Examine how different cultures influence fashion trends:
Cultural appropriation in contemporary dress seeks to encourage cross-cultural understanding and exchange while also showcasing the richness of other civilizations. To avoid cultural appropriation, it’s crucial to recognize and appreciate the historical context and relevance of these cultural influences.
Fashion trend:
A fashion trend describes a certain fashion style that is in vogue at a specific period. In reality, we don’t need to pay close attention since anytime the majority of people—especially younger people—wear the same style, it shows that the specific look is now a new fashion trend. Culture is a fundamental component of society and has a significant effect on its citizens. As a result, culture has a big impact on how individuals dress. For instance, when the weather is warm, locals like to wear light clothing made of cotton or grass.
Influence of fashion design on society and culture:
The art of applying design, aesthetics, garment construction, and elements of natural beauty to clothing and its accessories is known as fashion design. It has changed with time and place and is impacted by culture and other trends.
Impact of Fashion Trends on Society:
Fashion plays a number of functions in society since it has integrated seamlessly into human civilization. When a farmer is seen wearing skin-tight pants, it is clear that fashion has affected the village’s residents as well as the community at large.
Top 10 Style Trends in a Nutshell:
- Light fashions
- Core Romcom
- Fits sci-fi
- Boudoir attire
- Fringed clothing
- Column adornment
- Purple tones
- Hippies
Celebrating diversity while avoiding cultural appropriation:
Cultural appropriation is the improper or unrecognized adoption of a cultural or linguistic component or components by members of a different cultural or linguistic group. When individuals of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures, this may be very contentious. Cultural appropriation, in contrast to acculturation, assimilation, or equitable cultural interchange, is considered by opponents of the practice to be a kind of colonialism. When individuals of a dominant culture borrow cultural aspects from a minority culture and utilize those features outside of their original context—sometimes even against the express intentions of members of the originating culture the practice is sometimes viewed negatively.
Several groups and individuals, including Indigenous people working to preserve their culture, those who support the collective intellectual property rights of the originating, minority cultures, and those who have or are still living under colonial rule, view cultural appropriation as harmful. Exploiting a culture’s religious and cultural practices, dancing moves, clothes, symbols, language, and music can be considered cultural appropriation.
Celebrating diversity:
Embracing and appreciating the differences that make each individual unique and wonderful is a key component of diversity celebration. It also entails recognizing and respecting the variations among people and communities. It entails appreciating diverse cultural history and customs expressed via art, music, food, and religion.
Techniques to Prevent Cultural Appropriation:
- Investigate the culture. It pays to thoroughly examine and comprehend a culture before utilizing its intellectual property.
- Avoid the Sacred. It might be simple to miss the sacred in the West at times.
- Avoid stereotyping.
- Encourage diversity.
- Promote, Engage, and Share Benefits.
Avoiding cultural appropriation:
You’re more likely to come out on the side of appreciation than appropriation if you involve people and perspectives from a particular culture in the creative process to understand how you can celebrate that culture. Due to the fact that it frequently deprives the original culture of its due credit and financial resources, cultural appropriation is a contentious subject. While some could consider it as an homage, others might find it offensive and detrimental. Context is important. It is always a good idea to study about a culture’s history and traditions if you are unsure or hesitant about any particular cultural creations in order to broaden your cultural knowledge.
In order to ensure that images, descriptions, and representations of that culture are accurate, we should all make an attempt to contact reputable specialists or leaders from the culture being drawn from. Being able to access such a wide variety of cultural ideas, traditions, languages, rituals, and information makes us incredibly lucky. Our perceptions and conception of the world may be diversified via respectful cultural appreciation and interaction.
Misappropriation of culture:
Adopting information, customs, and symbols from an outside, frequently underrepresented culture without acknowledging or honoring the originating culture and setting is known as cultural appropriation. When minority groups adopt certain cultural aspects, mainstream society frequently looks down on or criticizes them; nevertheless, when dominant groups adopt them, they are often praised. Dreadlocks are one illustration. Although this haircut is accepted in black groups, it will be deemed “dirty” or “inappropriate” by cynical or white people. However, many of the same people think it’s stylish and “urban” when “boxer braids” or dreadlocks are worn by white people. Since the issue of black people being punished for having natural hair is so severe, the Crown Act must be created to allow them to wear their hair anyway they see appropriate. Cultural appreciation is the usage of components from one culture while respecting the origins of such elements. It is crucial to remember that respect and value are components of appreciation. As an example, instead of calling them “boxer braids,” you may refer to them as cornrows or locs and argue that anybody can wear them. You accept that black communities created the genre and that they should be given as much credit as white people, if not more, for popularizing it.
We commonly see elements of Native American culture, Black culture, Asian culture, and other cultures being taken by white designers and executives in today’s mainstream fashion industry, without giving credit or recognizing the sanctity of some of the designs. Most recently, there was a fashion show when the models wore holy symbols on their clothing, feathers in their hair, and other aspects of Native American culture. When questioned, the designer said that the Soux and Iroquois tribes served as inspiration and that the design was intended to pay honor to their lives. However, this influence was not made known to the public until their appropriation was exposed, and the disregard for feathers and symbolism leads us to question whether the original motives were really ones of admiration rather than appropriation. I could give several instances of appropriation, but it wouldn’t make the issue go away. Let’s discuss four ways you might support cultures that are different from your own.
