Stolen Chic: How the West Keeps “Discovering” India

 

One Renamed Product at a Time

A steel thali our grandparents used for years suddenly reappears on a shelf abroad, glowing under studio lighting and tagged “chic chrome plate.” No memory of Indian kitchens, just a price tag ten times higher and a new identity. This pattern keeps playing out across continents and categories: the same object, a new name, a luxury price, and silence about where it actually came from.

The Thali That Became “Chrome”

It started with a shopping-haul video. A Texas-based creator filmed herself picking up shiny, round steel plates and trays at a home-goods store, thrilled to have finally found the “chrome” aesthetic she had chased online for two years. Indian viewers recognised it instantly: the everyday stainless-steel thali sitting in every Indian kitchen. The retailer had simply listed it as a steel plate; the styling and the label got the upgrade, not the object, which stays functional and undervalued at home but turns “chic” only once it is rebranded elsewhere.

Kolhapur’s Chappals, Milan’s Runway, and a ₹1.2 Lakh Price Tag

In June 2025, Prada showed open-toe leather sandals at Milan Fashion Week nearly identical to the Kolhapuri chappal, a handcrafted sandal made in Maharashtra and Karnataka for centuries and normally sold for a few hundred rupees. Prada’s version cost roughly ₹1.2 lakh, with no mention of Kolhapur or its artisans. A Public Interest Litigation followed in the Bombay High Court, citing India’s 2019 Geographical Indication tag for the sandal. Under pressure, Prada admitted the design was “inspired by traditional Indian footwear,” signed MoUs with LIDCOM and LIDKAR, the bodies safeguarding the craft, and in 2026 launched an official “Made in India x Inspired by Kolhapuri Chappals” line made by the same artisans.

Jhumkas Walk the Paris Runway- Under a Different Name

In March 2026, Ralph Lauren’s Paris Fashion Week show featured large, bell-shaped silver earrings that South Asian viewers linked instantly to the jhumka, a dangling earring style tracing back roughly 2,000 years to the Chola dynasty. The brand called them “vintage accessories,” some made through its Artist in Residence programme with Native American designers. That didn’t quiet the criticism: commentators said a recognisably South Asian silhouette had been folded into a generic “vintage” label, a design “worn by Indian women for more than a millennium,” as one user put it, with no mention of the jhumka at all.

Your Dupatta Is Not Scandinavian

The pattern goes back to summer 2024, when rental brand Bipty posted a TikTok describing a soft, sheer draped scarf as “very European,” later popularised as the “Scandinavian scarf.” South Asian viewers recognised it as a dupatta, the long unstitched drape worn across the subcontinent for centuries. Backlash pushed Bipty to delete the post and apologise. But the label persisted, resurfacing in a Reformation collaboration and across fast-fashion listings selling the same drape as a “thin scarf,” each time lifting the silhouette while never naming it.

Kachua Chhap Goes to Paris, Comes Back as “Citronnelle”

In June 2026, Paris house Diptyque released a lemongrass incense spiral, the Citronnelle, priced around £45 for six coils and a gold stand, with an optional €140 porcelain holder, marketed purely as ambient fragrance. Indian and Southeast Asian social media recognised the shape instantly: a mosquito coil, sold for a fraction of the price under names like Kachua Chhap and burned in homes for generations. Diptyque never claimed any link to the coil, but the episode still fit a pattern audiences had already started naming after Prada and Ralph Lauren.

When It’s Not Fashion- It’s Your Name, Too

Cultural erasure doesn’t stop at clothing and homeware, it has reached branding itself. In 2019, Kim Kardashian trademarked “Kimono” for her shapewear line, which prompted outrage from Japanese officials and citizens, including Kyoto’s mayor. One Japanese commentator told the BBC that kimonos are worn to mark milestones like graduations, weddings, and funerals, and are passed down through generations, it has a meaning, the shapewear line had nothing to do with. Kardashian had to rename the brand SKIMS before launch. And the pattern is older than fashion altogether. In the 1990s, the University of Mississippi Medical Center secured a US patent on turmeric’s wound healing properties, a use documented in Indian households and Ayurvedic texts for centuries. India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research spent roughly $15,000 and a year in a legal battle to get it revoked in 1997, submitting ancient Sanskrit and Hindi texts as evidence. Around the same time, US firm RiceTec patented “novel” rice lines using basmati genetics and sought to trademark “Texmati” and “Kasmati,” threatening India’s basmati export market before most of the claims were withdrawn under diplomatic and legal pressure. These weren’t runway disputes, they were attempts to own, on paper, and knowledge entire communities had shared for generations.

Appreciation vs. Appropriation: Where’s the Line?

Appreciation asks for permission and shares the spotlight whereas appropriation just takes the spotlight and dims the source. Every case above follows the same formula- take an object or design that is unremarkable, undervalued in its home culture, strip its name and context, reprice it for a market that doesn’t know the original and only credit the source when public backlash forces. Call it the “outrage then apology”, cycle viral criticism, a brand statement, an artisan partnership announced later, treated as an afterthought rather than a starting point.

Why This Isn’t Just About Feelings- It’s About Fairness

This isn’t oversensitivity; it’s economics and cultural erasure combined. Communities that spent centuries perfecting a craft Dalit leatherworkers stitching Kolhapuris, weavers hand-finishing dupattas, farmers cultivating basmati, often remain economically precarious when their designs generate luxury margins elsewhere. India currently holds Geographical Indication tags on 658 products, from Kanchipuram silk to Darjeeling tea to Kolhapuri chappals, specifically to link a product’s value back to its place and people of origin. Yet GI rights are territorial-India’s protection does not automatically extend to Europe or the United States, so a chappal fully protected in Kolhapur can be freely reproduced in Milan. Even India’s free trade agreements with the EU and UK include GI provisions, but enforcement remains inconsistent on both sides, the same asymmetry that let Darjeeling’s name go unprotected in some markets for years.

The Real Fix: Credit, Not Just Copying

It’s never meant that global fashion and design should avoid inspiration. Cross-cultural exchange has always shaped style, food, craft and a lot more. The problem isn’t influence, it’s silence. Naming the source, crediting the artisans, and sharing economic benefit is basic respect. When Prada finally partnered with Indian artisan groups, or when Kardashian renamed her brand under global pressure, it proved that acknowledgment is always possible. It simply wasn’t the default, it was an intention. The next time a “chrome plate,” a “vintage earring,” or a “Scandinavian scarf” trends online, ask the obvious question: whose grandmother already owned this and did anyone bother to ask her?

References

Bar and Bench. (n.d.). Prada-Kolhapuri chappal controversy: Tip of the iceberg. https://www.barandbench.com/columns/prada-kolhapuri-chappal-controversy-a-tip-of-the-iceberg

Chandrasekhar, C. P. (2001, August 25). RiceTec: Profiting from derived knowledge. Macroscan. https://macroscan.org/cur/aug01/print/prnt250801Ric_Tec.htm

Curly Tales – ‘Chic Chrome Plates’ Or Steel Ki Thali? Desis Can’t Stop Laughing At US Woman’s IKEA Find – https://curlytales.com/india/trending/chic-chrome-plates-or-steel-ki-thali-desis-cant-stop-laughing-at-us-womans-ikea-find/

Deccan Herald. (2025, July). Prada Kolhapuri chappal row: Two govt agencies officially hold GI tag for sandals. https://www.deccanherald.com/india/maharashtra/prada-kolhapuri-chappal-row-two-govt-agencies-officially-hold-gi-tag-for-sandals-3661799

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Blog by Shreya Prakash and Hritika Kaushik, M.Com Students