India’s Masters of Luxury Define What Luxury Means Today

Luxury today is no longer defined by excess alone. When Robb Report India asked some of the country’s leading designers and tastemakers what luxury truly means to them, the answers revealed a quieter, more personal narrative, one rooted in time, feeling, craft, and the freedom to live well. Their words, taken together, reflect how luxury has evolved from something to be acquired into something to be experienced.

Luxury for Tarun Tahiliani

For Indian Couturier Tarun Tahiliani, luxury is deeply intimate and unmistakably personal. “For me to sit in this room and look at the banyan and play the piano or eat simple fresh food is truly luxurious,” he says, dismissing the idea that refinement must come with ceremony. Even the promise of a Michelin-starred meal fails to compete with the comfort of familiarity and calm. “If you say I’m going to take you to a Michelin-starred four-star restaurant, I’d rather be here. This is my definition of luxury. It may not be yours.” His view underscores a central truth of modern luxury: the power to choose what brings contentment.

Luxury for Malik J. Fernando

That emotional definition is echoed by Malik J. Fernando, Founder & Managing Director/Chairman of Resplendent Ceylon, who strips luxury of its material trappings. “Authenticity, sense of place,” he says, explaining that it has little to do with hardware or visible markers of wealth. “It’s not about, you know, the hardware. It’s how it kind of makes you feel.” For him, luxury is not a goal to be achieved or a possession to be acquired, but an atmosphere that resonates on a deeper, sensory level.

Luxury for Rahul Mishra and Divya Mishra

Time, often overlooked in conversations around indulgence, becomes the ultimate currency for Indian Couturier Rahul Mishra. His definition is succinct yet telling: “I think time is the biggest measure of luxury.” In a world governed by deadlines and constant output, the freedom to slow down, reflect, and create without urgency has become a rare privilege, one that money alone cannot always buy. For fashion designer Divya Mishra, "Luxury is not measured by achieving or getting some things."

Luxury for JJ Valaya

For Fashion Designer JJ Valaya, luxury lies in alignment and fulfilment. “I have the luxury to do what I love doing. Can you imagine anything better than that?” he asks. Whether it is fashion, interiors, photography, or travel, the ability to enjoy one’s craft, and in some cases make a living from it, is what he values most. For Valaya, luxury ultimately distills into something far simpler and more profound: “I think peace and happiness are the biggest luxury that anybody can strive for.”

Luxury for Ashok and Aashica Khanna

That sentiment finds an almost word-for-word reflection in the philosophy of Aashica Khanna, Executive Director, Ananda in the Himalayas. Her definition is direct and unambiguous: “I think peace and happiness are the biggest luxuries that anybody can strive for.” In an age increasingly focused on mental well-being, her perspective reinforces the idea that true luxury is internal, not performative.

While many definitions lean towards the emotional and intangible, Ashok Khanna, Founder of Ananda in the Himalayas, grounds luxury in the physical and experiential. “I feel it’s feel and touch,” he says, pointing to “exceptional quality, exclusivity, experience” as essential components. His view serves as a reminder that even as luxury evolves, craftsmanship, material integrity, and discernment remain foundational.

Luxury for Sunita Shekhawat

Craft, in its purest form, is also central to how Sunita Shekhawat, Creative Director of Sunita Shekhawat Jaipur, understands luxury. “Anything to do with the finer aspect of craftsmanship is luxury to me,” she says, highlighting the enduring value of skill, heritage, and the human hand in creating objects of lasting worth.

Taken together, these voices reveal a shared understanding that luxury today is less about accumulation and more about intention. In the words of those who shape India’s creative and cultural landscape, luxury is no longer something to chase, but something to recognise when it is already present.