Are Indian models becoming luxury’s new it factor?

For years, global fashion flirted with India through embroidery, Kolhapuris, weddings and the occasional Bollywood front row moment. Now, it’s casting the country’s faces at the centre of the frame.

Global luxury brands are casting Indian models beyond token diversity

In December, Bhavitha Mandava walked into fashion history by opening Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show, becoming the first Indian model to do so. The opening look sets the tone for buyers, editors and the entire industry ecosystem. Bhavitha’s rise from architecture student to Chanel opener within a year, after being discovered on a New York subway says a lot about what global casting directors are responding to right now, which is intelligence and individuality. And then there’s the new archetype breaking through: the unexpected Indian.

Recently an engineer from Mumbai named Shubham Vaidkar walked for Giorgio Armani at Milan Fashion Week after quitting a conventional job to pursue modelling. His transformation from site plans to runway lights has gone viral, not just for the career pivot but for the representation of Indian talent that is no longer coming from traditional fashion pipelines alone. The industry is discovering faces through social media, side hustles and second lives.

Across Milan Fashion Week 2026, Indian models have appeared repeatedly across major labels. This is not a one time thing. India is one of the last large luxury markets that is still young, aspirational and digitally loud.

For decades, the industry defaulted to a narrow, vaguely European neutrality. Casting directors are now leaning into deeper skin tones and sharper facial characters. The Indian look is no longer being altered for global campaigns; it’s being positioned as distinctive. Today’s Indian models are architects, engineers, designers, students—people with parallel identities and global mobility. Bhavitha studied architecture and interactive design. Shubham discovered modelling during engineering.

India hasn’t reached the cultural export dominance of Korea or the commercial muscle China once wielded in luxury. Many global brand tie-ups still lean heavily on celebrity visibility rather than pure runway influence. The pipeline is growing, but the ecosystem of agencies, international placements, sustained editorial presence, remains a work in progress.

Fashion follows momentum, like money, attention, cultural confidence. Right now, India has all three. The industry is responding the way it always does: by putting that momentum on the runway.

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