Why luxury brands keep getting India wrong

A recent controversy over the Italian luxurious Brada brand shed light on how global fashion giants interacted with India – a country that has often suffered its rich artistic traditions because of its inability to benefit from it.

Prada faced a problem in June after its models went on the runway in Milan, wearing Sandal from the soles of the feet resemble the Culporei ChapalHandmade leather shoes in India. The sandals are named after Kolhapur – a city in the western state of Maharashtra where it was made for centuries – but the Prada group did not mention that, which led to a violent reaction.

With the growth of the controversy, Prada issued a statement saying that he confessed to the origins of sandals and that he was open to “a dialogue of meaning with local Indian craftsmen.”

During the past few days, a team from Prada met with craftsmen and store owners in Colyfor who make sandals and sell them to understand the process.

Prada BBC told that it had held a “successful meeting” with the Maharashtra, Industry and Agriculture Chamber, a prominent commercial group.

The statement also indicates that Prada may cooperate in the future with some manufacturers of Kolhapuri shoes.

Although it is not clear the form that this cooperation may take, it is a rare example of a global fashion giant who admits that he failed to be credited with.

Several major brands were routinely accused of inspiration from the traditions of South Asia Indian and broader in their endeavor to re -invention and remain relevant – but without attributing to the source.

Earlier this year, spring designs of repair and H&M It sparked a fiery discussion on cultural credits After many said that their clothes seemed very inspired by the clothes of South Asia. Both brands issued clarifications – while we think these allegations, Al -Islah said that its design is inspired by a group owned by a group of cooperation with it in the group.

Just two weeks ago, Dior was criticized after the long -awaited Paris Group participated in a gold and ivory coat, which many of Maukish’s works, a metal embroidery technique for centuries from northern India. The group did not mention the roots of the craft or India at all.

BBC arrived in Dior for comment.

Some experts say that not every brand that is inspired by culture does this with wrong intentions – designers all over the world call aesthetics of different traditions all the time, while highlighting them on a global scale.

In the very competitive scene of fashion, some argue that brands do not get enough time to think through the cultural repercussions of their options.

But critics point out that any borrowing should be supported through respect and recognition, especially when these ideas are rested by strong global brands to sell them at incredibly high prices.

“Providing a credit due is part of the design responsibility, which is taught to you in the design school and brands that need to educate herself,” says Shmali Vasodiv, a Delhi -based fashion writer. She adds that not doing so is “cultural neglect towards part of the world that brands claim to be love.”

Estimates are different from the size of the India luxury market, but the region is widely seen as a great growth opportunity.

Analysts from the Boston Consulting Group says the luxurious retail market in India It is expected that approximately 14 billion dollars will double By 2032, the expanded and wealthy medium -class, the world’s luxury brands are increasingly looking to India as a major market because it hopes to compensate for the weakest demand elsewhere.

But not everyone shares optimism.

There is a big reason for the visible indifference is that most brands are still an important market for high -end luxury fashion, “says Arvind Singhal, President of Consultance Technopak.

In recent years, many high -end shopping centers have opened with the leading luxury stores in big cities – but they rarely seen great feet.

“Names like Prada still mean nothing to the majority of the Indians. There is some demand among the wealthy, but hardly any customers for the first time,” Sinhal says.

“This is simply not enough to build a work, which makes it easy to neglect the area completely.”

Anand Bushan, a fashion designer from Delhi. He says it is traditionally, India has always been a center for production and not a possible market, as it hires some of the most expensive brands in Paris and the Indian craftsmen to make or embroidered their clothes.

He adds: “But this still does not mean that you can only raise the culture in a blatant way without understanding the history, context and brand of it millions of dollars.”

He says that frustration does not focus on any one mark, but he was building for years.

The most unforgettable mistakes, it was shown during the Karl Lagerfeld “Paris-Bombay” Métiers d’arn, which was shown in 2011. The group appeared on Saar-Citro dresses, jackets of Nehru-Colled and decorative adspeeds.

Many have described it as a good example of cultural cooperation, but others have argued that he relied heavily on the pictures of the clichés and lack a true representation of India.

However, others say, no brand can complete India as a minimal.

“We may not be the fastest luxury market like China, but a smaller and more advanced generation of Indians with different tastes and aspirations reshape the scene of luxury,” says Nunita Calla, Tota Click’s trivial editor -in -chief, Tota Click, says.

In the case of Prada, she says the brand seemed to be “real control”, clear from the lengths that she went to to correct her mistake.

For Mrs. Kalra, the problem is a wider problem – where the brands stationed in the West ended with a homogeneous group of people to watch consumers in other parts of the world through a foreign lens.

“The lack of diversity is the largest blind spot in the fashion industry, and brands need to employ people from different parts of the world to change this,” she says.

“But their love and respect for the Indian heritage is real.”

The issue of cultural credits are complex, and the discussions that it raises on the Internet can look exaggerated and open the eye.

Although there were no simple answers, many felt that the anger about Prada was a great starting point to demand better accountability than the brands and designers who, so far, have been greatly without a large limit.

It is an opportunity for India also to think about the ways it can support and raise its heritage.

Weights are for weeks or months to end one masterpiece, but they often work in unstable conditions without sufficient reward and without protecting their work under international intellectual property laws.

“We are not proud enough and stress the craftsmen, allowing others to walk everywhere.”

“The problem is also that in India we have a lot of different craft techniques and traditions – each of which has the constantly developed motifs on centuries,” says Leila Taabji, head of Dastkar, who promotes handicrafts and craftsmen.

“We are looking for bargaining on a pair of fully embroidered jokeis, but we are any problems about buying a pair of Nike coaches at 10 times the price – although the latter has gone out of the assembly line while all Juthi has been designed by hand by hand,” she says. “

And while this continues, as you say, foreign designers and merchants will do the same.

She says that real change can only happen, “when we respect ourselves and appreciate them – and we have the tools to combat their exploitation.”