How Luxury Is Showing Up for Diwali Across the World

Diwali is now firmly on luxury’s global calendar, offering brands an opportunity to connect with Indian customers while tapping into the festival’s growing commercial potential. But while brands have learned how to make Ramadan and Lunar New Year meaningful moments in their marketing calendars, Diwali is still a work in progress.

Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, with its name originating from the Sanskrit word for “row of lights”. Its dates follow the lunar calendar, and the five-day festival begins with Dhanteras, an auspicious occasion for buying gold and jewelry, before culminating in Bhai Dooj. The main day, Lakshmi Puja, falls on November 8 this year. Celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, not across India as a whole, Diwali encompasses different regional traditions and customs.

For luxury brands, it offers an opportunity that extends beyond festive decoration: a moment when gifting, jewelry and buying something new carry cultural significance. India ranks among the world’s five fastest-growing luxury markets, with a market value of around $12 billion, according to Euromonitor International’s 2025 research. Combined with one of the largest diasporas globally, this allows luxury brands to connect with affluent Indian consumers both at home and beyond.

This year, India is seeing one of its busiest Diwali seasons yet in terms of brand participation. Ferragamo has created its first Diwali capsule dedicated to the country. Michael Kors is hosting its fourth dedicated party, this time in two cities. Valentino is celebrating its third Diwali in India, while Bvlgari has launched its first global campaign, marked by an evening in Jaipur.

Outside India, Diwali celebrations are also taking place. In New York, Sabyasachi’s Diwali reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 21 is a landmark moment, Cartier will once again host an annual Diwali event at its Fifth Avenue Mansion, while entrepreneur and influencer Anjula Acharia’s All That Glitters ball has also become a fixture. In London, the UK-India Creative Circle (UKICC), which brings together British and Indian creative industries, has made its annual Diwali celebration at the Royal Automobile Club a can’t-miss event. While brands such as Jimmy Choo and Cartier hosted Diwali events in London last year, however, there’s a sense that international luxury brands are less visible in this year’s celebrations. In Dubai, home to a large community of wealthy Indians, there is also little happening.

Diwali has momentum, but without a more coordinated approach, brands risk treating the festival as a series of isolated events rather than a global cultural and commercial opportunity.

What works in India

“India shops by occasion, not by season,” says Sumeet Yadav, head of Indian retail conglomerate Reliance Brands Limited. “Diwali is the biggest occasion of all: the one moment when buying something new is auspicious rather than indulgent, and when much of what you buy, you give away.” The build-up starts months ahead, he adds, opening what Yadev considers to be the company’s most important quarter of the year.

But even as brands compete for the Indian consumer, not every activation resonates. Mumbai-based Jaya Raheja, a tastemaker and very important luxury client, says: “Diwali events in India have increased, with all international brands now wanting to give clients a festive experience.” She does not attend them all, choosing those that feel distinctive, like Bvlgari’s. Her advice is to avoid cramming activations into the final two weeks before the festival. “It’s more exciting to have a build-up toward Diwali and a festive month.”

Passing the Light, Bvlgari’s first global Diwali campaign, centers on an installation by artist Doyel Joshi, made from 4,500 terracotta elements shaped into the house’s Serpenti motif in collaboration with the Kumhar community of potters. Presented at the Jaipur Center for Art on October 11, the work uses light as a metaphor for traditions passing between generations. With Indian creatives at the heart of the campaign, there was a genuine sense of connection. The fact that it extends beyond the installation into digital and retail experiences across Bvlgari’s global stores gives the initiative a more considered, cohesive feel, connecting its Indian creative roots with the brand’s international audience.

For Yadav, the difference between an event that lands and one that does not is meaning. His rule for brands is simple: “Bring the house to the festival, not the festival to the house.” Sticking diyas and marigolds onto a global campaign, he says, “isn’t a Diwali strategy, and the Indian client sees through it in a second.”

From Reliance Brands’s portfolio, he points to Ferragamo’s first-ever Diwali capsule, made exclusively for India, as well as Valentino’s third Diwali in the country, which began with an India-exclusive bag crafted by local artisans. Of Michael Kors’s fourth Diwali party, he says: “At four, it’s no longer a campaign; it’s a tradition.”

Premium luggage brand Tumi, meanwhile, has created Diwali windows and a gifting campaign in India annually since 2021. This year, the work will also run in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Global brands are beginning to see India not just as a market to sell into, but as a source of ideas and trends that can influence consumers around the world. “Cultural relevance is essential to earning sustained growth and real brand love in India,” says Yadav.

