After the open-toe sandals caused a stir among Indian lawmakers and craftsmen thousands of miles away from the Italian runway, luxury fashion giant Prada has acknowledged the sandals’ ancient Indian origins.
Pictures from last weekend’s Prada fashion show in Milan included models wearing leather shoes with braided patterns that looked like handcrafted, 12th-century Kolhapuri slippers. The Italian brand’s failure to publicly recognise the Indian sandal design, which is named after a city in the western state of Maharashtra, sparked a barrage of criticism from MPs and the media.
In a letter to a trade association on Friday, Lorenzo Bertelli, the son of Prada’s owners, acknowledged their Indian ancestry and replied to the sandal incident. We understand that the sandals… were motivated by traditional Indian crafted footwear, with an ages-old heritage,” Bertelli, Prada’s director for corporate social responsibility, said in the letter to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, which Reuters was provided access to.
Prada is open to a “dialogue for meaningful exchange with local Indian artisans” and will set up follow-up meetings, he said, even though the sandals are still in the early stages of design and are not yet likely to be commercialised.
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