By Aneesa Malik
Inspiration, it is said, is often founded in our surroundings, and for fashion designer and icon, Sir Paul Smith, his Pakistani inspired sandal takes this to a whole other level.
The fashion house released its latest spring collection, boasting of a leather open-toed sandal which bears close resemblance to that of the “chappal” in the indigenous region of Peshawar in Pakistan.
The company was inundated with complaints through the social media site, Twitter, accusing the UK based designer of plagiarising the Peshawari chappal and putting it on the market for an extortionate price of £300 — 20 times the cost of the same chappal in Pakistan if bought from an upscale store.
Robert- as the website describes the sandal, initially paid no accreditation to its south Asian heritage, but after a petition on Change.org, the description on the website was amended to state: “Men’s high-shine black leather sandals with neon pink trims inspired by the Peshawari Chappal.”
The name ‘Robert’ has also been removed from the page, although the URL still displays the original ‘Robert’ title.
Munib Nawaz- a Pakistani fashion designer was particularly livid about the situation, arguing Paul Smith stole ideas from the rich Pakistani culture.
“In my honest opinion, this isn’t the first time. Our motifs have been taken for years. Peshawari chappal is another slap at our faces because we don’t take ownership of our own cultural designs — until some gora does it.”
“If we owned the look then they wouldn’t have to give us credit. I don’t think they need to give the geographical credit.”
Uproar amongst the fashion community very swiftly gravitated towards the rest of the Pakistani community.
“Extraction of surplus, of labour and of ideas is an age old issue in North-South relations,” Mosharraf Zaidi, an education activist and former diplomat, told The Independent.
“However, we should also never shy from owning what is ours, especially on the rare occasions when the associations are entirely positive and aesthetically universal in appeal.”
However, for many- the chappal that was so desperately fought for was meaninglessly thrown away by others. The argument suggesting that the Peshwari chappal is in fact an out-of-date design and if Paul Smith was going to take inspiration, it should have been better researched.
