Latest news with #Kohlapuri
Emirates Woman
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Emirates Woman
From Ateliers to Artisans: How luxury brands reinterpret heritage craftsmanship
The intersection of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary luxury fashion has long been a source of creative inspiration for high-end designers. By reimagining heritage techniques through a modern lens, luxury houses not only introduce global audiences to centuries-old artisanal traditions but also ensure their continued relevance in an ever-evolving industry. From intricate Indian embroidery to bold African wax prints, these reinterpretations demonstrate how fashion serves as a bridge between cultures and eras. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dior Official (@dior) Dior's Ode to South Indian Textiles One of the most striking examples in recent years was Dior's 2023 Mumbai showcase, where Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri incorporated Madras checks—a lightweight, handwoven fabric originating from South India—into the brand's signature silhouettes. The collection juxtaposed structured French tailoring with the vibrant, irregular patterns of Madras, creating a dialogue between European haute couture and Indian textile heritage. Presented against the iconic Gateway of India, the show was a celebration of cross-cultural craftsmanship. While the designs were unmistakably Dior, the influence of traditional Indian weaving was undeniable, proving how heritage techniques can elevate modern luxury. Prada's Reinvention of Kohlapuri Craftsmanship View this post on Instagram A post shared by Prada (@prada) Similarly, Prada's Men's 2026 Spring Summer show in Milan collection featured sleek, minimalist slippers inspired by Kohlapuris—a style of hand-stitched leather mojris originating from Maharashtra. The Italian luxury house reworked the traditional design, replacing raw leather with polished finishes and streamlined shapes while retaining the essence of the original craft. The result was a sophisticated hybrid of regional Indian footwear and Prada's contemporary aesthetic. This approach not only introduced Kohlapuri craftsmanship to a global audience but also demonstrated how traditional forms can be adapted for modern luxury. The house, after public commentary, credited the silhouette to India's archival heritage. Louis Vuitton's Fusion of African Wax Prints and Tailoring Beyond Indian influences, Louis Vuitton's 2023 collaboration with designer Grace Wales Bonner showcased the versatility of West African wax prints in high fashion. The collection merged the bold, geometric patterns of African textiles with precise European tailoring, creating a striking contrast that resonated on international runways. By incorporating these prints into structured suits and accessories, the collaboration highlighted the dynamic potential of traditional fabrics in contemporary design. In this collection, she also wanted to pay homage to black icons who found creative freedom in Paris, such as the writer James Baldwin and dancer, singer and actor Josephine Baker. Giambattista Valli's Moroccan Reverie For his Spring 2025 haute couture collection, Giambattista Valli delivered a masterclass in escapism—one that wove together his signature romantic extravagance with subtle nods to his Moroccan heritage. Known for his unapologetically voluminous silhouettes and dreamlike aesthetic, Valli this time anchored his fantasy in personal history, offering a collection that felt both intimately rooted and expansively imaginative. But beyond its visual splendor, the collection carried whispers of North African influence—not in overt motifs, but in its celebration of texture, color, and grandeur. Chanel's Tribute to Scottish Tartan Chanel's Métiers d'Art 2013 collection, showcased in Edinburgh, paid homage to Scottish traditions through the use of tartan, tweed, and Celtic embroidery. Karl Lagerfeld's designs seamlessly integrated these regional elements into Chanel's timeless elegance, proving that heritage craftsmanship can transcend cultural boundaries. The collection not only honored Scottish textile history but also reinforced the brand's commitment to artisanal excellence. These examples illustrate how luxury brands serve as custodians of global craftsmanship, preserving traditional techniques while reinventing them for contemporary audiences. Whether through fabric, embroidery, or silhouette, the reinterpretation of heritage artistry ensures its survival in a rapidly changing industry. By acknowledging and elevating these traditions, fashion houses not only enrich their own creative vocabulary but also foster a deeper appreciation for the artisans behind the craft. – For more on luxury lifestyle, news, fashion and beauty follow Emirates Woman on Facebook and Instagram Images: Supplied & Feature Image: Supplied
The Wire
14-07-2025
- General
- The Wire
The Missing Artisan – and Their Caste – in the Kohlapuri-Prada Conversation
