I sewed Ankara/African wax print/Dutch wax print for the first time last year, and came out with this knock-out skirt. I’d delayed sewing with wax prints for years though, because I wasn’t sure if they were appropriate fabric for a white girl like me!
In the end, I turned to Ankara-fanatic Marcy (aka. Oona), and asked,
“I’ve never decided if it’s ok for a white lady like me to use Ankara fabric. Cultural appropriation, or awesome print used with knowledge of its history? I don’t know, and it’s not the kind of thing any one person can decree is ok or not, so here I am, Ankara-less!”
She replied with a fantastic post, saying,
“Well, my friend, my FRIENDS, as Mixed-Chick-Party-Of-One, I am here to resoundingly decree this ever so much more than “ok.” In fact: GO FOR IT! Go for it, because it is fabric, and who better to treat a beautiful fabric with the respect it deserves than a home sewist?”
The thing is, I’m still unsure about what fabrics are appropriate for me to wear. I do have a couple of rules I chose to live by, though: I won’t buy any fabric labelled “tribal” — why can’t we just say “geometric”? I also won’t buy any fabric described as “Navajo” or “Aztec”, or any specific ethnic group — unless they directly produced the fabric themselves!
That said, I spent my 20s studying and working around the world, and I was never shy to wear traditional clothing while I did! In the photo above, I’m wearing a yukata in Japan, a salwaar kameez in India, and a Tibetan chuba that I had custom made before waiting 5 hours to shake hands with the Dalai Lama. In all of those cases, local people seems very happy for me to wear traditional clothing and appreciate their textiles! In fact, it would have seemed rude to do otherwise.
Now I’m an ESL teacher, and spend my days trying to increase the representation of different cultures in my schools. Would sewing with authentic regional fabric be a great way to do that, or does it cross a line of cultural appropriation? What about prints that feature traditional designs, like sashiko stitching or images from art? How can I tell if the prints or textiles I chose are actually authentic? And is it better or worse to sew traditional styles or modern shapes?
I’d love your input into this sewing dilemma! I know I’m not the only one with beautiful regional fabrics waiting in the stash to be sewn!
P.S. As I wrote this post, Lara from Thornberry happened to post her Dress Like Frieda contribution, and included some excellent links about cultural appropriation at the end — worth checking out!
P.P.S. The Curvy Sewing Collective Facebook community had a similar discussion recently, which is worth checking out if you are in the closed group!
I think as long as you have an appreciation for the culture behind the fabric then it’s totally fine! 🙂
I like to wear tartan, not only because I love how it looks, but because I’m Scottish. I like to see people wearing tartan, but I don’t like it when people don’t understand the history behind it, it’s like when people wear band t shirts without listening to the band haha!
(Stepping in for Gillian who can’t make it to a computer right now). That’s a great point – making sure you understand the history and significance is really important! (PS I love Black Watch tartan, though it’s history is a bit unclear..!)
Hey! The skirt is indeed amazing!
I can totally relate to this question, so here are my two cents.
As a white person living in Japan, I often ask myself if it is appropriate for me to wear Japanese traditional clothing (which I do regularly, especially since I belong to a buddhist temple), sew kimono to order, and even make western-style clothing with traditional kimono-kiji. Like you, I am never shy to try on the traditional garb of any place I visit, and often by fabric in my travel. As someone as mentioned, I do buy from local vendors, to be sure about the authenticity of the product, as well as to support the local community. In addition, I think there is a very clear difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation: in my case, I wear and produce kimono being well aware of the cultural context surrounding it. To be more general, I believe that by appreciating and deciding to sew a garment in any regional fabric you show your respect for the community that produced that particular textile.
There is a catch, though: I would never buy, let’s say, Ankara in Tokyo, or kimono-kiji in San Francisco. I would wait to visit the country of origin of the fabric I am interested in to purchase, or contact local producers and have it shipped to me.
Hope this makes sense! Happy sewing, and a hug from Tokyo.
