The new Louis Vuitton store is on the first floor of Friendship Commercial Building. With an area of 345 square meters, its products mainly include suitcases, travel bags, leather products, shoes, sunglasses, ties, scarves and watches. To prepare for the entry of Louis Vuitton, Friendship Commercial Building was renovated by a French design group.

Since Louis Vuitton entered China in 1992, it has opened 19 specialty stores around the country. Louis Vuitton was founded in 1854. It is a world famous luxury brand and a symbol for fashionable culture.

According to a source close to the deal, the gourmet food format is likely to be integrated with Reliance Fresh “wherever possible,” (upmarket localities) as a shop-in-shop format. This would help M&S get immediate scale in food business. There are 491 Reliance Fresh stores that sell food, FMCG and fruits and vegetables and this figure is likely to touch 1,400 by the end of next fiscal.

“The implications of this particular JV are much deeper. It’s much more holistic in nature and therefore taking long to seal,” the source added.

The $16-billion M&S, operating in the country through a franchisee arrangement with Planet Retail since 2001, is in the midst of charting a new India strategy aimed at accelerating expansion in the domestic market. It recently slashed prices by 20% to attract more footfalls in the stores and taking prime space in malls to open more stores.

Planet Retail was earlier a 51:49 JV between Indonesian NRI VP Sharma and Pantaloon Retail. The JV has now been called off and the brands that it was managing has been divided into fashion (Sharma) and sports (Pantaloon).

Indian government allows foreign retail companies to invest up to 51% in Indian retail companies on the condition that they sell goods under a single brand. It also allows 100% foreign investment in wholesale business. What it still does not allow is foreign investment in companies that sell goods of more than one brand directly to consumers.

The fear is that such a move would kill small grocery businesses – the mainstay of everyday shopping in India. So, while Starbucks, Louis Vuitton and M&S are allowed to come in as they sell goods under a single brand globally, Carrefour and Wal-Mart are not allowed to sell to consumers directly as they sell thousands of brands.

Informed sources said the senior Ambani’s core team has made significant progress in its talks with M&S, which also had preliminary engagements with other Indian corporates like AV Birla group, Mahindras, Trent and even the audit firm Lodha &Co.

Clair Foster, M&S’ spokesperson in London, declined to comment on market rumours. The UK retailer operates more than 20 stores in India out of the 760-strong network globally. M&S recently set up a business development team in Bangalore under senior executive Spencer Sheen to rework the India gameplan.

Sources said M&S would settle for a 50:50 JV with Reliance, in a marked departure from its earlier stance that it would like to keep the maximum permissible 51% stake under FDI regulations in single-brand retaiing. Troubled by stagnant growth in matured markets, M&S is looking to rapidly scale up operations in expanding economies like India and China.

M&S may have found a match in Reliance, which is carrying out one of the most ambitious retail rollouts in this part of the world. For Reliance, the UK retailer’s stature as a leading global mid-market fashion trend-setters will augment its key apparel retailing vertical.

In context, it may be mentioned that Reliance has adopted a pragmatic approach of floating joint ventures that may help bring in critical domain expertise or a definitive brand edge. Its JV with Citigroup for retail financial services, and another one with US home improvement company Lowe are pointers in this direction.

Fashion house Louis Vuitton proved on Thursday that it is willing to forgive and forget unauthorized use of its famous logo—for a price.

The company settled a charge against Sony BMG, which had allowed several of its artists to use unapproved versions of the Louis Vuitton logo in music videos and on CD marketing materials. Pop singer Britney Spears, for instance, appeared in a video with a car that featured a dashboard covered in the LV print.

Neither Sony BMG nor Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey would disclose the amount Sony agreed to pay to settle the case, but an industry insider said the price was well above $300,000. Sony BMG did not return calls seeking comment.

“We are very pleased to have successfully resolved these matters in a manner that protects our brand and our customers,” said Nathalie Moulle-Berteaux, Louis Vuitton’s intellectual property director. “We believe the terms of this agreement will provide strong protection to our brand worldwide.”

Louis Vuitton has been on the forefront of protecting its intellectual property. The French firm recently won a case in Parisian court against online auction company eBay Inc., which had been selling counterfeit LVMH goods. Luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. lost a similar case in the U.S. just days later.

Sony’s case against Louis Vuitton was likely damaged by the fact that the artists did not use genuine LVMH products in the infractions, said Peter Sloane, an attorney at Ostrolenk Faber LLP who specializes in trademarks and copyrights. In the case of Ms. Spears, Louis Vuitton does not make dashboard covers or even sell reams of logo fabric that could be fashioned as such.

“Entertainment companies such as Sony need to carefully vet their images to make sure they protect the intellectual property rights of other brands,” Mr. Sloane said.

