Prada’s $1,300 Kolhapuris Are a Call to Arms
South Asians have had enough. Stop the absurdity — it’s time to buy local.
Like clockwork, fashion show season has arrived — and, unsurprisingly, India is everywhere. On Wednesday, Pharrell Williams — who once stole Mughal spectacles and tried to pawn them off as an original — launched Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer men’s collection in Paris, featuring a song by A.R. Rahman, a snakes-and-ladders set, and Jaipuri trunks galore.
Just days before, not to be outdone, Prada unveiled one of the most controversial, perhaps even hated, items of the summer: a $1,300 Kolhapuri chappal.
Immediately, thousands poked fun at the absurdity of the situation. It seemed like the same old story: a Western brand “appropriating” Indian heritage without due credit. This is a tale as old as time. Or is it?