Dior's low blow

People Tree is a 27 year old sustainable Indian brand that has managed to not fall prey to keeping up with blind trends and mass-market everything. The brand has two stores and doesn’t sell online, but has a loyal customer base that keeps returning to the brand for its use of organic fabrics, natural dyes, and preservation of traditional Indian workmanship with a contemporary twist. It is one of the few brands offers affordable sustainable fashion which indicates the low margins geared by the label. The business is small yet empowers local designers and handicrafts groups in a self sustaining fashion.

So when Maria Grazia Chiuri's Resort '18 collection for Dior had a print of yogis and lotuses bearing a striking resemblance to a decades-old wooden block print from People Tree, it stirred a special kind of fury amongst people familiar with the brand and made many question why a luxury brand the size of Dior with huge funds for R&D would replicate an iconic print a small brand is known for. It is about time the fashion industry decides where the line between inspiration and copying should be drawn before more multi-billion dollar brands get away with threatening the survival of smaller businesses.

Ethics in art and fashion must be maintained to preserve the livelihood of people employed in this industry like the woodsmiths in Rajasthan who carved the original handmade block 20 years ago with attempts to make ends meet.

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