(Stepping in for Gillian who can’t make it to a computer right now). Another great take on it – buying from the source AT the source! It’s interesting also how the perspective might change when you actually live in a different country too. In your case I could imagine that it might be disrespectful not to wear traditional clothing to the temple you belong to – do you find that would be the case?
I agree with you. It would be very disrespectful for me not to wear “temple clothing” (for lack of a better word) in that particular context, or at least very, very odd. In addition, I think often the semantics of the term “appropriation” are lost. Where I am from I am a member of a minority (I am Jewish) and in general in my country of origin there is not such a great racial divide.
HA! This post is so interesting because not so long ago, I bought an African skirt and my stepdaughter looked at me like “are you wearing that?” and I proudly said yes! I am a born and raised puertorrican who happens to be as pale as a blank sheet of paper and I will proudly wear my African skirt and I even wear a head wrap and rock it! if you respect, and like a different culture than your own, why not? I am madly in love with African prints! and I can’t wait to make me skirts and turbans.
P.S.: I also went to japan and bought a yucata, but never wore it because it was just to big. I was 17 at the time, but with my mentality now, I would have rocked it too!
YOLO! 😉
I’m familiar with this question because I am African American but grew up in a strong Nigerian community. When is it appropriate to wear traditional garments and fabrics? Appreciation is good, but actually looking at how the culture itself treats cultural appropriation and traditional garments. Things like not buying fabric labeled with the names of specific indigenous groups, if it’s not made by someone from that group is pretty important because several groups are fighting for collective ownership of their own names and culturally-produced art, technology, and motifs. If you’ve been gifted with something though, you can wear that with pride. The essence of cultural sharing vs. cultural appropriation is consent, ownership, and respect, so when garments or fabric are offered without coercion, I honor that.
I also think asking ourselves why we want to wear something from another culture is a great place to start I know if my only motivation is novelty, I don’t feel comfortable taking that step. It feels gross to me when other people wear things from my culture just for a short-lived sense of cool, so I try not to create that feeling for other people.
I really enjoyed reading your response. Thank you for some food for thought.
Thank you, Ms. Williams. I really appreciate your comments.
(Stepping in for Gillian who can’t make it to a computer right now). I second Renee’s comment! “a short lived sense of cool” is definitely a less comfortable reason – there have been a few recent trends that have seemed a bit like that 🙁
This is really excellent. Thank you so much for talking us through your viewpoint. As a white woman living in South Africa, I want so badly to participate in my country’s heritage as it expresses itself through fabric, but if I can’t do that with respect and sensitivity, then I should not do it all.
I also really enjoyed reading your response!
I’m American and white. I was once accused of being a racist. My intentions were good (but now I know, I was seriously misguided). That said, it was painful being accused and ostracized for what I believed at the time to be good intent. Quite frankly, I am scared to use wax prints or any of the other lovely ethnicly origined fabrics, lest I be accused and ostracized all over again, despite my intent – creating beautiful clothing out of beautiful fabric – would be good.
The thing is, all the strangers I pass on the street don’t know my intent. They don’t know – and might not even care – how much I know about the culture in question, how much I might admire it, how long I’ve studied it, and who in my life that I love dearly might be of that background. To a stranger, I’d simply be a white girl appropriating another culture’s look. We’re dealingwith a lot of racial justice issues in AMerica, and people on all sides (how sad that we even have “sides”!) can be downright hostile when it comes to racial justice issues right now. I feel like, as much as I love, love, love what my fellow sewists are doing with wax prints, the Dress Like Frida challenge, and similar projects….I just don’t want to be accosted on the street and forced to explain why I’m wearing something not traditionally “white” in origin.
That’s my concern, too. My ancestry is as Western European as it gets, and as much as I often love the look of prints from other cultures, I’ve gotten increasingly uncomfortable with wearing them myself. Especially because the majority of my music students are not white, and I don’t want to inadvertently offend those families. I do have a sashiko-embellished shirt that I made myself, and I’m hoping that’s ok since it was created out of an appreciation for that art form and its origins of making beauty out of rags. Especially because I’d like to do more of it! But I’m also trying to limit my more regional prints to Celtic and such, because at least I can legitimately claim those.
