After Prada’s ‘sandal scandal’, Indian footwear labels are giving the chappal a high-fashion spin with sneaker and silk makeovers, bringing fresh attention to the craft and its artisans
The intricate braid on a Kolhapuri chappal’s upper strap is called the ‘veni’. The toe-loop is the ‘angtha’. Words once confined to traditional craft vocabularies now surface in a slick new video campaign by Gully Labs, a South Delhi sneaker label trying to reinvent the good old leather sandal.
Shot inside an abandoned fort, the video flashes images of kings and commoners alongside a sleek blue slide held up next to a traditional Kolhapuri. The toe loop is gone, replaced by a broad strap and a smaller braid, while softer Napa leather replaces the stiffness of older styles. The resemblance is faint but for co-founder Animesh Mishra, it is a modern makeover of the classic silhouette. The range, called Gully 004, launched last year and has since expanded into multiple colours ranging from saaya blue to khaki beige. “The Kolhapuri chappal has existed for generations, but its form hasn’t really evolved into other categories. We want to reimagine the braids, motifs and stitchwork of the Kolhapuri style for different kinds of footwear like thongs and even hawai chappals,” says Mishra. whose three-year-old brand, now set to expand to Mumbai and Bengaluru, earned more than a quarter of last year’s sales from the Gully 004 range.