Israel-based luxury fashion house Eli Bitton officially entered the Indian market by opening its first store at West Delhi in March 2023. Following the grand opening of the brand’s first flagship store at West Patel Nagar, the brand plans to take the partnership/collaborations route to expansion in the country instead of opening company-owned exclusive stores, Yehuda Bitton, Chief Operating Officer & Fashion Designer at Eli Bitton told IndiaRetailing.
India entry
India is a familiar market for Eli Bitton, which used to collaborate with a few fashion houses in India for fabrics, before the pandemic.
It is the pandemic that led to the brand deciding to enter the India market directly.
The fashion house that the brand worked with couldn’t recover after the second wave. “After this, we had many employees who were looking for jobs. This is when we thought of launching our own fashion house in Delhi instead of collaborating with others,” Bitton explained.
The brand needed enough space to showcase its premium collection properly. It, therefore, chose Patel Nagar over other localities in Delhi famous for designer stores because the locality offered the kind of space the brand needed and also had latent potential.
Matching expectations
First, the brand provided online services in India to gauge the response. Satisfied by the response, the brand decided to set up shop in New Delhi.
“When we came to India, we saw that it is different from our expectations and people want luxury fashion,” he added.
The newly-opened store thus features a large selection of ready-to-wear embroidered luxury evening gowns, mini gowns, lehengas and more available in all sizes ready-to-try.
“In the short time, we had around 5-6 clients who flew down from other states just to get their hands on our exquisite collection,” said Bitton who was happy with the response the brand was receiving in the country.
“The majority of our clients are repeat customers who purchased online or those who follow us on social media and have been anticipating the store’s launch. The most satisfying aspect is that 90% of the women who tried our designs purchased them,” he added.
“Several Indian celebrities have also worn our designs including Sunny Leone, Shweta Tiwari, Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia and more,” he added.
In addition to India, Eli Bitton has fashion houses in Haifa, Israel, where it is present for the last three decades.
