If you opted to launch a luxury lifestyle brand today, it would not be as challenging as it used to be, with technology and AI doing most of the heavy lifting. Sustaining it and turning it into a profitable business, however, is where most modern brands fall apart. That's where the tastemakers come in, the creative mavens who shape how a luxury brand looks, feels, and endures in the minds of its customers, turning buyers into lifelong advocates.
The biggest challenge for emerging luxury brands is finding such tastemakers, those who can understand how to make the brand’s visuals look editorial and at the same time, get customers through the door. For those in the know, the answer is simple: they call Manav Prithyani.
An alumnus of Middlesex University, London, Manav began his creative career as an amateur documentary filmmaker, using investigative journalism techniques on the streets of London to speak truth to power through compelling visuals and community storytelling.
Early in his career, he was heading the in-house marketing department at a bespoke menswear label in Mumbai — competing directly with international heavyweights like Ermenegildo Zegna and Canali for foot traffic and HNI clientele. Within five years, the label had grown 10X, and global franchise groups were walking in the door seeking partnerships. That was his proof of concept. He decided to take it to the next level and founded The Mad Lad Company, a creative agency that caters only to premium homegrown brands.
A Star Studded Lineup
Over the past six years, Manav has been instrumental in building luxury brands with cult-like followings like KAVITH, Ohaila Khan Couture, Zeesh Footwear, and several others, working with them from their earliest days through to becoming nationally renowned names. Manav and his team of creative strategists have been involved at every stage of their clients' promotional journey, helping them generate millions in revenue using end to end marketing services like content creation, influencer marketing, celebrity placements & invite-only events.
On what makes his creative agency different, he's candid: "We are very selective with the brands we choose to work with. I would always much rather lead a boutique agency that markets 12 brands with a 100% success rate, than a 100-person agency that markets 200 brands but only adds value for 20 of them." He believes strongly that a brand's visual direction gets diluted the more hands are in the creative process.
Although fashion has been the primary vertical for him, in recent years Manav has been lending his creative direction skillset and business acumen to grow luxury real estate businesses, furniture brands, personal brands & even a wedding design service, namely Designs by Sakshi Jerath. The key characteristic between them? They all cater to India’s most influential and affluent individuals.
Navigating Artificial Intelligence
The emergence of AI has heavily impacted and changed the way new age luxury brands market themselves. It has started to seep into everything from the visual imagery to the overall brand tone. But Manav remains undeterred.
“We don't use AI for creativity — only for design efficiency. You can't expect AI to understand human emotion, or the touch-feel factor that goes into buying a premium product, especially in India, where most luxury sales come from word of mouth. Every shoot concept we create is original, built in step with the brand's ethos and trend analysis, maintaining a perfect balance between brand awareness and brand recall."
Channelling the vision
When asked why he chose the path of creative direction, he speaks openly about a personal tragedy that shaped everything. "I lost my left eye in a freak accident when I was three. I've been half-blind my entire life. So I don't have to imagine a creative storyboard, I'm always seeing everything in 2D. It's fun, like watching your life as a movie at all times." Where most people would avoid sharing their struggles, he wears his like a badge of honour.
Prithyani’s Mumbai-based agency, The Mad Lad Company, has since its inception worked with more than 70 luxury brands across fashion, lifestyle, and experience-led businesses — assembling a client roster that many young agencies aspire to build but rarely do. The breadth of that work, and the consistency across it, has made the company something of a quiet benchmark for emerging founders trying to understand what sustained growth actually looks like.
There's no glass-walled office, no grand infrastructure signalling authority. The operation runs lean, more like an embedded unit for each client brand than a traditional external agency. His team integrates deeply, shaping everything from campaign narratives to ad strategy to creator partnerships. And at the centre of it all, the creative director himself.
