1997 CHRISTIAN DIOR FALL SHOW'S CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

A few years back, I came across photos of the Christian Dior 1997 Fall fashion show and fell in love. I was obsessed with the bright colors, high necklines, and varied patterns and materials of the clothing. It had a real geisha meets Marie Antoinette thing going on and I was all for it. Recently, however, I have revisited these photos and found that the show was a bit more problematic than I once surmised. The clothes are beautiful, stunning even, but John Galliano's designs and showcase seem to exploit and marginalize Japenese culture. The models appear to be reducing Japenese culture down to a stereotype of intense makeup, kimonos, and paper fans. After realizing these unfavorable aspects about my once favorite fashion show, I started to feel guilty about admiring kimono-style dresses but found that it is not a crime to appreciate something in a culture other than one's own. The real question Dior's show invoked for me was how to find the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation.

In Miles Soca's WWD article, "Fashion Has Found Beauty in Other Cultures for Centuries -but Has It Given Due Credit", Kirsten Scott explains

"Designers have gone around the world cherry-picking from other countries' material cultures, and then using it as if that’s exactly what other cultures are there for. And it feels quite disrespectful to these other cultures. Because there’s no discussion. There’s no benefit. There’s no acknowledgment.” Designers can make so much money off other cultures' influences without actually engaging with that culture beyond aesthetic purposes. That's where a big rip-off comes in. It is great to explore other worlds besides one's own, but those cultures and communities must also be given respect, credit, and mutual benefit when one uses them for their own creative/expressive gain. It is easy to appropriate other cultures when one does not actually know much about the culture itself. That is why it is crucial to actually get to know and become involved with the culture one is trying to appreciate. It is "through co-operation, collaboration, respect, and mutual benefit" that designers like John Galliano could fix this injustice of exploitation in the fashion world.

DIOR 1997 FALL SHOW VIDEO