Beyond Prada’s Kolhapuri chappals: How India has ‘inspired’ Western fashion designers

India — the nation and its model — is having an ‘it’ moment on the ongoing males’s model week. Both model brands — Louis Vuitton and Prada — served up some Indian high model, despite the indisputable truth that the latter’s alternative is receiving rather a petite little bit of hate on social media.

On Tuesday, the Paris Vogue Week kicked off with Louis Vuitton’s Men’s SS26 existing that set up India on the design and on its runway, rather literally. And days earlier than this, Prada showcased its Men’s Spring Summer season 2026 series with objects strolling down the runway in what none a kind of than India’s iconic Kolhapuri chappals.

Whereas Louis Vuitton has been praised for its existing, Prada has obtained brickbats for cultural appropriation and no longer giving credit score the set up it’s due. Nonetheless many model consultants remark that India has always served as a trove of inspiration to designers in the West (who can neglect Jean Paul Gaultier and the ‘nath’ moment he served in 2017.

Kolhapuris stroll the Prada runway

It appears Prada obtained the memo on India being the flavour of the season. The abolish home sent mannequin after mannequin down the runway at Deposito at Fondazione Prada, carrying flat, T-strap leather-based sandals that closely resembled Kolhapuri chappals.

The sandals, colloquially called “toe ring sandals,” had been styled without fanfare: weak with shaded costume socks, paired with tunic-length shirting or left bare under cotton poplins and raffia flowerpot hats.

Nonetheless, quite than the garments getting folk to chat, it changed into the sneakers that stood out, in particular to those already acquainted with the silhouette. Social media lit up with aspect-by-aspect comparisons of the runway sandals and their Indian counterpart.

For fogeys which will most certainly be unaware, Prada’s ‘toe ring sandals’ or better identified as Kolhapuri chappals aren’t good sneakers, they’re custom stitched in leather-based. Before every part crafted by educated cobblers in the Kolhapur space, they won reputation in the 18th Century when Maratha King Shahu Maharaj himself helped popularise them, elevating their pickle past the local bazaar.

Vogue maven Anaita Shroff Adajania shared a post of the objects on the runway on her social media net page, writing, “A pair of fine extinct Kolhapuri chappals.”

Then came outspoken model critic Weight loss program Sabya. On its Instagram net page, it shared a post, noting, “No longer to be that nagging auntie, but are we ready for a Prada Kolhapuri that’ll mark us £1,000 a pair? And that’ll be ‘Vogue’ ensuing from Europeans will without notice originate carrying it. Slightly attention-grabbing must you're taking into memoir it”.

Soon, the problem snowballed; there had been tonnes of posts all in the route of social media, slamming Prada for no longer giving credit score to India for the usual sneakers probability. Nonetheless as author Shobhaa De infamous in an NDTV interview, “It’s all splendid in model, esteem, and warfare.”

Louis Vuitton performs ‘Snakes and Ladders’ with India

Pharrell Williams , who serves because the creative director of Louis Vuitton, served up India to the arena in his spring-summer time 2026 series shown exterior on Tuesday in front of the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Fashions sashayed the ramp dressed up in every part from loose pleated pants to leather-based jackets all with an Indian twist. As Williams told newshounds on the help of the scenes in the route of the existing, “You won’t look any tunics or the relaxation love that. What we had been impressed by from India had been the colours. You’ll look turmeric in the freeway. You’ll look cinnamon. You’ll look ‘coffee indigo’ denim.”

And even the Louis Vuitton trunks that had been rolled down the runway had an Indian flavour to it, gleaming with Indian motifs and designs — some shimmered with crystals, while others bore motifs of elephants and palm bushes.

Nonetheless the pièce de résistance on the Louis Vuitton existing changed into the runway itself. Fashions and spectators grew to changed into players on a grand, existence-size Snakes and Ladders board sprawling in the route of a formidable 8,858-sq.-feet grid with shimmering aqua and neon purple serpents slithering over a grand geometric grid of numbered platforms in heat, earthy tones.

This changed into courtesy Indian architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai, who took inspiration from the historical Indian board game.

Jean Paul Gaultier’s esteem for India

Nonetheless capability earlier than Prada or Louis Vuitton amalgamated Indian designs into their fetch, Jean Paul Gaultier did it in 2017 when he had his objects stroll down the runway in the route of the Fall/Frigid climate existing in saree-impressed outfits and the Indian nosepin, identified because the nath.

The nath is rooted in Indian historic past — maharajas regularly wore it in the past, while many Indian females unruffled set up on it even on the present time. Nonetheless that’s no longer all. In 2012, he set up turbaned male objects on the ramp, and the following one year, showcased a series that took cues from Rajasthan, and Indian ‘gypsy brides’.

Chanel combines India’s glamour with Paris

And talking of India, no one did it better than Chanel in 2011 for its pre-tumble series, titled Paris–Bombay. Iconic model designer Karl Lagerfeld had remodeled the Immense Palais into a lavish Indian palace and objects walked down the runway sari-love garments, jewelled headpieces, saggy pants, and embellished sandals with a lot of gold detailing.

Talking of his series, Lagerfeld stated, “The premise of Paris-Bombay came to me from many visions – the grand palaces, the Maharaja’s costume, India’s reference to England. But it’s a thought of India. Extra Chanel than India. The Parisian version of an India that doesn’t exist.”

It changed into a fantastical moment, steeped in maximalism and decadence. Nonetheless many on the time had criticised it too, calling it cultural appropriation.

Galliano’s saree, no longer sorry moment

If there’s one garment that is Indian as Indian will also be — it’s the saree, that 9 yards of cloth draped in the most incredible formulation. And there had been many designers in the route of the arena who fetch tried to copy or reimagine it (undergo in mind Alia Bhatt on the Cannes Movie Festival this one year in Gucci’s version of the garment).

Nonetheless long earlier than Gucci, British model model designer John Galliano for his Spring 2003 series for Dior showcased sari-model wraps, cholis, and lehenga-impressed skirts.

Indian fever runs high in the West

Nonetheless past Indian garments, Indian fabrics and tools fetch long been a trot-to probability for Western designers. Mediate ikat, the charming Madras assessments, the pleased linen and colourful bandhani. There’s also the lovely and decadent golden embroidery identified as zardozi and the reflective mirrorwork textile — all of these had been weak by Western designers and model properties in their creations.

It’s clear that India changed into, is and may continue to encourage the West when it involves model.

With inputs from businesses