Playing catch-up beyond India

In New York, Diwali has largely been shaped by the diaspora, with luxury brands only beginning to follow. Acharia, founder and CEO of A-Series Investments and Management, started the All That Glitters ball about 15 years ago in her Tribeca loft; it has since become a fixture, with this year sponsored by Lexus. “Part of the mission has always been visibility,” she says. “We bring together South Asians making an impact across different industries and create a moment that shows the mainstream media that South Asians have a place in the broader pop culture narrative.”

Acharia believes there is room for more ambitious experiences. “Right now, we have quite a few parties, but we don’t have the Diwali equivalent of an Indian ballet yet, or many immersive experiences like we do to celebrate Western holidays. There’s so much we can do, and Diwali is a holiday that you can really experience through fashion, food, and lights.” Oushq, the platform publicist Jessel Taank is building for creatives from India and the Middle East, marked Diwali on October 19 with an evening co-hosted by Pritika Swarup, founder of Prakti Beauty, in partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) at The Standard Hotel in New York. Pairing editorial storytelling with e-commerce, the platform is due to launch by November.

Taank says the city’s celebrations are still driven more by individuals than brands. “I don’t know that brands have fully grasped how to celebrate Diwali and do it in an authentic way,” she says. Her advice to international houses is to work with an organization or individual who understands the festival and can lead the narrative.

Sabyasachi’s Diwali reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 21 could be an example of that approach: a designer working with one of New York’s great cultural institutions, following his multi-year collaboration with the Met. It will be the first Diwali event held at the museum.

London and Dubai: Room for more

London has its regulars, but its calendar remains less developed than New York’s. The UKICC’s party at the Royal Automobile Club on October 30, featuring a couture show by Anamika Khanna and jewelry by Amrapali, has been a regular fixture and offers a more direct celebration of the festival. This will be followed by a trunk show at Harrods’s Penthouse from November 2-5 with Amrapali.

Harrods is marking Diwali for a second year with a store-wide campaign running through November 8. It includes a Diwali gift box, live music, retail theatre activations, and a Diwali-inspired lighting display on its façade. Indian designer Gaurav Gupta is also presenting as part of the celebration. Indian luxury brand Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla is hosting an event at Selfridges’s 40 Duke, the retailer’s private members’ club, on October 24, while Rahul Mishra is also hosting a Diwali-themed soirée at the venue on November 3. All are shopping-based activations.

Chhavi Seth Mediratta, who’s worked with Tiffany & Co. on activations and has hosted pop-ups for Indian brands including Amrapali, says London’s calendar is missing meaningful moments this year, opting for shopping opportunities over actual connection. Half-term, which for many London schools runs from October 26-30, may play a part in the quieter feel. What matters more, though, is whether Diwali features in a brand’s long-term plans and budgets. Brands, she says, should show up “with respect, and not only when it’s commercially convenient”, which means working with South Asian creatives and communities beyond the festival and keeping the commitment consistent “year-to-year, rather than a one-off”.

Dubai, a second home to many high-spending Indians, has comparatively little happening, and people are taking note. Mukta Shahdadpuri, founder of The Style Circuit, a personal styling and fashion consultancy, has seen how significant the Indian community is in Dubai, both culturally and as consumers of global luxury brands. She believes there is a noticeable disconnect. “These are consumers who engage with luxury brands throughout the year,” she says, “yet there’s relatively little interaction around one of their most significant cultural occasions.”

Dipesh Depala, co-founder of luxury marketing agency Qode, has urged brands to embrace Diwali for years. “The feeling is that they spend so much with these brands yet the brands fail to engage them as they do other communities,” says Depala.

Bloomingdale’s Dubai is marking the festival for a second year with an edit spanning fashion, beauty and gifting. Chris Bonich, vice president of merchandising at Al Tayer Insignia, which operates the store, says the commitment extends beyond the festival. “Our commitment to the Indian customer goes beyond Diwali,” he says. “A department store should reflect the city and customers it serves.”

Change is coming, Depala says, but “at a snail’s pace”. Bonich believes the next step should be a major event, with headline performers and celebrities, staged by a luxury brand that already celebrates other cultural moments around the world. Diwali in Dubai could then become an extension of its global calendar, rather than an isolated activation.

Diwali cannot become a global luxury moment through décor or a one-night party. In cities with large Indian diasporas, brands need to work with Indian creatives, understand the traditions behind the festival, and invest in more than visual merchandising. India has shown what is possible. Dubai has the customer, the calendar and the appetite, but what it is still waiting for is a luxury house willing to go first, and to come back next year. “International luxury houses haven’t embraced the opportunity,” Shahdadpuri says. “The well-traveled global Indian community has a strong appetite for luxury, fashion and experiences. It’s about making a community feel seen, understood and valued beyond its spending power.”