A sandal resembling a Kohlapuri chappal in Prada's Spring-Summer 2026 collection has sparked multiple conversations around cultural appropriation. While the violence of cultural appropriation in the context of colonisation is well understood, the discourse in the subcontinent tends to brush over a far older and more troubling question that sits at the heart of subcontinental handicrafts – the erasure of the oppressed caste artisan from the centre of any conversation around the preservation of handicrafts, and the impact of that erasure on the value of the craft itself. Conversations about handcrafted leather in other countries often centre the skills of specific families or neighbourhoods of artisans, honed over generations, in processes like tanning, dyeing and stitching. Intellectual property concepts like Geographical Indications (GI) that seek to protect products whose quality or characteristics are tied to the location of their production also recognise that both natural and human factors can be tied to a region. While the Indian government has granted a GI tag to Kohlapuri chappals, the human factor – the artisans who make the Kohlapuri chappal – are rarely treated with the same reverence accorded to the makers of hand stitched leather goods in other parts of the world. In 2019, artisans (often from the Dalit Chambar community) in Maharashtra reportedly earned about Rs. 60 for a pair of handstitched chappals. Tanners (usually from the Dalit Dhor community) who make the unique vegetable dyed camel coloured leather used in Kohlapuri chappals are reportedly paid about Rs 240 per kilogram of hide processed. This apparent paradox where a craft is glorified by an urban elite, but the craftspersons are not, is not unusual in a caste-based society. Language In a traditional caste-based society, the material production of goods – including agriculture, animal rearing, weaving, tanning and the processing of wool – was largely done by the Sudra and Dalit castes while the so called upper castes reserved to themselves fields like administration, ritual knowledge and trading. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, in his classic work, Why I am Not a Hindu, points out how each Dalit-Bahujan caste was so rooted in its own production process that the language spoken by the caste was itself structured around that production. The Brahminical Telugu spoken by the 'upper' castes in his village did not even contain the vocabulary to describe the processes of production related to animal rearing or leather work. While the hierarchy of occupations coded into the traditional caste system dictated that all such work be treated as lower in status, or in the case of leather work, as impure, the goods produced were still essential to the upper castes. Hence the 'upper' castes permitted themselves to use goods produced by Dalits, including leather slippers, while simultaneously terming the tanners who made the leather and the artisans who crafted these slippers ritually impure. Castes that handle leather, in many states around India, were historically treated as untouchable. While the Constitution outlawed untouchability, this fundamentally casteist practice of placing artistic value on the goods produced without elevating the status of the artisans who make these goods has survived. Sanitising language like 'Indian handicrafts' has allowed an urban elite to wax eloquent about the beauty of these crafts while ignoring or sidelining the difficulties that are faced by the communities involved in every stage of production. Cattle, cows and violence Cattle traders in Maharashtra today (who are predominantly either Muslim or Dalit) remain subject to periodic violent attacks from Hindu fundamentalist 'vigilantes' while transporting cattle for slaughter. Dalit castes involved in the skinning of dead cattle have also been subjected to this brutal violence. In addition to direct violence, Dalits involved in the leather industry face the constant risk of legal proceedings and police harassment relating to cow slaughter. There is also a general lack of state support for tanneries in terms of funding, land, and infrastructure facilities with proper hygiene. Beyond material risks and financial exploitation, deep-rooted caste prejudice ensures the work is rarely treated with the respect it deserves, to the extent that the names of some castes historically involved in leatherwork are still used as slurs. In 2008, the Supreme Court held that the use of the word 'chamar' could be a punishable offence under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, if it was used with the intent to humiliate. In 2023, Pakistani cricketer and cricket commentator Wasim Akram drew intense criticism for using the word in a derogatory manner on air. Retailers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs The internet has helped some makers of Kohlapuri chappals speak about their craft, reach a market directly and bypass middlemen but it has also grown a new generation of (often 'upper' caste) online entrepreneurs whose businesses focus on promoting Indian crafts, but who tend to reserve to themselves control over aspects like investment, design and pricing. While the GI tag has been useful in concentrating attention to the specific districts of Maharashtra and Northern Karnataka where Kohlapuri chappals are made, conversations about the industry still tend to centre the voices of retailers and wholesale manufacturers who are often not from the same caste as the tanners or the artisans who stitch the slippers. From this perspective, the unwillingness of artisans to continue in this difficult line of work is generally dismissed as 'labour shortages' and the struggles faced by tanners are bucketed into raw material shortages. The caste linked barriers that prevent artisans and tanners from growing their own businesses and reaching the more lucrative parts of the value chain within the industry are also rarely discussed in the context of preserving the craft. This