India, July 8 -- The runways at the Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks made one thing very clear: fashion's gaze is turned to India.

Even as questions around appropriation arose, India was threaded firmly into the core of the season, from textiles and textures, right down to the models and set design.

Fashion has always turned to India for ideas. It is a long history dressed up as inspiration. For instance, Jean Paul Gaultier showed turbans, bindis, and sherwani jackets in his 2007 couture line. John Galliano pulled heavily from Mughal silhouettes during his Dior years. Karl Lagerfeld sent Chanel's Metiers d'Art to Mumbai back in 2012. The staging was theatrical. The embroidery was Indian. The credits were barely there.

Dries Van Noten once...