talks with Reliance Brands for Indian debut

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 10, 2017

The Italian fashion house Valentino looks set to have its official launch in India in partnership with Reliance Brands.

Valentino and Reliance Brands have reportedly struck a deal in June that will push forward with launching the luxury fashion brand in India. However, financial details of the agreement have not yet been released. "Reliance Brands and Valentino are working on figuring out the parnership arrangement," sources familiar with the matter told the Economic Times.

In July 2016 Valentino appeared set to launch its retail presence in India and was tying up negotiations with IDFS Tradings as well as having talks with DLF Luxury Retail. However, nothing concrete came of these talks and, whilst the official Valentino website states that it does ship to India, there has been no official launch of the brand in India as yet.

Reliance Brands is part of Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, and has partnered with other luxury and non-luxury international brands such as Marks and Spencer, Diesel, Thomas Pink, and Steve Madden. The past year has seen a rapid influx of international brands, both luxury and bridge to luxury, into India and this has been attributed to the growth of the high end Indian fashion market. Sheetal Mafatlal, president of Mafatlal Luxury who had previously been in talks with Valentino herself commented that there is a newly developing group of 25 to 40 year olds in India who have “the disposable income and interest to keep up with international fashion”.

Valentino is part of Valentino SpA, Valentino Fashion Group, and its headquarters are located in Milan, Italy. The fashion house is currently owned by Mayhoola for Investments Spc, Qatar.