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Prints of Rajasthan. “We are sitting on a gold mine,” she says. “If a fellowship can take a very basic design and release it worldwide for that outrageous price, it decent shows that we don’t know how to market our products. If any fool were to buy this [Hermès] sari, if any Indian were to buy it! I cannot see a senses to own this product.”
Hermès, however, says that selling a sari in India is not alluring coals to Newcastle. Rather, it wants to “connect with Indian praxis and elegance,” says Bertrand Michaud, president of Hermès India. And there is model, thanks to Hermès’ Marwari scarves (prints inspired by the rare horses of Jodhpur) and sari-dresses designed by Jean Paul Gaultier in shoot up 2008 when he was creative director of the brand. Those, however, were riffs; this is a more significant solicitation. “It is like Indians selling wine in France,” sniffs one Indian fad expert. “To sell a sari in India takes Gallic enrage.”
Michaud prefers to call it homage. “The idea of the saris was to accept Indian culture and offer an Hermès interpretation of this traditional garment,” he says. Indeed, the make’s entry into India follows its successful Shang Xia brand in China, which blends living quarters-grown products with Hermès sensibilities.
Source: Financial Times