is not a problem limited to handicrafts. Multiple studies have found that Dalits are significantly underrepresented among entrepreneurs. Even when they own businesses, the enterprises they own are predominantly small. Also Read: Kolhapuri Chappals Walk the Prada Runway, Yet Local Artisans Get No Benefit From it Aseem Prakash demonstrates that Dalit entrepreneurs are also subjected to what is termed 'adverse inclusion' in the market. Adverse inclusion is a phenomenon where a market participant from an underprivileged community reaps lower returns on their capital investment, regardless of the quality and prices of the goods and services offered. His study of Dalit entrepreneurs and the restrictions they face offers several reasons for this, including upper caste officials blocking registration of Dalit owned businesses at the behest of upper caste competitors; competitors blocking the labour supply to Dalit businesses forcing them to seek labour from further away; upper caste bank officials restricting financing by telling Dalit entrepreneurs that they are not culturally suitable to successfully run certain businesses; and physical and legal threats to the business, forcing them to sell goods at cost to their upper caste competitors. While many Indian influencers have spoken of the failure of the government to adequately market handicrafts like Kohlapuri chappals abroad, there is a deeper issue at play. Due to the manner in which caste restrictions have seeped into modern entrepreneurship in India, Dalit craftsman or tanners are rarely placed in a position where they can become the face of the industry, decide on the direction of its growth or even explain the uniqueness of the craft, as masters of a craft honed over generations, to the world. When it comes to hand crafted goods like leather slippers, this is a particular loss. At the heart of marketing any product is a singular question – what makes this product special? In the case of Kohlapuri chappals, it is the specific tanning, dyeing and stitching processes, each honed with knowledge built over generations. And yet, the special nature of this knowledge cannot be explained convincingly unless the artisans are given the platform and resources to explain the evolution of their skills and lauded as the irreplaceable human factor that makes the product unique. If the artisans are financially exploited, sidelined and their skills treated within the Indian market as dispensable, or worse, degrading, it is unlikely that the rest of the world will accord these skills the respect that is their due. Sarayu Pani is a lawyer by training and posts on X @sarayupani.
First Post
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
$200K Mukaish Coat: How Dior 'Stole' the Show with Indian Craft Vantage with Palki Sharma
$200K Mukaish Coat: How Dior 'Stole' the Show with Indian Craft | Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G $200K Mukaish Coat: How Dior 'Stole' the Show with Indian Craft | Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G After Prada's Kohlapuri controversy, French luxury brand Dior is facing backlash after unveiling a $200,000 coat featuring traditional Indian Mukaish embroidery at Paris Fashion Week. Despite reportedly employing 12 skilled Indian artisans who spent over a month crafting the piece, Dior failed to acknowledge the Indian heritage or credit the craftsmen. This isn't Dior's or luxury fashion's first controversy involving cultural appropriation, sparking debates on the ethics of high fashion borrowing from traditional crafts without recognition. See More
Mint
04-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Prada in legal trouble over Kolhapuri chappals; PIL in Bombay HC seeks apology, artisan payout
The row over Prada's use of Kohlapuri chappals without crediting India has escalated, with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) being filed at the Bombay High Court, demanding that the Italian fashion house must compensate Indian artisans. The PIL, filed by Intellectual Property Rights advocate Ganesh S Hingemire o July 2, also seeks a public apology of Prada and a direction to the government for protection of the Indian traditional designs. 'This Public Interest Litigation seeks directions and appropriate reliefs, including an injunction and damages/compensation for the unauthorised commercialisation of a GI-tagged product, which has caused significant harm to the community traditionally associated with it, particularly in Maharashtra State,' the PIL read. The plea further sought to prevent international companies from infringing on geographical indication products. (This is a developing story. Check back for updates)
The Hindu
03-07-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Ground beneath their feet
