The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2026
Ralph Lauren's $375 printed bandhani skirt drew the backlash its jhumka row warned about
A $375 Ralph Lauren wrap skirt copying India's bandhani tie-dye as a flat print went viral as appropriation in April 2026, weeks after its jhumka row.
Ralph Lauren · 2026-04-18
What happened
In April 2026 a viral post on X by the account @JIX5A held up Ralph Lauren's "Print Cotton Wrap Skirt" against bandhani — the centuries-old Indian tie-dye craft of Gujarat and Rajasthan — and the resemblance was exact except for the method: the $375 skirt is printed, not hand-tied. "Why, Ralph Lauren, why?" the post asked. It's bandhani-inspired, the critic noted, but not even real bandhani — just a print, with no credit.
The post went viral on April 18 and Indian media followed: reporters priced raw bandhani fabric at roughly 200–500 rupees a meter, with a wrap skirt needing no more than four meters, against the skirt's $375 price tag. Netizens asked where the credit was, and the episode joined a lengthening list of luxury brands borrowing Indian craft without acknowledgment.
The backlash repeated a pattern Ralph Lauren had been warned about a month earlier: at Paris Fashion Week in March 2026 the brand showed jhumka earrings and drew a similar row, in the same season Prada acknowledged the Kolhapuri inspiration behind its sandals after legal threats. As of the reporting in late April 2026, Ralph Lauren had issued no response to the bandhani criticism.
Why it happened
- The skirt reproduced a hand craft as a flat print — the visible difference between printed and hand-tied bandhani made the copying undeniable.
- The $375 price against craft fabric worth a few hundred rupees a meter turned inspiration into perceived exploitation — the markup became the story.
- The brand repeated the pattern a month after its jhumka row without credit or acknowledgment — the lesson from its own previous backlash did not transfer.
The lesson
A print that mimics a hand craft is a copy, not a tribute — if the inspiration is visible, the credit must be too, and repeating the pattern one month after the first row doubles the damage.
Aftermath
Indian media and social media kept the episode alive through late April 2026 as the newest entry in a series of luxury-brand appropriation rows — Prada's Kolhapuri sandals, Ralph Lauren's jhumkas and now the bandhani skirt. Ralph Lauren had not responded at the time of reporting, leaving the case open as a warning that a month-old controversy had not changed the design pipeline.
Sources
- Ralph Lauren Faces Backlash Again Over Bandhani Skirt After Jhumka Row — Harper's Bazaar India (Apr 2026)
- Why Ralph Lauren, Why? Luxury Brand Faces Backlash Over $375 'Bandhani-Inspired' Skirt — News18 (Apr 2026)
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Adidas and Willy Chavarria called a shoe 'Oaxaca' — then Mexico called it appropriation
Prada Kolhapuri sandal sparked cultural appropriation crisis — legal threats, forced pivot
Vans collabs with a brand named Fugazi, fans think it's the band that never sold merch
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.