The world of high fashion clashed again as Dior featured a men’s overcoat with mukaish embroidery, hailing from Lucknow. Walking the ramp in Paris on July 7, the show sparked outrage on social media. Edelweiss Mutual Fund CEO Radhika Gupta took to X (formerly Twitter) and slammed the brand for appropriating Indian culture and heritage.
However, this is not the first time this has happened in 2025. The Dior show came days after Prada, a haute couture label from Milan, spurred debates online with their ‘Prada’ branded kohlapuri slipper.
One more handloom, one more headline.
Dior sells a $200K coat using Lucknowi mukaish embroidery.
12 Indian artisans. 34 days of work.
No credit. No context. No mention of India.The world loves Indian craftsmanship —
But rarely credits the craftspeople.
And almost never shares…— Radhika Gupta (@iRadhikaGupta) July 27, 2025
‘No credit. No context. No mention of India’: Radhika Gupta
The Edelweiss CEO noted fashion creator Hanan Besnovic’s observation that the Dior overcoat took “12 Indian artisans. 34 days of work.” She points out the lack of credit and cultural appropriation at play here and said, “No credit. No context. No mention of India.”
She adds, “The world loves Indian craftsmanship – But rarely credits the craftspeople. And almost never shares the value.” This comes in the same month as she slammed the Italian fashion house for retailing the kohlapuri for Rs 1 lakh. She wrote, “Remember that till the lion learns to write, all stories will always glorify the hunter”.
Explaining her trust in branding and storytelling, she condemned that the pricing power remained with the Western forces. Calling out the lack of credit, she wrote, “the hand that creates remains invisible,” pointing out the hours of hard work invested by Indian craftsmen only to be sidelined and forgotten.
Referring to history, Gupta highlighted how Japan successfully leveraged culture as a form of soft power through its impeccable design aesthetics. She also pointed to Korea’s remarkable hold over global pop culture, particularly among younger audiences, as another example of cultural influence as a force of assertion. “India must do it with craft,” she concluded. Ending her note, she said, “From sourcing destination to storytelling nation”, she called India, “a home of global brands.”
Dior’s Rs 1.6 crore mukaish overcoat
Calling it a “gold and ivory coat with a houndstooth design”, fashion page @ideservecouture, run by Hanan Besnovic, on Instagram called out Dior for the overpriced label. The coat comes from a debut collection of Jonathan Anderson for Dior. “This is a traditional Indian hand embroidery technique,” Besnovic added.
The dust barely settled on the Prada tale of “leather sandals” but Dior’s overcoat raked up the credit storm. Mukaish embroidery, a traditional art form from Lucknow, involves the use of metal strands. These strands are twisted into a pattern that forms a webbed design. Often called “fardi ka kaaam”, the technique creates a geometric pattern on the cloth. It is a dying craft and only a few artisans practice it in today. Often paired with Lucknow’s signature chikankari, mukaish is often sidelined and remains unrecognised.