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Cultural Appropriation and the Fashion Industry

Gennifyr

After the thread on turbans I did a bit of googling. I found a couple of blog posts about the subject of cultural appropriation. In the end, wear whatever you want, but sometimes it's good to think about the effects of your choices for educational purposes at least

The first link specifically mentions turbans.

http://laflaneusecharmaine.blo.....shion.html

The first thing I thought when I saw the cute black turban that Annagybe posted was that Sikhs frequently get flack for wearing turbans, which they wear for religious reasons, but when white people do it's a cool fashion move. I know someone pointed out that it was a 20's fashion item as well but I'm sure it was appropriated then as well.

http://everydayfeminism.com/20.....opriation/

http://jezebel.com/5959698/a-m.....ropriation

I'm genuinely not just trying to start something here, just providing some food for thought.

General

15 replies

Latest reply was from Gennifyr

Anonymous

I love articles like this. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I know white people who are Sikh and therefore wear the headwrap (dastar). Just to clarify that -- just because someone is white does not mean they are not wearing the turban for religious reasons.

Gennifyr

I am aware of that Janet, I'm really just pointing out the trend.

Staysfit

Veteran

Hmm, so interesting! Turbin controversy. I would say that turbins are worn by people of many different religions, and cultures. It is a clothing item that protects against the sun in warm climates. It's a religious head covering for some people. Even the Romans wore them. They are worn in Turkey, the Middle East, India, Africa. This is an item with a fairly wide appeal across cultures and religions and genders. The spread of turbin usage probably started to take place hundreds of years ago, if not longer, I don't think our being conscientious about it now will change what has already happened over the past several centuries. I also don't think we are being particularly disrespectful to any one culture in wearing a Turbin. If we are, how do we pinpoint exactly which one it is? I think this is a case of cultural exchange, not appropriation.

I still think cultural appropriation is an important concept to consider, I'm just not certain it can be easily applied in this case. I like the Jezebel article and the points it identifies that are present in cases of cultural appropriation.

Anonymous

How does one differentiate between decor, an item to wear or that which belongs to a specific culture for specific cultural purposes? I don't think one can. Just because turbans are back in style it doesn't mean an appropriation of Sikh culture. They've been around a long time and one can look at Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" to see a turban that was used quite a while ago in a different culture. The reason Sikhs wear the turban is because they do not cut their hair and want to keep it covered. Some Muslim women wear head scarves for the purpose of modesty - does that mean that the wearing of scarves is an appropriation of Islamic culture? For all sorts of things, garments, decor, food, art, etc, there is constantly a cross pollination between cultures.

Carla

Veteran

...and plaid, cross motifs, fringe, leather, fur, feathers, kimono, jeans, bikinis, underwear as outerwear, scrubs worn mainstream, skirted leggings...

Gosh! I remember wearing heavy cotton grey 'sweats' when I first started running in the early 70's because I 'wasn't a good enough athlete' to wear the slick looking, lighter weight, quick drying synthetic running kit. Now athletic wear is mainstream, regardless of whether or not a person even breaks a sweat IRL. Also, at some of the events I go to trading parts of the the team uniform with athletes from other countries is a post event tradition! DS got one of the most sought after items at a recent event - a vest from the Mexican team - hot PINK, and green!

I don't think there is a SINGLE item of clothing that doesn't have the capacity to raise a ruckus from socks (with sandals) to hat (beret).

rabbit

Veteran

Interesting reading, and I particularly like the Jezebel article because it seeks to provide some guidance.

This Chicago Reader article also talks about contrasting opinions making it difficult (in some cases) to know where to draw the line: http://www.chicagoreader.com/B.....iation-fas

Thinking about this today, I was thinking about turbans being worn in the West because of the vogue for Orientalism and Orientalist art (with associated stereotyping) -- going back to the 15th century and before, but big during the 19th century in particular (as religious and spiritual ideas began to be borrowed and adapted). The recurrence of certain Orientalist visual motifs in fashion happens regularly as well including recently in the 2014 and 2015(?) F/W runways. It would be difficult in my mind to fully untangle the threads from the history of Western Art, literature, philosophy, and religion. How much at this point is appropriation versus exchange? I think both are probably in play but it's hard to know without tracing a particular art object, item of clothing, or product to it's source and considering the setting.

I googled Lord Byron (and his famous turban portrait) and came up with an article in a Pakistani newspaper lamenting the fact that turbans were disappearing off of local runways and formal collections http://tribune.com.pk/story/29.....r-turbans/ and the prevalence of Western fashion.

(I also am painfully aware that Post 9/11 wearing turbans for religious or cultural reasons has taken on an unfortunate element of added danger and made Sikh people the targets of horrible hate crimes in the US.)

Lots of things to ponder.

catgirl

Veteran

I'm from an oft-appropriated culture - bindis, mehndi, etc. I generally don't take issue with it - I mean, I wear androgynous clothing and Western clothing (I was raised in the US). I only feel silly in certain items - kilts, for example, seem very specifically wrong on ME, not because I think only people from Scotland would wear them.