Although the case between the two firms will likely resonate within the entertainment industry, one music scenester said most music video producers are already careful about which logos appear on film.

When Sony opted to print a likeness of Vuitton’s logo on singer Ruben Studdard’s CD, The Return, it went too far, said Rasheem Barker, an executive assistant at Violator Management & Records, which oversees a number of entertainment artists. “That’s a major problem because it looks like Louis Vuitton sponsored it,” he said.

Even for songs that name-drop luxury brands, from Cristal champagne to Ferraris, entertainment managers typically try to get permission from each firm to use their images on a shoot, Mr. Barker said.

“Luxury products have to challenge you in order to buy them,” says Marianna Tsoureka, a veteran luxury retailer whose family has teamed with the Italian brand on the new store. “Greeks are consumers, but they didn’t have access” to a lot of top brands.

Up to now, that is.

Only in the last few years have international fashion brands slowly made their entrance. Louis Vuitton was one of the first to arrive, followed by Hermès, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tod’s and Burberry. Dior and Balenciaga arrived just last year.

But the pace is picking up this autumn, with several additions to the Greek capital’s luxury map – although many of the newcomers still are collaborating with Athens’s most-recognized fashion names.

“While obviously China and India are very important to everyone in the luxury market, especially in these economic times, the Oscar de la Renta customer has a certain taste level, and lifestyle, that will only be found in certain developed countries,” says Alex Bolen, chief executive at Oscar de la Renta.    

De la Renta is opening a 300-square-meter, or 3,230-square-foot, store on Oct. 15 in the affluent suburb of Kifissia, a project that is being done in collaboration with Harris Tsimoyiannis, its longtime local partner. A store also is opening a few days earlier in Madrid, but the fashion house is calling the Athens’s site its first official monobrand store in Europe.

Its partner, the Tsoureka family, also owns the 30-year-old retailer Rossi and runs the Luisa multibrand outlets, which showcase Alexander McQueen, Etro, Missoni, Stella McCartney and Yves Saint Laurent, among others.

Thanks to Anastasia Tsoureka, the daughter of Marianna and her husband Zafiris, Rossi also is introducing Lanvin and Manolo Blahnik franchises. Lanvin opened in the Kolonaki neighborhood Oct. 4 and Blahnik is set to pen in the same area later in the month.

“The arrival of the luxury sector in Greece is long overdue and, though slow-paced, it comes with a high chance of success when it occurs in prime spots and attracts consumers in selected areas,” says John Arapoglou, an equity research analyst at Piraeus Securities.

High-end retail also is getting a mall. The Golden Hall, the result of a €75 million renovation of the former International Broadcasting Center for the 2004 Olympics, is expected to open at the end of November. The building’s original skeleton has been retained, but its 40,000-square-meter interior is being rebuilt to house fashion labels like Furla, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tod’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Loewe, Marithé et François Girbaud and Longchamp.

While much of the planning for these projects was done long before the current financial turmoil, the retailers all voice confidence in their eventual success.

“The timing of our investment in the brands is not affected by possible opportunities that arise sometimes in period of crisis,” notes Aris Rakas. “It rather has a longer term outlook compared to the current crisis, which we hope is a cyclical phenomenon.”

His Rakas company is putting the finishing touches on two Marc by Marc Jacobs stores – the first, a 160-square-meter shop, opened in Kolonaki on Oct. 3; the second is to be at the Golden Hall. It also teamed with Diane Von Furstenberg to open a 130-square-meter store on Sept. 26 in Kolonaki.

“We don’t have enough boutiques across the globe to retail these exclusive products. And we don’t want to sell them through the watch and jewellery stores as they are more mass channels,” added Babin.

The company has already designed memory sticks, external hardware and other techno-accessories for men. “These accessories are made with advanced technology from the TAG Heuer stables and we are currently testing these products,” he added.

In India, TAG Heuer retails in 24 cities, through 74 outlets. The company sold around 11,000 watches last year.

la Rinascente offers a broad selection of prestigious brands for men, women and children as well as luxury accessories, cosmetics, lingerie and items for the home.

The flagship store is in Milan and features world-class brand names such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Zegna, Chloe, Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs and etc.

In 2010, Rinascente generated revenues of €350 million.

“We will support the excellent work of the current management, making available our know-how in retailing, and creating the opportunity for Made in Italy brands to expand in profitable and fast growing new markets in Asia,” said Chief Executive Officer, Central Retail Corporation, Mr. Tos Chirathivat. “We are now building up a great new history for Thai retail industry. With this acquisition of la Rinascente, it makes Central Retail Corporation Ltd. truly entering to the world-class business leader in department store operator by expanding our three department store brands under Central Retail chain to totally four brands as following Central, ZEN, Robinson and la Rinascente. All department stores will reinforce our strengths both in Thailand and China.”