Culture has always been the result of a group’s efforts, activities and world view and has always been influenced by other cultures in a bigger or smaller proportion.
Borrowing from a culture other than your own has been called “cultural appropriation” and in recent years, this phenomenon has raised powerful debates in the metaphorical global public square. The fashion world has been the object of debate when it comes to cultural appropriation more times than one.
It seems that in recent years, every time a designer uses ethnic clothes as inspiration, a magazine creates a cover featuring traditional accessories or there is an exhibition that focuses on a certain culture, words such as “insensitivity” and “racism” are thrown around.
If put under a microscope, it seems that the arguments some people bring is that, if you want to make use of an element that is not part of the culture from which you originate, it should have a “hands off” policy. In other words, people own culture.
Any appropriation is considered by some an act of racism.
Once you see things in this way, you can only wonder: “How does that work” and “How does that make sense?”
Of course, following a logical stream of thought, one can dismiss these arguments from the start. Enjoying a certain aspect of a culture and appropriating it to your own experience is anything but racist. It can be said that cultural appropriation is in most cases cultural appreciation.
As with any Social Justice Warrior’s thoughts and views, the original intention behind a thought or claim is a good one. Taking an element from a culture and mocking it is an insensitive action that can hurt feelings. This is why; religious elements should be generally not be appropriated that easily. However, when it comes to everything else, there is a huge difference between being celebratory about an element and being offensive.
Let’s take a look at some examples. If you enjoy wearing a sherwani, but are not Indian or even remotely Asian, how is that hurting an Indian man? If you love African necklaces because of their great colors and decide to wear one to a special event, how is that offensive to African people? And thirdly, if you love rap music and dreadlocks but are not black, how is that offensive to black people?
Offense should be taken only and only when someone’s intentions are to mock or ridicule one’s culture.
In this spirit, offense should not be taken when someone makes their own something someone from a different culture created. In the end, culture is not an infantile part of life, where the person who “did it first” gets to have ownership of “it”.
Most people fail to realize that seeing the world in this light is actually an act of racism itself, as it proposes a world where each person “should stay with their own”.
And, in the end, as we said in the beginning, culture is all about the meeting point of visions, ideas and lifestyle.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
P.S. We want to hear from you! On which side of the debate do you stand on cultural appropriation in fashion? What has your experience with cultural appropriation been? Do you pay homage to ideas and artistry that belongs to a culture different from the one you’ve been born in? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via e-mail or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!
6 replies on “Debating Cultural Appropriation in Fashion”
I don’t see much of an issue with ca as long as it is not meant to do hard – I guess you make a good point about not offending, but then why is everyone wearing crosses?
Dear Clar,
Crosses are worn by anyone, which makes it somewhat OK to be incorporated in fashion. In the case of the Indian headgear, it was actually a piece designed to be worn only by certain people. There is a fine line between using religious symbols in fashion in an OK manner and in an offensive one. For example, you can wear a cross and offend someone if you do it in a bad way.
I love ethnic clothes, but I believe they should be moral..
Definitely, we agree!
CA. Whether it be for Cultural Appropriation and/or Cultural Appreciation…depending on whoever’s interpretations, it most certainly is an extremely sensitive subject matter for designers all over the world. Not to mention the fact that designers, be it from the fashion industry, mass-media communication, entertainment industry and so on, these are the information providers of the modern contemporary world and its media technologies. What we, as designers, create and present impacts the future generation’s perception of the world. Which complicates the matter regarding CA when we have to bring in our moral conscience as designers too – inspiration may have came from a culture, but how much are you willing to appropriate the elements from it into your design to make it an “original”, and how much is too much that you have inadvertently exploited it? Pure appreciation or outright exploitation through appropriation?
As a budding fashion design student, i am at times at a loss as to whether choosing the route of a (fashion) designer is wise since it would most definitely lead me to the never-ending war of CA. For I am an avid lover of fashion history, specifically on the types of fashion culture and subcultures. I adore the meanings behind these street style-beginnings and (i daresay) believe that such rich histories should be shared to the world in more accessible and clear ways (self-help books that may resemble encyclopaedias or hands-on styling perhaps?). In fact, i fancy myself as more of a fashion design researcher instead!
Lots of gibberish here, but that’s cause I’m still stumbling to find my words as an aspiring researcher. To end this, i want to thank you Attire Club! For bringing up this topic that i really rarely see in other fashion-related websites (which is a major plus-point for me!>.<) and providing so much information for learning. You guys are great! Good job, and thank you so much for your efforts!
Dear Xue,
Thank you for your input! We’re glad you enjoyed the article!
Wish you all the best with your studies, we always love to meet fashion designers who take their work very seriously!
Feel free to send us pictures of your work whenever you want!
Yours sincerely,
F&F