I just helped a friend put on a sari last night for an evening event. She's not Indian, but had recently been to India and bought herself a lovely sari. She wore it with joy and respect. In India, people felt she was being respectful by dressing in salwar kameez.

Madonna wearing Indian clothes, on the other hand - that annoyed me, because she is all about the trappings and her own image. However, honestly I can't get all that worked up about it. People are people, and clothes are clothes.

When people are rude and disrespectful, that's a different story. A British woman I traveled with in India used a lungi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lungi) as a headwrap and just couldn't understand the derisive looks she got. I tried explaining to her that she was going around with the equivalent of men's shorts on her head, but there was just no getting through. Her own fault, in my opinion.

rachylou

Veteran

Man. I don't know. I don't want to be offensive, but I'm a Child of Hippyland and Diversity exhausts me after 46 years of it, and I'm tired of being divided from my neighbor. I really want to invite any and all heifers out there to wear qipao. You look bad, but they're cool. Enjoy yourself!

More seriously, I suppose if there is anything out there that might bother me - it's playing dress up, wearing normal clothing from another culture as a Hallowen costume. But I think you have to be careful with this one even, before you go off on a righteousness rant. For example, my gypsy neighbor and I were discussing - pardon - Pimps and Ho parties. The problem with being offended at this is, for cultural appropriation reasons, it's basically the American version of Tarts and Vicars. I mean, maybe Brits actually have first dibs at being offended for the ripoff - before ghetto rats, who are in fact from the same American culture...

More acute is the way I think people of different cultures are completely invisible to each other. Or the cultural conflicts, like whether not being loud in public means a person is disturbing the peace and should get a talking to from the police or uses a lot of swear words or dares to talk to you on the street.

frannieb

Veteran

Interesting thread. I won't comment much as this is a major part of my work and the work I do. Without face to face and background on each person it makes it a challenging forum conversation which can be kinda static as you have them.
The everyday feminist article is brilliantly written and I will be bringing it to a meeting for us to discuss within some other frameworks we use.

Sharon

Veteran

I think this can be really tricky, simply because although the planet is shrinking and cultural information is more readily available through the internet, it is still easy to encounter aspects of other cultures that are completely new to you.

When I was in Hong Kong, I went to the markets and saw a scarf I really liked. I bought it and took it home. It was only some time later that I saw it on the internet and realised that the one I bought was a rip-off of a designer. I would NEVER have bought it if I had realised that at the time. I had responded to the aesthetic without recognising or being aware of the origin.

I think it would be easy for this to happen with all manner of cultural symbols. I know one response is "you should educate yourself", but the combination of the huge number of cultures, the guarding of some types of knowledge within ethnic communities and not knowing what you don't know makes this an almost impossible task.

I'm not sure what the way through this is. I suspect that in any community with huge diversity, we are occasionally going to get things wrong, step on toes and make choices that are offensive to a particular group and the key is to be open to recognising that and being willing to change behaviour. I would hope that the fashion industry would start to take some responsibility for the ideas they incorporate into their clothes. Certainly, if I had bought something that I later found out to be culturally insensitive, I would stop wearing it. Unfortunately, given that I have already handed over my money, that solution doesn't really provide big fashion groups with an incentive to do the right thing.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

What Sharon said 100%.

Echo

Veteran

I tend to agree that cultural appropriation happens between most/all cultures at this point. It is sometimes offensive, and I think people need to think about things before wearing them or adopting them, but I also think that people need to be more tolerant. Keep in mind that Madonna popularized wearing rosaries for fashion's sake, so appropriation sometimes happens from domestic sources as well.

Honestly, fashion isn't nearly the minefield that Hallowe'en costumes are. There seem to be far more controversies regarding costumes every year than the cultural appropriation fashion uses.

And my last thought is that fashion spreads/shoots often go further over the line than does the fashion included in them. Most people are not willing to adopt things that are completely "foreign" to them, so it is unlikely there will be widespread wearing of headwraps of any sort. Fashion far more often adopts patterns and colours from traditional clothing than styles themselves, IMO.

Jules

Veteran

On the topic of Madonna, I thought the Catholic stuff was totally within her domain as someone raised in that church/culture. She was also a church critic of sorts, not just wearing the stuff but having a dialogue (in her way). She also seems to have been/still be genuinely a part of a gay culture, ie/ the vogue phase. Once she went outside her own background and experience I think it was a different situation, ie/ appropriation.

Gennifyr

There is definitely a line and it can be fuzzier depending on the culture in question.

When we talk about appropriation it doesn't mean that you can't wear anything that culture produces. It tends to be specific items that hold special meaning. Crosses and rosaries, Native headdress, Palestinian keffiyeh, etc.

Unfortunately we can't depend on the fashion industry to filter these items out for as illustrated by the most recent faux pas of late, DSquared2's DSquaw collection. http://themuse.jezebel.com/on-.....1689649757

My husband pointed out that maybe people should be so easily offended. Well that would be nice if we lived in perfect utopia free of rasicm, misogony and oppression. But we don't and those things are bigger issues than the overly sensitive.

In the end, nobody is perfect and all we can do is be aware and educate ourselves and aim to know more and make informed decisions.