Rs 2 lakh jacket, Rs 24K graphic T-shirt: How luxury streetwear is priced in India and abroad

Global luxury brands quite successfully latched themselves onto the streetwear bogey last year. Givenchy’s collab with streetwear brand Bstroy, for example, gave us a collection priced between $375 and $6,000.

For all the noise on social media about the stratospheric prices of the limited-edition jackets from Aryan Khan’s new luxury streetwear brand Dyavol.x, the entire collection was sold out within an hour of its launch. Some would say that the charisma of Shah Rukh Khan - as the much older face of the young brand - along with Aryan (the two starred in an Aryan-directed commercial), did the trick.

When the launch was first announced, many roasted Aryan on social media for ‘insane pricing’: Rs 2,00,555 for a jacket, and Rs 25,000-47,000 for T-shirts. And yet, the brand’s website crashed due to high traffic within an hour of opening for business on April 30.

The 30 Signature X jackets were autographed by SRK personally. A fan wrote on the brand’s Instagram, “Dude this jacket is awesome. 30 of them have @iamsrk's signature... I don’t even wash it to last more.”

For Aryan Khan and his Bulgarian partners, Leti Blagoeva and Bunty Singh, the pricing was in line with the brand’s luxury positioning, as much as the quality being put out. “We are looking at evolving Dyavol.x into an international brand. It is a fine balance between appealing to the young and the discerning. The quality of anything priced lower is suspect. The brand stands at a crossroads of luxury, disruptive design and quality,” Aryan Khan says.

Aryan Khan says the idea for D’yavol came to him while he was a student at USC in California.

Fashion analysts say streetwear consumers demand a brand that blends affordability and exclusivity. New York-based fashion analyst Kate Parker says, “A very popular brand in New York such as Supreme ranges from $38-48. The most coveted garment, the box logo crewneck, goes for $158. Any lower pricing affects quality.”

Hypebeast, a Hong Kong-listed research company that’s focused on global contemporary lifestyle and culture, has interesting research on how much the young spend on streetwear: “Lower-income respondents are willing to spend up to five times as much on streetwear per month as they were on non-streetwear products. Male respondents reported slightly higher spending than female respondents while non-gender-binary respondents reported spending significantly more. A high proportion (62%) of consumer survey respondents indicated they believe streetwear products are always in style, while another 22% believe streetwear stays in style for at least one year, marking a product lifespan that’s much longer than traditional fashion items. With the seasonless styling of streetwear, brands can sell similar items year round, with new styles occasionally introduced, which brings up the pricing.”

While Supreme, the highest-rated streetwear brand in the world, sells apparel between $38 and $160, True X Herb’s streetwear is priced at $100 and more. The Japanese brand Undercover is priced as high as $292 for a graphic cotton tee and $1,800 for a jacket. Even in India, modern streetwear brands such as Capsul, Almost Gods, Huemn, Dhruv Kapoor, and Nor Black Nor White are priced anywhere between Rs 2500 and Rs 40,000 (much lower than Rs 2 lakh but much higher than what you would expect from a streetwear brand). For instance, Nor Black Nor White’s Forest Flair Pants are priced as high as $348 (Rs 29,000).

Global luxury brands quite successfully latched themselves onto the streetwear bogey last year. Givenchy’s collab with streetwear brand Bstroy gave us a collection priced between $375 and $6,000. Stella McCartney’s collaboration with Japanese streetwear designer Yoshitomo Nara is priced between $200 and $4000, while Louis Vuitton x Supreme collection was priced $500 upwards.

Bathing Ape, or Bape, is graphically stylish and channels the Japanese anime culture.

Last year came the news that more luxury brands are making streetwear, some in collaboration with edgy young brands. Hoodies, tracksuits, T-shirts, sweatpants and pajamas aren’t clothes we associate with luxury or the wealthy, but for a new generation of consumers, streetwear, which originated in Harlem in the 1980s, was their calling card, their choice of clothing.

Luxury brands responded. Brands such as Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga made streetwear the cornerstone of their collections in 2022, to appeal to a growing community of sporty, urban young all over the world.

And yet, there are growing murmurs in the fashion world about how luxury is over its streetwear obsession and brands such as Balenciaga and Versace are pivoting away to a more tailored silhouette. Business of Fashion has reported that in America, retailers have seen a trend away from hoodies and T-shirts and towards loafers and Oxford shirts.

And yet, says Parker, streetwear isn’t going to be another flash in the pan. “It is no longer a trend; streetwear is another category of clothing that the young will spend on, along with their Oxfords and their loafers. Hoodies and sneakers aren’t going anywhere else.”

Internationally, streetwear brands will continue to sway trends. Supreme, under parent company VF Corp., is expected to generate $600 million in revenue in 2023, up from $500 million in 2022, and remains the No.1 traded brand for apparel on the global resale platform StockX.

Younger brands have back stories, design elements and a swag that the young find fascinating. True x Herb comes from Colombia but has a global footprint for its genderless streetwear. Japanese brand A Bathing Ape or Bape, another biggie, is graphically stylish and channels the Japanese anime culture. Stüssy by Californian surfer Shawn Stussy sells very New York-style graphic T-shirts, while Atlanta-based streetwear boutique A Ma Maniere is a coveted collaborator, and is often tapped by Nike’s Jordan brand for collaborations and product launches.

A Ma Maniere has also co-designed a Lanvin capsule collection that featured tailored tracksuits, fleece hoodies and sneakers. In London, Corteiz’s T-shirts, jackets and sneakers are recognizable on the streets by its Alcatraz logo—resembling the outline of the former prison island in San Francisco Bay. It has influential fans such as British rapper Stormzy and Abloh, who wore the brand’s logo-emblazoned socks to the Met Gala.

From Corteiz

India’s streetwear culture is also fuelled by independent brands. Almost Gods put out streetwear with prints and designs inspired by Indian culture and history. From the Indus Valley Jacket (Rs 14,250) to the jacquard jacket (Rs 22,500), and shorts (Rs 13,500) inspired by someone’s grandmother's sofa covers, and the Basmatee T-shirt (Rs 3,750) that's inspired by our basmati rice and features long thread embroidery.

Huemn’s apparel is a cross between comfort and conscientious experimentation, balancing wearability and style, with a focus on handcrafted and unisex clothing. “Being an Indian, you are bombarded with various resources in craftsmanship. We use embroideries, for example, but in very small sizes to promote hand-work. When we have designs that require scale, we use prints. However, we always use traditional techniques in modern ways. Even our washed T-shirts are all made by hand, so no two T-shirts will be the same. And we may have 3,000 of these,” says Huemn founder Pranav Misra.

By Dhruv Kapoor

Dhruv Kapoor’s eponymous label made its Milan debut in 2023 with contemporary striped denim ensembles cut loose and sportswear tracksuits. He marries sharp tailoring boasting squarish blazers paired with flared and elongated bottoms in solids, bearing violet brushstrokes, or dotted with dangling crystals, all paired with Marsèll footwear and Huma eyewear.

And now we have Khan’s brand D’yavol, an idea that came to him, he says, as a student at USC in California. His luxury brand will go beyond apparel. It has already launched vodka and there are three more verticals on the way.