Dior gets in on the Cultural Appropriation trend and gets told

I haven't done one of these in a while, gladly. Anytime you hear about a brand (let alone one of your favorite brands) committing cultural appropriation, it's annoying at best and infuriating at worst.

Well, today's perpetrator is the latter.

Dior is one of those beautiful French brands I fell for early. Their pieces are timeless and elegant, yet modern and oddly urban. I only recently began collecting Dior (thanks to my local thrift and very generous donators). I hold Dior to a pretty high standard, it is safe to say.

So you can imagine my sheer and maddening frustration when, in the year of our Lord, 2018, Dior, a brand I hold in high esteem, commits flagrant cultural theft and using one of my culture's most treasured garments.

Dior recently shared the following post:

View this post on Instagram

The soft shapes of tunic-like shirts and shirt-like jackets in the Spring-Summer 2019 show alluded to the liberating and colorfully folkloric-accented forms of early-20th-century dancers costumes, an era and an aesthetic that fired the imagination of our Creative Director #MariaGraziaChiuri. #DiorSS19 © @Morgan_ODonovan

A post shared by Dior Official (@dior) on Sep 28, 2018 at 4:01am PDT

Insert eye roll here.

"Tunic-like"? "Shirt-like jacket"? "Folkloric-accented forms of early-20th-century dancers costumes"?

I call bull. 

To be fair, this isn't the first time someone of European descent has stolen something from the African continent, and this is not even the first time the dashiki itself has been pilfered for the sake of fashion. That doesn't make it any less infuriating, yall.

Say what this is. These are appropriated dashikis, nothing more. The dashiki, a traditional Yoruba printed top that has meaning and value, getting appropriated and bastardized by any brand is a travesty, but by a fashion house such as Dior, that has the resources to educate themselves and clearly elects not to, is even worse. I expect this from a fly by night brand, not you, over 100-year-old fashion house that pulls in millions of dollars annually, some of the most lauded design staff alive, and endorsement of celebrity and average person alike.

Instead of blatantly stealing from Africa and the diaspora (because Europe kind of keeps doing that, whether it be hairstyles, clothing, or human beings. The caucasity...) here are some ideas that would have been so much better:

Say you're inspired by African prints, then say so. I simply do not understand the difficulty in simply saying that instead of crafting verbal BS as "The soft shapes of tunic-like shirts and shirt-like jackets in the Spring-Summer 2019 show alluded to the liberating and colorfully folkloric-accented forms of early-20th-century dancers costumes, an era and an aesthetic that fired the imagination of our Creative Director #MariaGraziaChiuri."

Or even better; if you're so "inspired" by African Culture, how much more powerful would it have been if Dior would have hired design staff from the diaspora to design and craft these dashikis? What a statement that would make. What an investment back into the culture you are clearly so "inspired" by.

Hire me Dior, I'll keep you out of trouble with my "Oh, uh-uh."capability that you obviously currently lack.

I am not the only one who had a problem with this very clear cultural theft. The comments are full of Black rage:

kezstylesinc @Dior this saddens me deeply! What a blatant imitation of the dashiki and what’s even more sad is the explanation behind the inspiration. Not giving the obvious African origin of this fabric and style of tunic it’s due credit is such an odious act on your part.

fanneoflife Early 20th century dancers?😂😂 Y’all need to do some more research cuz that ain’t it. Y’all need some black and brown people on the team.
curatedbynx There’s one thing to find inspiration for your designs, we all find inspiration from somewhere; but it’s an entirely different thing not to give credit where it’s due. You need to go back to your creative director and ask her for a refund. Her imagination wasn’t fired. This is undeniably an African inspired print.
onacurve @dior your caption is an absolute fallacy and @mariagraziachiuri knows it. She took inspiration for this motif from AFRICAN PEOPLE. This is not inspired by "20th century dancers" Stop stealing from us. If you're going to "draw inspiration" I can't stop you, but 1) don’t water down the culture 2) give credit. For people who agree and have influence at Dior, this is the time to speak up.

But who we really have to thank for the initial call out of Dior is Instagram user findingpaola, who so eloquently said the following:

"No Dior, this is inspired by the dashiki. “The word “dashiki" comes from the Yoruba word danshiki, used to refer to the loose-fitting pullover which originated in West Africa as a functional work tunic for men, comfortable enough to wear in the heat. The Yoruba loaned the word danshiki from the Hausa term dan ciki, which means "underneath." The dan chiki garment was commonly worn by males under large robes. Similar garments were found in sacred Dogon burial caves in Southern Mali, which date back to the 12th and 13th centuries."

It's a shame that Dior, despite the very clear Black-lash (see what I did there) probably won't care, and will have these disrespectful dashiki-light tops in boutiques and on the backs of Becky's like the latest trend ignoring the cultural significance these African garments have.

I would hope Dior, and other brands like it, take this as a lesson, and do better.