When is a Kolhapuri chappal no longer a Kolhapuri chappal? Perhaps it is when one of the world’s most famous fashion houses decides to send them down the runway paired with shockingly mismatched joggers? Or is it when the label decides to also strip the quintessentially artisanal footwear of its Indian roots and call them T-strap leather sandals? Or is it when the aforementioned sandals come with an eye-watering price tag of Rs 1.2 lakh a pair?

Barring the blatant cultural theft and copycat claims, the Prada show has brought into the spotlight, once again, a beloved Indian classic whose desi roots go as far back as the 12th Century. So intertwined is the history of the footwear with the history of the region of its origin that the term ‘Kolhapuri chappal’ bears a GI tag that permits only those pairs made in the Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Solapur districts of Maharashtra and the Bagalkot, Belagavi, Dharwad and Bijapur districts of Karnataka to be labelled as such. Traditionally made of leather in a painstaking by-hand process that can take up to six weeks, a well-maintained pair of Kolhapuris can last their wearer a lifetime.