Here’s What You Get Wrong When You Culturally Appropriate Asian Fashion
Fashion in countries across Asia is many things: Beautiful and intricately designed. Innovative and constantly evolving. Oftentimes, religiously inspired. Diverse as hell.
One thing that Asian fashion is not is yours to borrow for an “exotic” party or music festival look.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines cultural appropriation as “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.”
Thankfully, we’re talking more and more about acts of cultural lifting in both academia and the mainstream. (Think: The internet uproar over Kim Kardashian’s cornrows and the controversy over the myriad Native American headdresses at Coachella.)
Unfortunately, people still tend to pilfer from Asian styles and fashion without much thought.
Part of the blame lies with the fashion industry and its longtime obsession with the undifferentiated “East.” There are unique fashions from every Asian country, and from different groups within those countries ― Asians are not a monolith. But you might think otherwise based on Western designers’ flagrant use of the “Eastern” or “Oriental” aesthetic.
“In fashion, cultural appropriation can play out in not only sexualized stereotypes ― dragon-lady dominatrices and eager-to-please geishas ― but also the elision of style elements from completely different cultures and the treatment of Asian models as interchangeable props,” said Susan Scafidi, the founder and academic director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School and the author of “Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law.”
There’s nothing wrong with paying homage to a culture you admire, but true appreciation entails some level of understanding and respect, Scafidi told HuffPost.
“When reaching into another culture’s closet, followers of fashion might keep in mind a really simple rule: Don’t turn a friend’s culture into a costume,” she said.
When is it OK to draw inspiration from another culture and when does the simple act of, say, wearing a kimono or qipao become offensive and borderline identity theft?
Click through to see some of the most recent cases of appropriation from Asian cultures to see what we can learn from them.
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