This is a very interesting and painful point, I get it. I think it untimely comes down to intention. You cannot please everyone, but it your intentions are those of a person who has respect for a specific culture and its cloth, then go for it. All the posters raised very valid points, and as a non American person it is at times hard for me to understand the lingering racial hostility.
@Becky: Japanese people are always surprised and delighted when they see foreigners, especially white women, interested in local crafts. I would love to see pictures of your shirt!
That’s good to know, thank you!
I can’t help feeling like maybe part of the problem is that the average white American is such a mutt that people like me have no culture of our own left to celebrate. And as highly charged as every single issue is here now, I honestly wonder if trying to celebrate anything in my own heritage would be frowned upon anyway. It’s a really sad situation all around.
(Stepping in for Gillian who can’t make it to a computer right now). This is really honest – thank you for sharing your thoughts. It’s hard to look back on times when we were well-intentioned but misguided (I can think of several for me!) and to admit it.
I think your point about others not being able to “see” your intent is very thoughtful (it’s makes it not about what you meant but how others feel and perceive your actions – pretty unselfish!). It’s another interesting layer that your society now adds to this – we struggle with race in Australia too, though wearing clothing with Aboriginal art on is generally seen as supportive acknowledgement. So it not only depends on whose art or fabric you are wearing but also where you live!
This comes up with cowichan sweaters and indigenous jewelry in BC. Buying it from indigenous people is a source of income for that group but buying inspired pieces from H&M is appropriation and theft of artistic/intellectual property. Even wearing original pieces feels a bit uncomfortable to me but I feel less awkward about something that has been gifted. It is true though that someone on the street my not know that my earrings were a gift though and it still might make them feel uncomfortable. We have such a gross history of abusing and stealing from this group so it is a tricky path to reconciliation.
Getting accused just shows ignorance in others. We can educate them! :o) Once a parent of one of my Group Home Adult clients asked me, “What do you do for your white kids?” Goodness you can get it from all sides! :o) I think the kids in your class will love it and learn valuable lessons from it!
I have a living room decorated in wax prints and African animals people are surprised, one of my dearest friends who is African American has the most beautiful Baroque styled living room with huge billowy curtains, lots of gold scrolling, in colors of mauves and blues. I don’t ask her why- I admire it! :o) We shouldn’t need to explain!
Wow. I guess having an African American living room without others knowing I have black adult children is quite controversial. My African American children ages 18, 23, 23, 25, 27 and 28 have told me I am not to change it under any circumstance. And my Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Cuban, and Eastern European children agree. Out of my 21 children ages 11-42, only 6 are white. I did birth 3 of them, plus my non white Lebanese birth daughter. Living in America makes us integrated. There were no same race families for the children I adopted to come get them, even tho my state made it illegal for me to adopt African American children until the Supreme Court stopped it.
sorry Gillian my kids encouraged their crazy white 61 year old radical mother to respond.
What an interesting discussion!
I was lucky in my earlier life to have been able to travel for work as well. I bought fabrics along the way, many of them still tucked away for their “good memories effect”. That being said, I seldom wore traditional clothing…simply because I did not feel comfortable (with ghost-like whiteness) wearing the styles…but the cloth made me swoon.
I also agree that cloth is cloth and it honors the cloth and the heritage of the cloth to create something wonderful to wear. Pattern companies like Folkwear offer cultural patterns and my perception is that wearing traditionally styled clothing (that of another country) honors the culture. I thoroughly understand where your questions come from, but I also fear that being too “pc” can become a hinderance to our societies. Words do have impact of course, but the fact that one is aware and considerate, asks the questions and thinks about answers is a tribute to other cultures, but it should not become a barrier.
If cloth makes you happy and comfortable…wear and enjoy it as a way to honor multi-cultural appreciation.
