Author: shirts'n'all
Hello everyone, the low-yielding sa jun I was slowly planning (delaying) future tweets, but recently accidentally encountered a controversial matter related to engineered garments (hereinafter referred to as "eg"), I have to talk to you first.
Last week, the EG 2022 Spring/Summer collection's tokyo and New York exhibition halls all came to an end. This week, vogue websites, as always, preceded other mainstream media, releasing eg's Spring/Summer 2022 catalog and reviews.
image: vogue.com
As a loyal fan, Sa Jun naturally read it carefully at the first time. In the spring and summer collections of previous years, Suzuki Daqi occasionally tried the african print, but in the spring and summer of 2022, it was finally launched as a theme for the whole season. Safari and various elements of traditional African culture are interestingly interpreted under the aesthetic filter of eg (we will recommend items when we start next spring). Surprisingly, however, the part of the text review reversed the friendly normalcy of the vogue editor for eg, and in a sharp tone, accused the collection of works of this work of "cultural appropriation" throughout.
The vogue editor Sarah Spellings' biography contains few dabbles in menswear or vintage culture, and more coverage of fashion themes such as transgender and feminine perspectives. But that doesn't matter, after all, outsiders can sometimes provide unique insights that insiders can't see. Let's take a look at the specific reasons she gave the negative review.
The article began by saying that Suzuki should not set the theme as "Africa". There are more than 50 countries in Africa, each with different ethnic cultures, and Suzuki's phrase "Africa" erases the diversity of countries on the continent.
Secondly, a rich national print in blue and yellow in the catalogue is based on the traditional kente pattern of Ghana, which disgusts the author. She pointed out that Suzuki Daiki himself is a Japanese designer, so is it inappropriate to embezzle a pattern from other ethnic groups so easily?
The Ghanaian kente national motif accused of "appropriation" – image: vogue.com
To make matters worse, the catalogue has appeared several times in the so-called "pith helmet"—a hat that European colonists used to use in hot colonies. The author directly criticizes this as "insensitive [to the symbolism of the object]".
A new hat from pith helmet– image: vogue.com
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Spanish Duke of Mandas wore a wooden hat on a hunting trip in British East Africa — image: wikipedia
Finally, the author concludes: "Today's designers need to be extra cautious about cultural appropriation. Mainstream designers know that using other cultures that are not their own is 'going astray'. Even if Suzuki wants to learn from African culture, he should cooperate with African artists and craftsmen and get 'endorsement'. But this collection is done independently, and it loses that sincerity. ”
The Italian army, which was defeated in Ethiopia during World War II, dropped countless wooden caps—image: wikipedia
In Sa Jun's impression, Eg and Suzuki Sang have rarely attracted cultural and political criticism along the way. Although nepenthes has frequent activities in recent years, the overall brand image is relatively quiet, never enjoying "controversy traffic" and not liking "hand-to-hand combat" in the field of public opinion. Behind this unexpected spray, it was suzuki who wanted to break through the conventional American retro inspiration pool and explore elements of other regions.
Suzuki Introduces eg × New Balance m990—image: nepenthes.co.jp
This is not difficult to understand. As a Japanese designer based in New York, Suzuki Sang went from a young Japanese who envisioned the American culture of his golden age to a frontrunner and CFDA Award winner who is familiar with this design language today. Although he has already achieved a lot, after the brand style is relatively fixed, he will naturally seek progress and breakthroughs in all aspects. It was only this attempt to break through that it unexpectedly bumped into the "high-voltage wire" of American cultural politics.
The so-called "cultural appropriation" is probably not too cold for most Chinese readers, but this concept is a big hat in the United States and some Western European countries. It generally refers to the arbitrary extraction of cultural elements from other countries/nationalities/groups other than the creator's own creation in any art, design, music, etc., and openly added to his own works, which is generally regarded as a great disrespect for that cultural group. Given that there has indeed been a history of the United States and Europe that has distorted the cultures of other peoples, the concept itself seems understandable. But as you can see from the example of this vogue tweet, it seems to have changed its flavor in the spread.
Today, accusations of "cultural appropriation" have become boundless, making many creators wary of referring to cultural elements of other groups, and even obsessively trying to pull in the circle of the culture for "endorsement" - as if the correct way to avoid "cultural appropriation" is not to sincerely learn the culture, but to study where the acceptable routines of the "cultural police" are, so as to fly low over all the high-voltage wires. In a word, the "cultural appropriation critique" really gives various groups a lot of opportunities to show, which is worth reflecting on.
Back to this article. In this criticism, the author is confident in his position, but does not mention what Suzuki has done to study, learn and accumulate in Africa in order to design these patterns, as if this does not matter. In fact, even the negative symbolism of the so-called pith helmet that people can't avoid may not be able to withstand scrutiny. For example, the North Vietnamese Army in the Vietnam War also widely used this hat, is it difficult that they are also inheriting the culture of the colonizers in a "straight-tongued" manner? This crude labeling process will eventually evolve into a boring bottomless pit of "evidence", underestimating the complexity of cultural dissemination.
The modified wooden pulp hat was one of the most commonly used military hats by the North Vietnamese Army during the war, image: getty images
We can completely look at this matter from a broad perspective. In fact, the spread, acceptance and adaptive evolution of culture is a very complex and interesting process. Recently, Sa Jun revisited the classic old film "Godfather i", and found that the cultural phenomenon brought about by this movie is a good example. The original author, Mario Puzo, has never met a real mafia in his life, and vito actor Marlon Brando does not actually have half a drop of Italian blood. But the power of the classics is so wonderful that the "Godfather" still exists today in the streets, shops and mouths of the people in Sicily.
Street artist c215 Graffiti of "Two Generations of Godfathers" on the streets of Palermo, the capital of Sicily, image: buenosairesstreetart.com
It can be seen that most locals are very happy with the cultural promotion brought by "The Godfather" and have no interest in aggressively pursuing whether Marlon Brando is "authentic". So if no one in the culture has been offended by "something untrue", and the "cultural police" think that they are fighting for whom? I think that culture is not static and purely historical. If we can put down the politicized colored glasses to discuss such phenomena, we can collide with countless wonderful ideas and creative inspirations, and inject new vitality into culture.
EG's attempts this season, no matter how "authentic" they are, are actively and enthusiastically involved in the process of cultural dissemination in their own way, giving the brand's followers a great window of interest in African national cultures. In the future, when eg enthusiasts think of the African continent, the first thing they think of will not be all kinds of negative impressions, but vivid and beautiful designs of various ethnic groups. This is a positive boost to the promotion of African culture. Without understanding the tone and history of eg's brand and the process of Suzuki's conception, the author is eager to hold high the yardstick of cultural politics to measure him and simply label his works, which is probably more like a "misguided" behavior. Of course, Sa Jun also realized that his position as a brand fan may also be blind. Therefore, I would love to hear the opinions of all steppy readers in the comments section.