Veteran British menswear designer Sir Paul Smith got off on the wrong foot with the recent launch of "Robert sandals", a product with “high-shine black leather uppers” and “crossover strap detail”.
On his site, Paul Smith lists some of the product’s virtues: heel buckle fastening, gold-tone buckle, a leather foot bed and smooth leather soles.
On closer inspection, these sandals bear an uncanny resemblance to the Pakistan’s traditional Peshawari chappals – except that they have pink neon stripe around the sole and cost £300, approximately 20 times more than the price in the subcontinent.
As the week started, Paul Smith's Robert sandals caused lots of Pakistanis to stamp their feet angrily. The venerable newspaper Dawn explained what the kerfuffle was about. “Initially there was no mention of Pakistan, Peshawar…or any credit given to the region where the design originates from,” it wrote.
But mostly, the newspaper was irritated by the brand name. It said, “The only bone of contention is that he decided to call them ‘Robert’…In all seriousness, Mr Smith, ‘Robert’ is the best you could come up with?”
Other Pakistanis weren’t quite so forgiving. Tags like #Peshawarichappals, #PaulSmith and #RobertSandal trended worldwide on Twitter on Monday, as Pakistanis posted messages like this.
One anguished soul even started an ungrammatical petition online, demanding redress from no less a personage than British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Sandals being sold by Paul Smith Company as Robert Sandal are cultural and traditional footwear of Pashtun people (living across the world, however, mostly live in North Western Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan of Pakistan, Afghanistan) and named as Pekhwrai Tsaplai (Urdu translation could be Peshawari Chappal),” said the petition on Change.org. “If some company wants to sell these traditional foot wear of Pashtuns, should show some moral obligation and courtesy and must use its original local name.”
The petition had gathered more than 1,000 signatures by Tuesday evening.
The outrage seems to have been heard all the way in the UK. By Tuesday, Paul Smith changed the description on its website to read, “Men's high-shine black leather sandals with neon pink trims inspired by the Peshawari Chappal.”
Robert, whoever he was, had sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history.
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On his site, Paul Smith lists some of the product’s virtues: heel buckle fastening, gold-tone buckle, a leather foot bed and smooth leather soles.
On closer inspection, these sandals bear an uncanny resemblance to the Pakistan’s traditional Peshawari chappals – except that they have pink neon stripe around the sole and cost £300, approximately 20 times more than the price in the subcontinent.
As the week started, Paul Smith's Robert sandals caused lots of Pakistanis to stamp their feet angrily. The venerable newspaper Dawn explained what the kerfuffle was about. “Initially there was no mention of Pakistan, Peshawar…or any credit given to the region where the design originates from,” it wrote.
But mostly, the newspaper was irritated by the brand name. It said, “The only bone of contention is that he decided to call them ‘Robert’…In all seriousness, Mr Smith, ‘Robert’ is the best you could come up with?”
Other Pakistanis weren’t quite so forgiving. Tags like #Peshawarichappals, #PaulSmith and #RobertSandal trended worldwide on Twitter on Monday, as Pakistanis posted messages like this.
One anguished soul even started an ungrammatical petition online, demanding redress from no less a personage than British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Sandals being sold by Paul Smith Company as Robert Sandal are cultural and traditional footwear of Pashtun people (living across the world, however, mostly live in North Western Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan of Pakistan, Afghanistan) and named as Pekhwrai Tsaplai (Urdu translation could be Peshawari Chappal),” said the petition on Change.org. “If some company wants to sell these traditional foot wear of Pashtuns, should show some moral obligation and courtesy and must use its original local name.”
The petition had gathered more than 1,000 signatures by Tuesday evening.
The outrage seems to have been heard all the way in the UK. By Tuesday, Paul Smith changed the description on its website to read, “Men's high-shine black leather sandals with neon pink trims inspired by the Peshawari Chappal.”
Robert, whoever he was, had sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history.