Hermes launches luxury limited edition Indian saris

French luxury brand Hermes has launched a limited edition Indian sari range as it seeks to “connect” with Indian culture and the country’s elegant traditions, it said.

Indian women may wear Western dress during the day but for weddings and other formal occasions they often prefer to wear six-yard (five-and-a-half-metre) saris, reflecting the strong pull of tradition.

“This is part of our effort to connect to India’s culture and to the tradition of elegance of Indian women,”Bertrand Michaud, president of Hermes India, said.

“We have put all our skills into making them to pay homage to the Indian tradition,” he said, adding there were no plans yet to make the collection a permanent addition to the company’s offerings.

Michaud said the sale of the 28 saris was an effort by the Paris-based company “to associate itself with the country”.

“It is not a marketing tool, we won’t make a fortune with them,” he said. One line of saris is priced at 300,000 rupees (€4,504), while another is priced at 400,000 rupees (€6,004), Michaud said.

Hermes last year offered a highly successful luxury Chinese brand – Shang Xia – aimed at raising its profile in the Chinese market and using China’s craft tradition.

The launch of the saris, created in Paris and made of a variety of fabrics, from cashmere to twill silk, comes with the company to win new luxury buyers in different markets.

This is the second time Hermes has offered a line of limited edition saris. Its first batch was released for their millennium collection in 2000.