MUMBAI, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - The fashion magazine Vogue will launch its Indian edition on Friday across 40 cities and towns, its publisher Conde Nast said Thursday, September 19th.

Vogue India front cover

The magazine, a monthly, will be priced at 100 rupees (2.5 dollars) and is the 17th international edition of Vogue.

"There are more than a million Vogue women in India, each with high awareness of international luxury, fashion and beauty brands," said Alex Kuruvilla, the managing director of Conde Nast India.

"India is in Vogue and now Vogue will be in India," he said in a statement.

The Indian publication will feature international and Indian fashion, decors, global cultures, travel and health.

Several fashion and lifestyle-linked foreign magazines like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Seventeen, Maxim, Hello!, Time Out and OK! have already launched Indian editions.

Various estimates of India's young fashion sector put its size between 50 and 250 million dollars -- a small fraction of the country's 12-billion-dollar domestic textile industry.

A study released earlier this year by an industry body estimated that the fashion sector could grow tenfold in the next five years.