Week in Review | India's Big Fat $38 Billion Wedding Market, Fashion Inflation, China Concept Stores, Tomes of the Times, Dennis Freedman, VFiles

LONDON, United Kingdom — This week on BoF, it was all about the big fat Indian wedding industry, estimated to be worth more than $38 billion a year. Last week, I immersed myself in all things bridal, blingy and Indian to get to the bottom of why this market is so large and understand the trends that will shape it in the years to come.

I learned so much that we split the article into two parts, the first examining the sheer scale of the market and key market drivers and the second zooming into some of the major players as well as future trends, which, according to several people I spoke to, may include dialing back some of the excess and extravagance, and bringing prices back into the realms of reality.

Prices for global luxury goods will continue to increase, however, according to Lauren Sherman's excellent piece on fashion inflation, which found that prices of luxury goods have increased by over 60 percent in the last decade, more than twice the rate of general inflation. We took a hard look at the drivers behind this phenomenon and uncovered some interesting truths, notably that one of the key drivers of fashion inflation is simply the luxury consumer's willingness to pay more and more and more.

Over in China, however, there does seem to be an ongoing move away from the big luxury brands, as evidenced by the rise of independent fashion boutiques outside the megamalls that have dominated luxury retail in the world's largest country until now. Indeed, according to Genevieve Flaven, concept stores like Ink, located in a Beijing hutong and stocking avant-garde brands like Rick Owens, Boris Bidjan Saberi and Damir Doma, are growing fast.

In other news this week, Colin McDowell weighed in on the Tomes of the Times, providing his always insightful and critical look into the fashion books that he has been devouring in recent weeks. LVMH further signaled its interest in the luxury hospitality sector as more and more luxury consumers come to value collecting experiences over collecting objects. And, our friends at 032c shared an in-depth piece about Dennis Freedman's career at the intersection of media, retail, art and fashion.

That’s all from the BoF HQ this week! Have a great weekend.