The lights, the catwalk and the news. Nothing unusual, one might think, all in the norm after the presentation of the new collection Prada Spring/Summer 2026 during the Milan Fashion Week dedicated to man: Yet a pair of sandals presented by the brand created a real diplomatic accident.
Let’s retrace the facts. Alel Afilate Milanese of a few days ago, some models during the show presented themselves wearing t: low sole, leather band with arzigogolated details connected with a thin cord to a small ring around the big toe.
The peculiarity? Their design recalls a handmade leather shoe in India, known as Chapal of Kolhapurworn by millions of Indians. Sandals take their name from Kolhapura city in the western Indian state of Maharashtrawhere they are made, and are part of the rich Indian cultural heritage.
Many on social networks immediately pointed out the similarity. Some posts, various comments, once again, nothing different from what we are used to seeing nowadays. If it were not that what seemed like a pebble has become a real landslide unleashed by Chamber of Commerce Industry and agriculture of the Maharashtra (Maccia).
As reads on the official websitethe body has in fact sent A hard letter to the brand With the intention of defending not only the craftsmen who still make this shoe that was born in the twelfth century, but also A symbol of Indian culture. Precisely for this reason, the president of the association, Latit Gandhi, had asked Prada to publicly admit that the company was inspired by those sandals, and to evaluate a collaboration Or other ways to compensate for the communities of craftsmen involved.
The answer was not long in coming and in fact The brand admitted that some models of the collection drew inspiration from traditional footwear of the districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, also declaring to wanting to start a dialogue with local artisan communities and to be in contact with the Indian authorities.
However, the question has opened a debate of no small importance: where does inspiration ends and where instead the appropriation begins? A labile, thin border, considering that a world like that of fashion lives on creativity and is fueled taking inspiration from the surrounding reality. In the case of the Prada sandals, the accusation was not so much of having copied the design as that of not giving, at least initially, the right credit to a centuries -old tradition, alive, and which since 2019 has been recognized with the “geographical indication” label, to mark a product as belonging to a certain region.
In a hyperconnex world, where images travel faster than ever, the maison can no longer afford the luxury of ambiguity. More than a stylistic accident here it is something deeper: an invitation to rethink the relationship between creative power and cultural respect. Because from this story there remains a more than legitimate question: What would happen if nobody had pointed out this similarity?
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
