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Indian designers have steadily expanded their reach overseas, presenting luxury wear, artisanal craft, and couture to international audiences, while underlining India’s cultural identity. Five names, Asha Sarabhai, Manish Malhotra, Anita Dongre, Ritu Kumar and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, stand out among those who have gone beyond domestic dominance to establish successful outlets and brands abroad.
Asha Sarabhai: From ateliers in Ahmedabad to outlets in Tokyo and London
Asha Sarabhai’s showcased at Victoria and Albert Museum in London
Asha Sarabhai, daughter of industrialist Gautam Sarabhai, was among the first Indian designers to establish footprints abroad in the 1980s. Known for minimalist silhouettes and handwoven fabrics, her collaboration with Japan’s Miyake Design Studio gave her exposure in Tokyo’s fashion circles, a rare feat for an Indian designer at the time. Sarabhai later opened Egg in London, a boutique store in the city’s Belgravia district, which became a cult space for connoisseurs of understated, artisanal clothing.
Sarabhai’s work underscored the global appetite for India’s crafts long before the country’s fashion council institutionalised events like India Fashion Week that was founded in 2000.
Manish Malhotra: Dubai’s couture magnet since 2006
Manish Malhotra’s flagship store in Dubai Mall
Bollywood’s celebrated stylist and costume designer Manish Malhotra was the first of India’s contemporary designers to establish a permanent overseas presence in the Middle East. In 2006, he opened a flagship store in Dubai, tapping into the emirate’s position as a shopping hub and its dense Indian diaspora. According to Dubai Statistics Centre, Indian expatriates constitute 27 pc of Dubai’s population, making them the single largest foreign community.
Malhotra’s Dubai flagship offers bridal wear, embellished lehengas and Indo-Western couture. While the store caters to grand South Asian weddings hosted in the United Arab Emirates, it has also attracted Arab clients seeking avant-garde gowns merging embroidery with high-glamour.
Anita Dongre: Ethnic luxury enters New York
Anita Dongre launched her flagship store in New York in 2017
When Anita Dongre launched her flagship store in New York in 2017, she became one of the few Mumbai designers to enter the American retail high street with a sustainability lens. Dongre’s brand opened two stores in quick succession, one in West Broadway, SoHo and another in the city’s tony West Village.
The expansion coincided with both India’s booming wedding-wear industry and growing recognition in the United States of South Asian women executives, professionals and second-generation brides seeking India-inspired ensembles. Nearly 4.4 million Persons of Indian Origin, call the US their home, the second largest Asian-origin group after Chinese Americans.
Dongre’s stores, branded under the House of Anita Dongre, quickly gained attention in American fashion media, which highlighted the revival of Indian crafts like gota patti embroidery as global design stories.
Ritu Kumar: A pioneer who brought Indian textiles to Europe
Princess Diana was a Patron of Ritu Kumar’s London store. She wore for designer outfit for her Pakistan visit
Often considered the matriarch of contemporary Indian fashion, Ritu Kumar made early forays abroad by establishing a boutique in London in the 1990s. Specialising in sari-inspired attire, block-printed garments and ethnic bridal collections, her London store responded to the growing South Asian community in the UK, then estimated at 1.5 million people according to official data.
Her presence in London was emblematic, as it brought traditional Indian clothing to a city that was not only a global fashion capital but also the cultural hub of a significant Indian-origin population. Unlike younger designers who leaned heavily on Indo-Western fusion, Kumar deliberately retained the Indian silhouette, making her boutique a destination for classic designs.
Ritu Kumar does not currently have a physical boutique in London, as their London branch closed in 1999. However, one can still purchase Ritu Kumar designs, including bridal wear, sarees, and dresses, from authorised online retailers like Aza Fashions and Pernia’s Pop Up Shop in the UK.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee: Indian maximalism lands in New York
Sabyasachi Mukherjee opened his flagship store in New York in 2022
In 2022, Kolkata-based Sabyasachi Mukherjee opened his flagship store in New York, combining bridal couture, accessories and fine jewellery. Known for opulent maximalist gowns and intricate embroidery, Mukherjee’s entry into the US coincided with collaborations with global retail houses, including H&M and Bergdorf Goodman. His brand, focussing on heritage revival, was strategically placed to appeal to both Indian-origin buyers and luxury consumers seeking one-of-a-kind couture.
His New York presence also coincided with a post-pandemic resurgence of high-value weddings in the US Indian-American families, the fastest-growing wealthy immigrant group, spend extensively on bridal couture. US wedding industry figures show the South Asian wedding market is valued at USD 50 billion globally, with a significant share concentrated in North America.
These overseas ventures are not just diaspora-focussed retail strategies but also part of the globalisation of Indian brands.
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