Prada faced a backlash for sandals resembling India's Kolhapuri chappals, sparking accusations of cultural appropriation. Photo / Getty Images
It started off innocuously enough. In June, the Italian fashion house Prada sent models down the runway in Milan wearing T-strap sandals.
Then Indian social media exploded.
The sandals looked suspiciously like a handcrafted leather shoe, known as the Kolhapuri chappal, that is worn by millions of Indians and often has soles as flat as beef jerky.
These sandals are named after Kolhapur, a town in the western Indian state of Maharashtra where they are made and are a part of India’s rich cultural heritage.
The outcry over the Prada shoes – from accusations of design theft and cultural appropriation to demands that the luxury brand give India credit – caught the company flat-footed.
Emboldened by the country’s rising global stature, Indians have become quicker to demand that India be recognised and feted for its contributions to the world.
After the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture shot off a stern letter to Prada, the fashion house’s executives apologised, according to the Press Trust of India, an Indian news agency.
In a statement, the Prada Group said it acknowledged that “sandals inspired by traditional Indian footwear made in specific districts in Maharashtra and Karnataka, India, were featured in its Men’s 2026 Spring Summer show in Milan”. Karnataka is a neighbouring state.
The company added that it was “opening a dialogue for a meaningful exchange with local Indian artisan communities”, and that it was “in contact” with Maharashtra authorities on the topic.
Kanika Gahlaut, an Indian fashion and lifestyle columnist, said that the uproar reflected concern that Prada, rather than the Indian Kolhapuri industry, could benefit by selling the sandal that appeared on the runway.
But she called it “a point of outrage with no legal basis”, because it was not clear what commercial plans, if any, Prada had for the shoe.
A company representative said yesterday that “the entire collection is currently at an early stage of design development and none of the pieces are confirmed to be produced or commercialised”.
The outcry over the shoe recalled a similar case from a decade ago involving British designer Paul Smith and a sandal that resembled what is known as a Peshawari chappal, which is made in Pakistan.
The designer did bring that shoe to market, selling it for US$595 ($975), though the company changed the description of the sandal on its website to say it had been inspired by the Peshawari chappal.
Countries issue “geographical indication” tags to mark a product as belonging to a certain region within their borders, such as Bordeaux wine from France’s Bordeaux region or Darjeeling tea from India.
The tagging system was set up under global trade rules, partly to guard regional knowledge and craftsmanship, which can sometimes be diffuse or held communally within a certain locale. It’s a marker of authenticity rather than a way to stop an imitator. The Indian Government gave Kolhapuri sandals that designation in 2019.
Prada would be within its rights to sell Kolhapuri sandals at whatever mark-up it wanted if it sourced the items from the eight districts in Maharashtra and Karnataka that are covered by the geographical indication tag, said Subhang Nair, an intellectual property lawyer. It would also have to publicly acknowledge the artisans in some way.
But, said Priyam Lizmary Cherian, another intellectual property lawyer: “Prada is not saying it is a Kolhapuri chappal. They’re saying it’s Kolhapuri chappal-inspired leather footwear, and that’s a correct representation of it.”
Still, Cherian said, Prada created an “ethical” issue by not giving due credit at the outset. “Had they acknowledged their inspiration from the get-go, it perhaps wouldn’t have blown up,” she said.
India has become more protective of its cultural heritage – whether it’s yoga, the wound-healing properties of turmeric, or multi-hued Indian textiles and weaves and other handicrafts – in part because its products are reaching a broader global audience.
But cultural pride can sometimes veer into angry nationalism. “We’ve become a very sensitive society,” said Raghavendra Rathore, a well-known Indian menswear designer who once worked for Oscar de la Renta.
Rathore said he experienced quiet pride in “watching the symbols of our culture drift into foreign lands”. The arrival of the humble Kolhapuri sandal – a pair can cost from 1000 to 3000 rupees in India, or from US$20 to US$30 – on an international stage should be cause for celebration rather than outrage, he said.
“It hasn’t harmed the community that does these products,” Rathore said.
Instead, it has created more global awareness of a handcrafted sandal in an image-driven, social media-infused world, and that could help sales, he said.
The evidence? Since the controversy started, social media and shopping platforms have bombarded him and his team with ads for Kolhapuri sandals, he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Anupreeta Das
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