China has a great deal of etiquette, so it is called "Xia", and there is the beauty of the clothing chapter, which is called "Hua", so it is called "Huaxia".
On July 15, netizens posted questions about a skirt released by Dior, suspected of plagiarizing the ancient Chinese horse-faced skirt, and then netizens found that Dior officially removed the product silently in China, and it is still circulating in foreign markets.
If you just improve the design, it is nothing, but according to the previous screenshots on the official website of Dior, "This skirt adopts the iconic Dior silhouette, which is a new elegant fashion item." ”
The point of anger is that Dior does not talk about the inspiration elements of clothing that are drawn from traditional Chinese culture, but say that it is his own new design. Moreover, because the horse-faced skirt has no intellectual property rights and is not an intangible cultural heritage, it cannot be "taken at will" or used, or "cultural appropriation", which is tantamount to "plagiarism".
So what is the origin of this horse-faced skirt?
In the General History of Chinese Costume, the horse-faced skirt is described as follows: "Folded on both sides, with ornamentation on the skirt door and skirt back, and a skirt waist and ties on it." ”
The term "horse noodles" first appeared in the "History of the Ming Palace", "dragging, its rear placket is continuous, and there are pendulums on both sides, two sections on the front placket, and a horse-faced pleat under it, rising on both sides." ”
Horse-faced skirts were very popular in the Ming Dynasty, from the empress to the dawn of the people. However, according to the different classes and occasions, the material, pattern, and color of the horse-faced skirt also have corresponding differences.
Legend has it that the horse-faced skirt originated in the Khitans, the traditional Hanfu skirt only has a skirt door behind it, can not ride a horse, the nomads because they want to ride a horse, so they have to open four skirt doors, the front and back are convenient to put on the horse, the left and right are convenient to split the legs, the skirt door is stacked on top of each other and does not make the skirt open too big, exposing the legs, is a very practical costume. The Khitans often wore such skirts inside their robes. Horse-faced skirts went through the Liao Dynasty, became very popular in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and continued until the Republic of China.
Dior skirt, front and back opening, its pleated fit is basically the same as the horse-faced skirt, and the dynamic display is also obviously characterized by the horse-faced skirt.
Although the horse-faced skirt version can be learned by anyone, Dior said that the plagiarized model was "iconic" and "brand new", which was a bit of a robbery.
After all, plagiarism is a business problem, but cultural appropriation is a matter of cultural belonging.
Chinese culture is Both Chinese and the world, and enriching the good life of mankind by borrowing Chinese culture should be supported.
Picasso said: "The last thing I know is that you Chinese why did you go to Paris to study art?" It's not that there is no art in Paris, the whole West, the Caucasians don't have art, when it comes to art in this world, the first is that you Chinese art, and the second is Japanese art, of course, Japanese art also comes from your China. ”
If we don't take the horse-faced skirt incident seriously today and let it go, who can guarantee that there will be thousands of unsigned "big shirts", "Kasumi skirts", "skirts" and so on on the runway in the future?
I hope that in the future, more and more Chinese people can be proud of their five-thousand-year-old cultural origin and feel their charm. Instead of letting other countries subtly and warmly boiling frogs to empty our culture.