Patched! ‘How do we take action against cultural appropriation while preserving the beauty of cultural exchange.’

Patched is a new members-only series where people can write to me with a fashion (or fashion-adjacent) question that's bothering them, and I will reply with a 300-400 word letter from an anti-capitalist perspective. You can read the first letter below.

I have chosen the title Patched as reminder for me that at this critical time we need repair and regeneration as well as analysis. I will keep unpicking and unravelling the fashion industry but with Patched I want to make space to explore mending - solutions to both personal and structural problems, occasionally with the aid of expert witnesses.

Patched

For the first letter I recruited a friend to ask me a question. Is there something you would like to ask? Email me DearPatched@proton.me

 
Dear Patched, I have a question about cultural appropriation. I feel angry knowing that fashion is ruled by the European elite who can choose the faces and cultures they want to include but in the same breath they tell us we are ugly because of our skin and our history. Fashion has excluded the women of the global south yet fetishized dark tans, the green jungles and the ancestral patterns found on our blankets. What kind of actions do we call for against cultural appropriation under capitalism that doesn't spoil the beauty of cultural exchange that naturally happens between groups of people and what will this look like under a free socialist society? 

From, Sunny VK in Sweden.

Dear Sunny,

This is a great question – thank you.

For people who need a reminder, cultural appropriation happens when an actor in a dominant culture steals culture that is not their own then exploits it. It happens A LOT in the fashion industry with brands acting as colonial vampires who steal heritage, rebrand it and sell it for profit.

This doesn't happen in a vacuum. Cultural appropriation by the fashion industry is a damaging visual expression of the corporate ability to take, the colonisation of land followed by that of culture and historic identity. This means joining current fights again racism and colonisation are essential to end cultural appropriation and reach the myriad of cultural exchange. I want to acknowledge here that many of the people who will read this are already fully immersed in this work, often from necessity, but as to what kind of action is a suitable response for people not already working along these lines, I am thinking specifically of campaigns for Land Rights, the fights against new pipelines, fracking, and deforestation, the need for solidarity with Land defenders and the fight against structural debt. All the struggles against the effects of the colonisation of Land which then allows for the exploitation of people and culture.

The same goes for the need to end the daily racial abuse that means people from the Global South, and of Global South heritage, are harshly penalised for expressing their identity. There is an urgent need to end the persecution of people at borders, to support refugees and migrants and point out, then end, the perversity of a world that allows commodities and capital to cross borders but not people in need. Inch by inch we have to get to a world that accepts: Only people, no borders. Only culture, no borders.

I think this offers us a glimpse of what exchange might look like under a free socialist society. We can work towards that now by supporting the work of one group of people who are on the sharp end of cultural appropriation: The artists and makers trying to make a living by crafting authentic things to sell.

No matter where people are from, we can amplify makers when they call out a corporation for ripping off their work, we can push for a global living wage so that all creatives can live well, we can buy authentic works of wearable art for the proper price and accept the invitation to learn what we are wearing and what it means. We can then respectfully explain whose creation we are wearing and direct people to also support artists. In this way we can learn to celebrate the authentic and reject corporate fakes.

In solidarity, Tansy.

The next edition of Patched is on the very different topic of skinny jeans... I would love to hear your questions: DearPatched@proton.me Include the name you want your question published under and your town or country. I pledge to protect your identity.

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For posterity, here is the original ’Patched’ image: