Prada Will Engage With Kholhapur Chappal Artisans, Says Maharashtra Industry Body

The Italian luxury fashion brand Prada is likely to hold a meeting with Kolhapuri chappal artisans and representatives of the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, next week. The meeting will take place after the controversy erupted over the use of the Kolhapuri Chappal design on the Parada runway show in Milan without acknowledgment to the local art and the artisans of Kolhapur.

The visuals of models wearing open-toe braided pattern footwear described as ‘leather flat sandals’ triggered backlash in India and charges of ‘cultural appropriation’.

Parada reportedly sold ‘luxury’ Kolhapur for Rs 1.2 lakh without giving zero credit to the original makers – the Chamar community in India – especially in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Chamar community continues to face caste-based discrimination, even while their art is copied at the global fashion industry.

It created a debate about how global fashion houses repackage traditional craftsmanship as luxury goods without giving due credit or compensation to the original artisans.

However, Prada later acknowledged that its new footwear sandal design is inspired by India’s famous Kolhapuri ‘Chappals’. “We acknowledge the sandals.. are inspired by the traditional Indian handcrafted footwear, with a centuries-old heritage”, Lorenzo Bertelli, the Parada CSR chief, said in a letter to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber had complained on behalf of thousands of Kolhapuri sandal-makers after images from Prada’s Milan show models wearing the open-toe footwear went viral.

Notably, the Kolhapuri Chappal, which is a traditional handcrafted leather, has received the ‘Geographical Indication (GI)’ status by the government of India in 2019. The GI tag verifies that a product originates from a particular place. The Kolhapuri sandals, origin dates back to the 12th century, to the Kolhapur city in the western Maharashtra state.