For Shantaram Narayan Sonavane, 50, from the Dhor community, the day begins early. By 7.30 a.m., he is at his tannery in Dhor gali (lane) in Ichalkaranji city, around 30 kilometres from Kolhapur in Maharashtra. It is at this time that he receives the animal hide from a government-approved slaughterhouse. The buffalo hide is steeped in a limestone slurry, called chunadi, for 10 days. Every day, he takes the hide out from the tank, works on it, and puts it back in the slurry. He can identify the freshest leather of just-culled cattle, distinguishing it from older, salt-dipped hide that loses its strength. 'The fresher the hide, the better the chappal,' he says. Shantaram is a hide supplier to the Kolhapuri chappal artisans. On the 11th day, the loosened hair on the hide is removed with a 'ship', an instrument shaped like a boat, and put into teakwood drums. The drums contain a liquid with hirada (myrobalan fruits) and babul tree bark. Both tanners and artisans believe these natural ingredients have properties to both preserve the leather and offer wearers of finished chappals health benefits. After three days of being transferred into different teakwood drums, the leather is brought out, stitched into a round bag and hung. It is filled with the hirada-babul liquid again for eight days. 'This helps give it a good colour, fill up the pores, and make it immune to fungus. This has to be done in a teakwood drum only. There should be no iron, no cement anywhere close to the tannery. The leather does not take kindly to those, and immediately loses its quality,' he says. This process, using only vegetable dye, called bag-tan, is exclusive to this region, and is key to the making of the Kolhapuri chappal. The end result is always a camel-coloured leather. Anything else would mean that the leather has been exposed to lab-made chemicals. On June 23, at the Spring-Summer 2026 Men's Fashion Week in Milan, the 112-year-old Italian luxury brand Prada presented what it referred to in its catalogue as 'leather sandals'. They looked like Kohlapuri chappals in design and material. Social media, alive to cultural appropriation, especially by erstwhile colonial powers, called out the exclusion of any cultural citation. In the days after, Prada, itself a heritage label, acknowledged the traditions and practices that go into the making of the chappal, expressing its willingness to work with the artisans and craftspeople, in an e-mail to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (MACCIA). The Kohlapuri chappal has had a geographical indication (GI) tag since 2018, for the product made in eight districts, four each in Maharashtra and Karnataka. For a chappal to be called a Kolhapuri, it must be made in these districts, be wholly nature-derived, vegetable-dyed, and hand-stitched with leather thread. Nylon thread or nails mean it is not a Kohlapuri chappal. Artisans lament that Kolhapuri chappals are losing their market, with people's lack of knowledge on what the original product is. 'This started happening 60-70 years ago, when the demand for Kolhapuri chappals went up, but the production was steady. That is when traders from other States started copying the design and selling it as Kolhapuris,' says Shivajirao Powar, president of Kolhapur District Footwear Association. The decline of demand and knowledge Traditionally-made chappals require care, with oil rubbed on them to preserve their sheen and prolong their life. Many do not want to invest that kind of time anymore. In addition, designers across India did their own spin on the chappal, mimicking the original, but adding colour, embellishment, and sometimes a heel. The leather processing for a Kolhapuri chappal takes 21 days. Shantaram explains that each part of the Kolhapuri chappal is made with this leather, but from different parts of the animal: the soles from the buttocks, the braids on the T-upper from the tail or legs, or from sheep skin. His family has been doing this for generations, but he laments that Dhol gali, which used to have tanneries within each home, has only two units now. His son, an engineer, is preparing to write an entrance exam for a government job, and is not interested in carrying on the family business. 'What's the point? There is no dignity of labour. It is a lot of hard work. You need strength to lift and hang the heavy leather pieces, process them. The body smells because of the work. The money is not great. Most importantly, there is a shortage of the babul tree bark, which is the most important component in vegetable tanning,' says Akshay Shantaram Sonavane, 26, Shantaram's son. His mother, aunt, and uncle have all been a part of the family business, handling the equipment, processing the hide. None of his generation wants to be a part of it. They prefer desk jobs. The sub-text is that tanners are Dalits, often looked down upon in Hinduism's religious and social heirarchy. 'This is a work of art and skill,' Shantaram says, adding that the Maharashtra government sometimes calls him to understand the original process of vegetable tanning. 'But the sad part is, our role is never acknowledged. We don't get land for setting up our tanneries. We don't get bank loans or government funds,' he says. In a month, Shantaram, his wife Rajashree, brother Tukaram and his wife Madhavi, process 300 kg of animal hide. Each kilogram earns them ₹240, he says. 'Alcoholism is very common in our community. After the stench of the hide and the hard work of lifting these bags, people drink to ease the pain and the smell,' says Akshay. His family though, has been able to save up and build a four-storey house. Vegetable tanning has become expensive and rarer now, making artisans turn to tanning with lab-made chemicals. Besides the shortage of over 20-year-old babul trees and skilled leather processors, people from the community now turning adults don't want to be ostracised: black nails are characteristic of dyers. The residue of the plants used in vegetable dying used to be burnt along with cow dung as fuel — this market has disappeared with gas fires taking over. When chemicals are used in the hide, the properties of the chappal change immediately; they wear out faster, say artisans. 