photography source: dazeddigital.com
The essence and inspiration behind the Valentino show used a combination of African and Italian traditions and influences. The luxury brand has had a lot of criticism over cultural appropriation. What is the definition of cultural appropriation? What does it mean exactly? These are a few explanations and examples by Nadra Kareem Nittle; a race relations expert.
“Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture’s dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It’s most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects.””
“Examples of Cultural Appropriation;
“Borrowing” is a key component of cultural appropriation. In the 1950s, white musicians borrowed the musical stylings of their black counterparts. Because African Americans weren’t widely accepted in U.S. society at that time, record executives chose to have white recording artists replicate the sound of black musicians. This led to musical forms such as rock-n-roll being largely associated with whites in spite of the fact that black musicians were pioneers of the art form. This move also had financial consequences, as many of the black musicians who helped pave the way for rock-n-roll’s success never saw a dime for their contributions to the music.”
Emma Hope Allwood - Dazed Digital also reports on the Valentino show;
“Vaguely pinning down a collection’s inspiration as ‘Africa’ with words such as ‘tribal’, ‘primitive’, ‘wild’ or ‘ethnic’, bongo drums and animal prints, completely reduces an entire continent into a few archaic and racist stereotypes
”
My initial feeling on this subject was that the use of the term "cultural appropriation" was inappropriate and over the top. The designers came from the right place and it is after all a beautiful celebration of cultures.
Once I read more about the language used to describe the collection (which having been in the fashion industry for a long time I have taken it for granted that creating a "tribal" inspired collection is a "normal" description) I can actually understand the reason for some outrage. The generalisation and labels that are used to define an entire continent are so extreme and have a very negative impact. #primitive #tribal is really not cool, or the way forward. This language is not progressive. Time for change.