Cultural Appropriation

New York Fashion Week might impress and surprise, but leave “shocking” to Marc Jacobs, who always ends the city’s schedule with a spotlight-stealing collection. And this time, Jacobs presented an ecstatic rave of his latest obsessions, inspirations, collaborators and, of course, aesthetic. At the Hammerstein Ballroom, Stefan Beckman built a huge stage splattered with grease, lit up by more than a thousand little bulbs. A perfect space for an off-beat, underground party filled with techno-music and thirsty-for-fun people. The association was right – it was the venue of the most youthful collection of the upcoming season.

Lets take a look at the collection from the bottom to the top, literally. All of the models wore platforms, which looked even higher than the ones from Jacobs’ autumn-winter 2016. I LOVE THOSE SHOES, every single pair of them. Kept in all colours of the rainbow, the killer-stompers were designed in collaboration with Julie Verhoeven (who also did a fantastic job together with the designer during his spring-summer 2002 Louis Vuitton show). Verhoeven produced a number of fantastic, cartoonish illustrations, which appeared on the shoes, and also on the bags and some of the one-of-a-kind pieces. Looking at the clothes, Marc and his team didn’t disappoint. Candy-coloured, sheer apron dresses with ruffles; extra mini, mini-skirts in denim; fur-collared or sprouting with feathers military jackets and cardigans. This season, it’s about lifting normal pieces into ~~nearly~~ couture creations. Hoodies (something we are all getting sick of lately) look brilliant, also printed with Julie’s illustrations. I really do have doubts whether teens would feel absolutely comfortable in those sexy, fairly provocative and imaginative pieces on a binge – but surely, these clothes guarantee a big entrance.

Reaching the heads of the extremelly tall models, we are getting closer to the most problematic (to some) aspect of the collection – the dreadlocks by Guido Palau. Instagram users raged Jacobs’ account with comments on cultural appropriation, calling him a ‘thief’. I’m just overwhelmed with the public’s lack of any awareness. True, corn-rows are over-used by white teens, while Indian headbands with feathers aren’t properly credited by Coachella fans. BUT dreadlocks are for everybody. They are universal. Lana Wachowski has fuchsia-pink dreadlocks. Boy George from the Culture Club-era had dreadlocks. And Bob Marley was the king of dreadlocks. Even a friend of my cousin has dreadlocks (but they look bad, though). In other words, dreadlocks are for everyone, and people should at least try to widen their horizons.

The main inspiration behind Valentino‘s SS16 collection was the “wild Africa”. The house, however, sparked the cultural appropriation topic following their show. “Primitive, tribal, spiritual, yet regal”, the collection was a “journey to the beginning of time & the essential of primitive nature” as the show note said. Indeed, the collection was truly beautiful, and I appreciated it because I love ethnical fashion. Associated with the continent the collection included bone necklaces, Kikuyu textiles, raffia, belts made from African beads, embellishments, fancy embroidering, feathers and fringing. But Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli missed the point at some level – the collection was presented on a majority of white models. And this just reflects one more time the major problem in fashion industry – lack of diversity. Hopefully, the brand did not have any racist intentions – but for the next time, cast more models of colour!