'Till 10 years ago, there were 50 vegetable tanning units in Kolhapur; 10 in Ichalkaranji. Now, there are no units in Kolhapur; Ichalkaranji is left with two. Earlier, Nipani had 70 units; it now has only 10. There is no help from the government,' says Tukaram. Many artisans travel great distances to get the hide to make Kolhapuri chappals the original way. One of them is Ashok Laxman Mane, 52, from Shirol. The artisan, who works from his village, is from the Chambhar community, a Scheduled Caste, in a system that believes he is almost at the lowest social level. He has loyal customers, who reach out to him directly to place their orders. His YouTube videos are his marketing outreach. 'I don't supply to middlemen or to shops,' he says. Most artisans don't have Mane's social-media skills, and are forced to make chappals as per designer specifications, adding a creative-industry hierarchy, one more layer of discrimination that a Kolhapuri chappal artisan faces in life. Gender blender Sagar Sanjay Jadhav, 36, from Peth Wadgaon in Hatkanangle taluk in Kolhapur, has been making chappals for five generations. 'We buy the leather based on weight from the Dhors. We then dip it in water and clean it with a brush. There are several types of Kolhapuri chappals: Kapshi, Kurundwadi, Mauje Kapshi, Maharaja. We have separate stencils ready for each design. Once the leather is washed, we cut it as per the stencil. Then we soak it in water again,' he says. Thereafter, the leather is beaten (ghatne in Marathi) and smoothened (khurapni). It is beaten again to toughen it. The stencil is used again and different parts of the chappals moulded. The upper and lower parts of the sole are cut separately. After elaborate work on them, they are stuck together with the help of local soil near the riverbed. These processes are performed by men. The upper and lower soles are then stitched by leather thread by the women. The men craft a design with iron instruments and hammer the chappal yet again. Specialised iron tools are used for this. 'Women do 80% of the work; men do 20%,' says Powar. The prices of chappals are decided on the basis of the design. The more intricate the hand work, the more expensive the chappal. Bharti Sunil Gadekar, 49, from Kolhapur, has made the detha veni (braid for the chappals), stitching it to the soles for the last 20 years. This has meant a constant pain in her neck, back, fingers, hands, and legs, as she sits hunched over her work all day. 'I hail from Mangur in Karnataka. My father used to make leather chappals, but I never made anything till I got married. Here, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law used to make chappals. I learnt from them,' she says, adding that she lost her husband at a very young age. 'I began to do this to run the household,' she says, noting that both her sons, who are in class 11 do not want to learn the art. She stitches five or six pairs of chappals daily, and makes ₹25 per pair. Prada's pair was slated to cost over ₹1 lakh. She is one of the few in Kolhapur's Subhash Nagar, who works on the chappal. 'If you walked around some decades ago, you would hear the constant sound of the iron instruments as chappals being made. Now, the whole area has grown silent,' says Shubham Satpute, 28, of Inga Leather, a boutique that sells different designs, ranging from ₹1,599 to ₹6,599. Now and beyond 'These days, the leather comes from Chennai, as slaughterhouses and tanneries have been shut down here. That leather is chemically tanned. The people who used to earlier run tanneries, have now become distributors,' Powar says. Artisans too use machines to cut the leather and glue to stick the layers of the soles, says Satpute, who runs a leather studio and was recently a part of a programme held to honour the Vishwakarma community, traditionally artisans of different types. Flaunting his photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he says the art needs a lot more to flourish. He runs a boutique to sell 'authentic Kolhapuri chappals' of different types, and understands that e-commerce helps take a business from local to global. After the Prada controversy, his reels on Instagram explaining the nuances of Kolhapuri chappals went viral, garnering lakhs of views and new followers for his studio's Instagram page. The publicity is not enough for him to sustain his business, he says. 'There should be some international collaboration, so the artisans benefit. At present, only the middlemen and shopowners make money from margins and commissions. The artisans are still exploited and underpaid,' he says. Lalit Gandhi, president of MACCIA, calls for the Kolhapuri chappal to be patented. 'A patent will help the artisans, who have been the most exploited in the chain. There is not even a cluster for the Kolhapuri chappals in Kolhapur at present,' he says, adding that the Chamber has begun the process. He hopes the artisans will come together to form a collective. With Prada showing an interest in engaging with the artisans, most in Kolhapur feel this will be an example for ethical fashion practices. 'Prada has offered to hold a meeting with the local artisans and with our industry representatives. We have suggested a joint task force which could focus on developing co-branded limited-edition collections rooted in traditional Kolhapuri designs,' he adds. Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat says that he has called for a meeting next week 'to take measures to address the issue'. Edited by Sunalini Mathew
