The issue of counterfeiting was brought up to light along with cultural appropriation and the theft from small budding black businesses by big cooperations.
The late 2010’s witnessed a great movement in the fashion industry with the rise of fast fashion, alternative brands for cheap such as : Fashion Nova, Boohoo and PLT…etc
Cultural appropriation is the act of stealing a cultural aspect from a certain race or ethnicity and claiming it as yours, apposed to its popular beliefs, it is not being selfish and refusing to share one’s culture but it’s a matter of recognition and different societal treatment.
Prime example is the ignorance towards turbans and marketing them as a fashion statement or just another head piece opposed to its religious significance in the sheikh community after they became popular in summer 2019 after Gucci’s summer collection that was held in Milan for Milan fashion week.
منظر الصباح في هذا اليوم الجديد…السماء باسمة صافية، تبعث فيك الطمأنينة …
The problem does not only reside increativity theft and sabotage strategies that those big brands use to keep Those young designers shut, but in the religious and cultural value to said pieces.
With the early 2000’s coming back in style, we can’t not talk about the impact that Black women had on the fashion industry, from Baby Phat designer “kimora Lee” to rapper “Lil Kim” and “Aaliyah” whom are still considered fashion icons in our current time, but what about the non celebrities who have rocked this style before it was mainstream?
Going back a decade or so ago, after the hype has died, big hoop earrings, long acrylic nails, bright colored hair, big chains and jewelry were considered out of style, cheap and even inappropriate to wear due to the hyper sexualization of black women and the romanticism of the “hustle life”
Those young pioneers were called slurs and depredatory terms such as “ghetto” and “ratchet” for their unique and flamboyant style in a time where natural beauty, fair skin and the girl next door aesthetic has reached its peak.
Few years later, the tables have turned due to access to social media and its large platforms especially Instagram which has created a new terms “ Instagram baddies” who where mainly beautiful tan women, with its wide spread and influencers fascination, those styles were adopted by other races and ethnicities.
Now, we’re facing problems like “blackfishing” and brown face where non black women make their skin evidently darker, claim protective hairstyles like dreads, braids, cornrows and box braids for aesthetic and popularity, also known as culture vultures, probably the most known of them are the Kardashians.
Why is it considered fashionable and accepted when white women do it but socially unacceptable when black women celebrate their culture?
The answer is in internal racism.
Since a young age, we are taught to hate our ethnic features, and crave to replace them with Eurocentric ones thus the normalization of plastic surgery in mid 2000s.
Nose jobs were the most prominent cosmetic surgeries back then where we trade our big noses for smaller and pointer ones since our features were deemed too strong and too masculine.
This birthed the fragile white woman trope that guys have shamed women of color about for years which is rooted in their insecurity and the anti blackness within the community itself.
Trends come and go but women, of color are still the main victims of those changes despite them inventing these concepts and getting
