The LV lights

The house has roped in artist and scenographer Rajeev Sethi for the job. Store windows will showcase trunks especially crafted and hand-painted in India on banana fibre paper,glowing from inside like Diwali lanterns. Merchandising and packaging will also be inspired by Diwali themes.

The India tribute is especially significant as it isn’t related to a fashion fad,where one country is just a ‘hot’ trend and an inspiration for a line of clothes or handbags. No other international company has celebrated India on this scale before. It’s also a first for Vuitton,famed for opening shops in the most prime locations in a city,who have never celebrated any other festival besides Christmas on its windows. “The Diwali windows will run through Christmas too and will be changed only in mid-January,” says Alain Lavital,the label’s European PR director.

Is this a carrot to lure the Indian customer? A shift in gear from Vuitton’s China-heavy Asian strategy? Vuitton’s Spring 2011 fashion collection under designer Marc Jacobs has a strong Chinese influence. Vuitton has as many as 32 stores in China today; the first opened in 1992.

“Not at all,” says Tikka Shatrujit Singh,adviser to the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy behemoth,owned by Bernard Arnault,the seventh richest man in the world. “This is our CEO Yves Carcelle’s idea,he is crazy about India. Diwali symbolises sharing,love and family and he feels it should be taken to an international audience.”

“Yves is a pioneer in spotting the uniqueness in different cultures,” says Singh. “He opened a Vuitton store in Mongolia and introduced the country to the international fashion press; he opened a store in Beirut this July to show the world that it is a safe city and ready for business.”