Tribute or Theft – meet the panel
- Giulia Busellato
- Jan 30, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 14, 2020
Published on The Holloway Express https://hollowayexpress.org.uk/tribute-or-theft-meet-the-panel/ and Visage
Leading fashion experts and designers debate the issue of cultural appropriation in a debate for journalism student at London Metropolitan University.
“We have to respect cultures and also educate”
By Nimra Shaikh and Giulia Busellato
Toni Tran fell in love with art when he started drawing at a young age: “It is the best way to express and creativity was always my thing,” says the London-based photographer, content creator and blogger.
Born and raised in Richmond and of Vietnamese descent, Trans studied architecture at Kingston University and began to explore fashion. When he decided to merge the two it drove him towards blogging.
“There are so many interlinks between both. It is to do with design and style but it also to do with form and functions,” he says. “You are looking at the structure, sustainability and the fabrication of clothes. You are looking at how specific processes are made.”
He is the founder of Fashitect, a men’s fashion, lifestyle and travel website, where he has been expressing himself artistically by creating original content and sharing exquisite pictures since March 2011. He has collaborated with brands such as Fiat, Zenga, H&M, Mercedes and Hugo Boss, working with colleague Max Ross Holbrough, and planning future collaborations with alcohol, fashion and grooming brands while travelling the world.
His work is inspired by people from Asia, Milan, Paris and New York, and he describes the bloggers’ community as a small one where “we follow, support and inspire each other”. Not long ago he attended a friend’s wedding in Pakistan, where wore a traditional sherwani, which he said he donned as a sign of appreciation and embracing other cultures.
He believes that fashion is a way to express yourself but he also believes people should be educated and respectful of folklore.
“Why can’t it be tribute and not theft?”
By Hazel Eddleston-Lee
Marion Hume is a fashionista extraordinaire. The former editor of Vogue Australia has more than 35 years in the fashion industry, and currently works as Ethical Consultant and International Fashion Editor for the Australian Financial Review. And that’s not all: the list of designers she has worked with includes Chanel, Yves Saint Lauren and Louis Vuitton.
Hume admits that cultural appropriation is “extremely complicated and difficult” and appreciates that the origins of fashion should be acknowledged by designers. That said, she emphasized that she looks forward to cooperation rather than division, and doesn’t believe there should be a “moral police force”.
“Do we want fashion to start moving into this territory? Or do we want to be much more friendly and kind?” she asked the panel.
Hume says she thinks that there are moments when fashion is about joy and design, adding that sustainability is also vital. That’s not surprising, considering that she worked as a Senior Consultant for the United Nations ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative for five years.
“My prevailing thought in fashion is sustainability, it’s about our survival. What could be heavier than that?” she said.
Hume added that she gets a lot of inspiration from the younger generation. “I kind of love the next big thing”, she said. One of her favourite designers is Yohji Yamamoto from Japan.
“The West has no real recompense to the damage that has been done worldwide”
By Justine Samuels and Thaddeus O’Connor-Dunphie
Teleica Kirkland is a creative director and principal researcher for CIAD which stands for “Costume Institute of the African Diaspora”.
With over 20 years’ experience working in the fashion and costume industry, Teleica is also a unit leader at the London College of Fashion and has travelled throughout Africa, making different connections with designers and artists such as Vivian Westwood, Mei Ling and Ruth Carter.
When Teleica was younger she always wanted to be an artist but was told by her careers advisor it was a very competitive course. In her early 20s she wanted to become a fashion designer. She explains that her fashion choices when younger were different to what people were wearing as she didn’t follow the crowd.
Working with fashion prints, she feels that this concept isn’t acknowledged enough. Teleica says: “There is more African print that not many people know of and people need to search more on materials as there are a lot in the fashion industry.”
Future plans consist of expanding CIAD and strengthening connections with top names in the fashion industry.
“I want to embrace natural beauty”
By Hazel Eddleston-Lee
Elizabeth-Yemi Akingbade is a talented print and fashion designer who graduated from the renowned University of the Arts London. Akingbade founded her ‘luxe-bohemian’ brand Yemzi, which is a British-Nigerian fusion, in 2014. It has ethical and environmental sustainability at its core, releasing only one collection a year.
Akingbade grew up in Bournemouth with a British foster family, and says it was only when she moved to London at 18 that she really started to embrace her Nigerian culture. “That’s when I started to embrace who I was and saw people who look like me.”
Akingbade strongly believes in research and respect when designers are using ideas from other cultures: “If you’re going to use turbans, use a Sikh model, let them be represented.”
When asked about European, Peruvian and Indian hair being used by Afro-Caribbean girls as part of their weaves, she said: “Personally I avoid it, just because I feel like that the European aesthetic has been pushed and I feel like I’m in a position to embrace it and that’s what I always do.” She adds, however, that it’s a personal choice: “I’ve worn weave before.”
Akingbade has always loved fashion and being creative, and started exploring her interest in fashion by taking Saturday classes at her local art institute. “It definitely started with drawing, I like to sketch and illustrate.”
Yemzi holds fashion design workshops for young girls and also has a E-book available; “How to Become An Influential Fashion Designer in 10 Easy Steps”.
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