TIME’s latest Global Luxury survey revealed some interesting insights into how luxury brands are faring in Asia’s emerging markets (someone should really recognise them as ‘emerged’ by now), India and China.

At a cursory glance, it would seem that luxury brands in India with the highest recall are mostly local, skewed toward the male segment and sell tailored formalwear. Take a look at the findings for China and the story is quite different.

TIME magazine said this “can be explained by the fact that the majority of Indian women wear traditional saris.” We would hesitate to provide such a simplistic answer. Let’s look at some other possibilities.

Fine craftsmanship in both countries have always been highly valued so this would not be a key reason why brands with a heritage in tailoring do well in India. Well-heeled Indians and Chinese travel internationally, so both would have some level of exposure to international brands.

Perhaps the answer lies in the way China has opened out to international brands earlier. LVMH’s South Asia group director said in 2006 that the group’s “marketing plan for Hangzhou or Dalian is bigger than that for all of India put together.”

Only in the last two years have foreign companies been allowed 51% ownership of single brand stores in India. From our research, Bally, Chanel and Dior launched stores in China at least five years earlier.

Before 2006, branded goods were only available to India’s affluent shoppers through boutiques in five-star hotels or travels abroad. There were no upscale centres such as China World Shopping Mall in Beijing or Maison Mode in Shanghai.

All that is changing. Today, luxury brands have been entering India by the trunk-loads, so to speak, and many of them target women. All have aggressive plans to expand into India and the local press has been filled with news of glamourous launch parties. Conde Nast International is chasing this market trend with upmarket titles such as Vogue, GQ, Glamour, Conde Nast Traveler, Vanity Fair and Wired.

In March 2008, India finally got its first luxury mall, Emporio, featuring many international brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Cartier, Versace, Hugo Boss, Escada, Tod’s, Paul Smith, Piguet, Chopard and IWC.

India’s luxury market is changing as quickly as the fashion seasons.

It would be interesting to re-visit TIME’s Global Luxury survey in two years time. Our bet would be that the rankings between China and India would be more similar than not.