Kalapuri answers Prada with a book handmade by its Kolhapuri artisans — Black Elephant

In 2025, Prada's Milan Fashion Show presented sandals strikingly similar to the Kolhapuri chappal — the leather footwear artisans in Kolhapur, India, have made for about a thousand years — without crediting its origins or makers, sparking outrage in India. Kalapuri, a house of GI-tagged artisans, and VML India wanted recognition restored to the real makers instead of joining the protest.

Answer appropriation with a gift: Kalapuri's artisans handcraft a book of their thousand-year craft and send it to Prada as an invitation to meet the real makers.

Kalapuri's artisans made The Kolhapuri by hand, the way they make their sandals: the book carries elements of Kolhapur, from pigments the colour of local soil to photographs of the actual artisans, documenting generations of craft families and techniques, with every GI-tagged maker credited. Released at the Next Billion Forum 2025, it was mailed to Prada's designers as an invitation to revisit Kolhapur.

The book became a cultural document and a proof-of-authorship gesture: active users rose 44%, new users 48% and direct brand searches doubled, with authenticity queries surging in metro markets. It went on to win Kyoorius' Black Elephant for Best of Show and two Abby 2026 Golds; Prada's design team did not respond directly.

In 2025, Prada's Milan Fashion Show featured sandals strikingly similar to the Kolhapuri chappal — the leather footwear artisans in Kolhapur, India, have handcrafted for around a thousand years — without crediting its origins or makers. The resemblance sparked outrage in India, where designers again saw a global fashion house celebrate a local craft while the artisans behind it stayed unnamed.

Kalapuri, a collective of GI-tagged artisans, chose a different response, developed with VML India: not protest, but a gift. Its artisans handcrafted The Kolhapuri, a book made the way their sandals are, carrying elements of Kolhapur itself — pigments drawn from the colour of local soil, photographs of the real makers — and chronicling the craft's thousand-year journey, its artisan families and the techniques that keep it alive. Every GI-tagged artisan working with Kalapuri is credited inside.

Released at the Next Billion Forum 2025, the book was sent to Prada's designers as an invitation to revisit Kolhapur, and it doubled as a permanent record of the craft. The visibility translated into demand: Kalapuri recorded a 44% increase in active users, a 48% rise in new users and twice as many direct brand searches, with authenticity-related queries surging in metro markets. The work won the Kyoorius Black Elephant for Best of Show and two Golds at the 2026 Abbys, even though Prada's design team never replied directly — the gesture stood on its own.

It answered cultural appropriation without a fight: the response itself was an act of the same craft Prada had borrowed.

The object carried the argument — a book handmade with Kolhapur's soil pigments and portraits of real artisans demonstrated authorship more convincingly than any statement could.

It put names back on the work, crediting every GI-tagged artisan instead of letting a brand stand in for the craft.

It worked even without Prada's reply, turning controversy into demand and placing the makers at the centre of the conversation.

When a bigger brand borrows a culture's craft, the strongest counter is not outrage but authorship made physical: hand the borrower the work and its makers, and let the object argue.

Kalapuri said it received no direct response from Prada's design team and claimed no credit for that outcome; its founders described global designers later revisiting the city as a milestone. Inside India, the book kept the craft's story in circulation and the numbers moved — active users up 44%, new users up 48%, direct brand searches doubled. The Kolhapuri became Kalapuri's most awarded work, taking the Kyoorius Black Elephant for Best of Show in 2026 plus Golds in Design and Direct at the 2026 Abbys — proof that a quiet, physical gesture could outperform an angry one.