When the devil wore Kolhapuri
From Forgotten Villages To
Global Runways- An Untold Journey
Manya Gupta, XII C & Ishaani Chaudhary, XII B, AIS Noida
It wasn’t the sunny streets of Maharashtra or the humid roads of Karnataka, but the glistening runway in Milan for Prada’s Spring/Summer 2026 men’s collection. Tanned, hammered, stitched, with its signature T-strap intact, the footwear looked familiar. The difference? These Kolhapuri chappal-inspired ‘luxe novelties’ came with a price tag exceeding 1.25 lakh INR. Headlines called it ‘Prada’s Kolhapuri moment’. But was it? The skilled artisans weren’t mentioned, credited, or compensated. For this is not fashion’s first offence;
cultural appropriation has been the industry’s worst-kept secret for decades.
The global chor bazaar
What makes this particular sting sharper is the Kolhapuri chappal’s rich history, stretching back to the 12th century across the Deccan plateau, with the item securing a GI tag in 2018, recognising eight districts across Maharashtra and Karnataka as its rightful home. Hence, Prada’s open stealing of the quintessential Kolhapuris was met with outrage. Amid accusations of cultural erasure, Prada acknowledged its Indian roots and the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce said it will explore patenting Kolhapuri chappals. This, however, was not a singular instance. Louis Vuitton and Zara sold kurtas as ‘chic tunics’. In 2018, Gucci dressed Caucasian models in 790 USD turbans, stripped of Sikh connotations. Jean Paul Gaultier designed ‘sari gowns’, famously worn by Kim Kardarshian and Naomi Campbell. India isn’t the lone victim: Karlie Kloss was styled as a geisha for Vogue in 2017 and Gigi Hadid in dreadlocks for Marc Jacobs. All glaring examples of cultural appropriation - when members of a majority group adopt cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way.
A for appropriation
What exactly is the problem here, one may ask, for art often draws ‘inspiration’. The core issue is that luxury brands use the line between ‘inspiration’ and ‘appropriation’ as a skipping rope. Cultural appropriation leaves marginalised people feeling like outsiders in their own culture, stripped of control over their narrative and pushed further to the margins. For communities with histories of colonisation or displacement, the impact is heavier. Consider the Maasai tribe of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania whose distinctive red and blue beadwork appeared in Louis Vuitton’s 2012 collection. While LV profited millions, the Maasai artisans remained below poverty line.
India has its own mirror to look into. Walk into a mall and you will find ‘ikat-inspired’ polyester dresses and machine-printed ‘kalamkari’ kurtas. Several domestic brands have been criticised for mass-producing artisans’ copies without acknowledgment. Appropriation isn’t always a foreign import. In 2021, the textile industry was worth 223 billion USD. But the 4.5 crore workers, including 35.2 lakh handloom workers, had no share in the profits.
The pursuit of fairness
For decades, these incidents were brushed off as ‘inspiration’ or ‘appreciation’. But social media has given people a voice. Celebrities like Zendaya too have spoken out. Things are improving: Dior’s Fall 2023 show in Mumbai paid genuine tribute, crediting artisans for their chikankari, bandhani, and mirror work; Sabhyasachi’s H&M collaboration honoured traditional silhouettes and kept craftsmen at the forefront; Selena Gomez wore Rahul Mishra's Couture Fall dress that featured a motif of a tailor named Munir Ahmed. The shift from appropriation to appreciation requires these key things: pay artisans fairly, give credit to the communities, collaborate with profit-share, and preserve cultural context.
Appropriation isn’t something the industry can brush aside anymore. The world is watching, questioning, calling out. Fashion will always seek inspiration, but taking it without acknowledgment is plagiarism. Credit isn’t a courtesy. It’s a responsibility.
Magma-ficent Disruption
The Grand Visit Of The Volcanic Plume Puts Aviation Affairs On Hold Globally
Naisha Parnandy, XI I & Zoya Sikander XI C, AIS Noida
Once upon a time in a land that lay southwest to India, stood a great volcano. For many millennia it stood stoic. But then, something unexpected took place. On November 23, 2025, the Hayli Gubbi volcano erupted - possibly for the first time in 12,000 years.
ACT I: The volcano that refused to stay quiet
Belonging to the Erta Ale Volcano Range located in the Afar region of Ethiopia, the volcano is surrounded by instability. It is situated at the edge of the East African rift – where the Arabian and African tectonic plates are drifting apart at an alarming rate of 0.4-0.6 inches per year. The increasing separation of the plates caused the hot mantle rock to rise, melt, and accumulate into a magma chamber located under Hayli Gubbi. Over a millennia, silica-rich magma trapped gases and volatile substances, built pressure until the crust could no longer contain it. When it finally erupted, the volcano expelled a dense ash plume consisting of volcanic ash, sulphur dioxide, and tiny particles of glass and rock - after all, one can only stay quiet for so long! The eruption didn’t affect any civilians directly, but it is said to soon affect the lives of local pastoralists due to streams and soil now being defiled with magma content. Most of its impact is limited to the atmosphere, adding to the already stressed global air.
ACT II: The great airborne traveller
Apparently, even volcanic ash needs a vacation after staying inside the ‘burrow’ for so long. With all its might, the dramatic explosion sent the ash 14 kms up into the atmosphere, making it international news. The ash reached the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere, resulting in the particles entering a domain where the laws of large-scale atmospheric flows dominate. Their voyage set afoot - the eastward jet stream carried volcanic plumes all the way from the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea. It even drifted towards Yemen, Oman, and Iran. The EU, using their observation programme Copernicus, detected the ash cloud blowing east over the Arabian sea to reach India. It reached India’s western border on November 24 at 5:50 pm and was out of its hair a day later by 10:30 p.m. Moving at around 100-120 km/hour at an altitude of 15,000 to 25,000 feet, the plume travelled over Rajasthan, parts of Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh before crossing over to China.
ACT III: The airport drama (Starring: your flight)
While in India, the ash cloud made sure to make its short stay worthwhile, leaving flight cancellations in its wake. Since ash contamination can’t be detected by regular radar, airlines were advised to take precautions and avoid the affected areas. Akasa cancelled some of its flights that were scheduled to fly to the Middle East. Similarly, Air India cancelled eleven of its flights. It also conducted precautionary checks on the airplanes which got close to the ash, examining them for potential damage. But what exactly are these potential damages? As the ash has the tendency to melt inside the jet engines upon contact, they are at the highest risk of failure. Apart from causing severe abrasion of aircraft exteriors, ash clouds can also obscure pilot vision. Moreover, particles also interfere with sensors and cockpit instruments. With the great cancellation of flights comes an even greater aftermath: a congested airport. Delayed plans frustrated passengers to no end. Just ask the 1.2 million passengers who were stranded each day in Europe when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland erupted continuously between March-June 2010, leading to cancellation of 95000 flights.
ACT IV: Delhi wonders: A mask for this too?
The ash was luckier than most of us, for it got to meet its friends – smoke and polluted air. Together, they seem to be making history. However, raising the AQI seems like something the ash didn’t intend on contributing to, though it did carry with itself sulphur-rich gases that took refuge in the Himalayas. The ash cloud’s immediate traces were prettier, taking the form of hazy skies, colourful sunsets and a ‘weird’ sky colour - effects common when volcanic ash high in the atmosphere scatters light. The ash, however, won’t have enough time to enter our breathing atmosphere. At cruising altitude, it disrupts aviation far more than ground-level air. But Delhi’s smog? Well, it has its own agenda.
