Darshan Mehta would have scoffed at being referred to as a legend.
However it’s the phrase being utilized by the retail and style business to explain the previous managing director and chief govt officer of Reliance Manufacturers Ltd. following his demise Wednesday at age 64 from cardiac arrest.
Former colleagues praised his power, imaginative and prescient and dedication to the expansion of the retail business in India, holding in thoughts international requirements, in addition to the heat of his friendships.
He’s credited with rising Reliance Manufacturers by bringing greater than 50 international manufacturers into the luxurious and aspirational luxurious sectors in India, together with Valentino, Balenciaga, Canali, Tiffany & Co., Ermenegildo Zegna, Giorgio Armani, Bottega Veneta, Jimmy Choo, Burberry and Pottery Barn, amongst others, even venturing into the sweetness house with a partnership with Sephora in 2023.
He usually spoke about being the primary worker of Reliance Manufacturers, which he constructed right into a powerhouse over greater than 17 years. Over the past 5 years he additionally added a brand new dimension to the group by bringing in native designers together with Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla (Abu Sandeep), Manish Malhotra, Rahul Mishra, Anamika Khanna, Abraham & Thakore, Raghavendra Rathore and Ritu Kumar, amongst others.
“At RBL, we have now been pushed by a powerful conviction that each model, whether or not or not it’s Raghavendra Rathore, Ritu Kumar or a Giorgio Armani — every has its personal beating coronary heart, its personal style vocabulary and its personal cache of loyal clients, throughout geographies. On the identical time, we consistently watch the evolution of shoppers’ wardrobes. Over the previous few years, we discover that early adopters in India have turns into fashionistas in their very own proper. As a part of this evolution, fashionwear crafted by Indian designers is discovering rising house within the wardrobes of those shoppers,” Mehta instructed WWD when this shift within the enterprise started.
In his private life, he made time for trekking, working, studying extensively and holding an open thoughts — at all times making time to hitch the dots, and suppose via the subsequent enterprise, addition or retail opening.
“He formed the business. There have been just a few luxurious manufacturers in India earlier than RBL — at the moment, India is in each worldwide model’s eye,” mentioned Sunil Sethi, president of the Trend Design Council of India.
“I used to be truthfully actually shocked,” mentioned Renzo Rosso, OTB’s founder and president, about his enterprise accomplice in India since 2010 when Diesel entered the market.
“He was certainly one of a sort, actually outstanding.…We spent plenty of time collectively, from Delhi to Mumbai. He confirmed me what the cities had been like 20 years in the past. India again then…was a very completely different world, and but creatively, it had a lot potential,” Rosso mentioned. Since 2010, Marni and MM6 Maison Margiela, additionally below the OTB umbrella, had been launched in India in partnership with Reliance Manufacturers.
“Actually, I nonetheless can’t imagine he’s gone,” mentioned Rosso.
Rathore, an Indian designer who Mehta introduced into the group, shared: “His legacy is just not loud, however enduring — a quiet testomony to what the considerate corporatization of the design neighborhood can actually obtain,” describing him as an individual who “quietly redefined the panorama of Indian style.”
“With Darshan Mehta’s untimely passing, we have now misplaced a visionary — somebody whose trendy, holistic thoughts formed concepts, areas and relationships alike. Over practically a decade, my brother Paolo and I got here to know Darshan first as a valued enterprise accomplice, and in the end as a pal,” mentioned Stefano Canali, president and CEO of Canali.
“He introduced a cosmopolitan perspective to all the pieces he touched — from model technique to the architectural design of Reliance Manufacturers’ headquarters — at all times mixing a worldwide outlook with cultural depth. He approached partnerships with quiet power and a long-term imaginative and prescient, at all times searching for to create worth that was each enduring and mutual. His affect on India’s luxurious panorama is lasting, however what we are going to miss most is his heat, his mind, and his quiet integrity,” Canali mentioned.
In conversations with WWD over greater than a decade, Mehta stayed constant in his perception that the markets had been solely going to see progress.
“I’ve at all times shied away from articulating imaginative and prescient statements, it seems like a kind of conceitedness, a type of chest beating,” Mehta instructed WWD in 2015. “But when somebody had been to actually ask me about the place my company soul actually lies, and the place can I say ‘job nicely achieved,’ I’d say we have now scored very nicely each in strategic and monetary phrases, as a sport changer for the individuals who work right here.”
He mentioned on the time that the markets in India had been “pregnant with latent demand,” being extra “provide aspect markets.”
“If I had the chance to open extra shops instantly, in additional suburbs and cities than at current, there are prepared clients who would flock to them. However the level is, with adjacencies being so crucial on this enterprise — who do you need to sit subsequent to? How good is the visibility of the shop? And are there sufficient malls opening? The true problem is the availability of related retail actual property.”
That he discovered related retail actual property over the subsequent decade was clear, together with shops for the British toy retailer Hamley, which was acquired by the group.
“I believe I’m exceptionally fortunate to be each left-brained and right-brained,” he instructed WWD one other time. “I’m an accountant by background, and so are inclined to suppose in sq. packing containers, as left-brained individuals are inclined to suppose. After which, my final 15 years within the style business has given me publicity to presumably a few of the richest and probably the most gifted individuals within the business, which has opened some ways of pondering creatively earlier than me.”
Mehta left his place at Reliance Manufacturers in November 2024, shifting right into a mentorship function throughout the Reliance Group, specializing in guiding rising leaders and exploring new enterprise alternatives.
