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Dior accused of ‘cultural appropriation’ of centuries-old Chinese skirt: Report
Chinese mouthpiece Global Times reported that several students recently organised a protest at a square near Dior's flagship store in Paris.
French luxury brand Christian Dior has been accused of cultural appropriation amid outrage in China. The controversy has erupted over a Dior pleated skirt worth USD 3,800 (INR 3,03,088), which is part of its recent fall collection. Chinese social media users and protesters have claimed that the skirt was “inspired by a centuries-old traditional garment”, multiple reports said.
The row over cultural appropriation - unacknowledged adoption of a certain culture, ethnicity, or race through means of their clothes, and or makeup - began earlier this month after Chinese social media users accused the brand of not acknowledging the “inspiration” behind the design.
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Chinese mouthpiece Global Times reported that several students recently organised a protest at a square near Dior's flagship store in Paris, holding pictures that compared Dior's new skirt with the traditional Chinese horse face skirt. The protesting students held up banners that read: "This is a traditional Chinese dress," "Dior plagiarized the design" and "Stop cultural appropriation."
It further reported that the protest was organized by Paris-based Chinese students - joined by demonstrators from other French cities, Spain, as well as Italy.
Some of the demonstrators were reportedly seen wearing historical Chinese dress called ‘Hanfu’.
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According to the demonstrators, the pleated wool and mohair skirt is an item of historic Chinese clothing known as a "mamianqun," or “horse face skirt”. However, Dior described the clothing as a “hallmark Dior silhouette”.
The design of the skirt has pleated sides and openings at both the front and back. The skirt is known to be well-suited for horse riding. The skirts are often worn by people belonging to the ‘Hanfu’ subculture.
