India, July 3 -- The leather sandals seen on the ramp for the Prada Men Spring Summer 2026 collection have recently been in the eye of a storm. While Prada has now acknowledged that the products were inspired by the traditional Kolhapuri chappals (a registered Geographical Indication since 2019) has any law been broken here?

To unpack the controversy, one must first understand what a GI registration really means.

A geographical indication is a tag given to a product (natural or man made) that originates in a particular place and has a particular set of characteristics. Kolhapuri chappals are identified in the registration as a species of open Indian footwear made of bag tanned leather with vegetable dyes, produced using traditional tech...