I am white. I won’t sew garments for myself using Ankara fabrics, even though many of them are beautiful. Ditto “tribal” prints (ugh, that term). I wouldn’t sew a cheong-sam for myself. I could go on. I consider all of it cultural appropriation, & regardless of “good intentions” or my “respect for another culture” or whatever phraseology (white) people throw around to justify their decisions, I think the entitlement that a white person displays in choosing to sew with certain fabrics or to create certain designs that are deeply associated with & meaningful to people of marginalized cultures is a function of white privilege & racism. I try to stay cognizant of that. I don’t seek out the okay of people of color. Enough people of color have made their concerns regarding these topics known that I don’t feel okay saying, “But this one black person I know said it was okay!” I don’t draw false equivalencies regarding things like tartan or people of color enjoying classic European design because white people of European origin have not been historically marginalized, oppressed, enslaved, colonized, & stolen from in the way people of color have been (& still are today, let’s not forget!). I have the immense privilege of choosing the fabrics & designs that I incorporate into my handmade wardrobe. I don’t think there is anything whatsoever to be gained by intentionally choosing fabrics or designs that could be hurtful to people.
I find this question infinitely difficult. I like the appreciation VS appropriation contrast, but I think appreciation can only take place in a context of integration (where newcomers can take some things from the culture they are in but also keep whatever they want from the culture they grew up in). I think cultural appreciation by majority groups can play a role in this type of integration and for that reason I would not hestitate to sew with authentic regional fabric from wherever your students are from (maybe the parents know a great source!)
That said, there is a huge difference between integration and (forced) assimilation, and sadly the former word is often used to express the meaning of the latter. I do not know if cultural appreciation is possible in a context of assimilation. Could you help shifting the balance from assimilation to integration through appreciation, or would it just be too painful?
And I think it is even more complex when it comes to techniques like shashiko. They could improve your mending practice and as such help you progress. In the same vein I once saw a white girl ask whether it would be okay if we wore a headscarf outside because it helped her cope with the feeling of wind through her hair which stressed her out because of her autism. That made me sad, she had a solution for this problem and did not want to use it in her concern of offending other people.
Juicy topic! Though I admit, knowing that you live in Canada – I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a blog post about culturally derived fabrics from around the world, or fabrics from the different parts of Canada. :-p Anyway.
The Western world has a long history of deciding foreign cultures are cool and making it a ‘thing’ – right now, African wax prints are the ‘thing’ right now. It is what it is. I wouldn’t feel too badly about wearing garments made from AWP fabric, because it is what it is. 19th century Europe indulged in Egyptomania, and I’m sure 100 years from now there will be some other culture that gets put in the Western limelight.
For me, the bigger issue is that if people from other countries wear their traditional clothes in Western settings, it becomes a huge or at least noteworthy deal, where a Westerner would get props for wearing the very same thing. Even though, for the person with non-Western origin, these might be their ordinary clothes from their every day wardrobe they just feel like wearing! For them, it doesn’t get to be a cool fashion statement OR just clothes. My family is Nigerian, so even though I grew up in the US I always had some traditional clothes. But even at a young age, I knew it would be a Big Deal to wear them in public, so I did so sparingly and only on special occasions – and as an adult, almost never, unless I’m at a Nigerian event or with my family. This limitation is annoying, more annoying than seeing people wear their ‘cool’ ‘funky’ African wax print skirt/shirt/you name it.
As for wearing traditional clothes overseas, I wonder if that works for everybody. When my family went to Nigeria and I wore local clothes/hairstyle, it was expected. But there was nothing I could wear in Germany to get a positive reaction out of the locals, because there was strong anti-African sentiment at the time.
Sorry for the ramble, I guess the short version is wear what you want, and appreciate the fact that you can. Gratitude is always a better look than guilt 🙂
Love that: gratitude is a better look than guilt
Wow this is timely. I just went through a lengthy Facebook thread about this – all started with someone wanting to make a head wrap for their baby, and other person pointing out to her this amounted to appropriating another culture’s “look”. The give and take was very similar to these comments. Turns out I had wanted to make the head wrap too, for my hapa (half) African American grandchild. And this was deemed OK via the thread, as long as it was not for my Caucasian granddaughter.
Anyway, I live in Hawaii and we have our own culture and many mixes of other ones all lumped in together.
I love seeing people wearing their own. It a wonderful, interesting mix. As for Hawaiian prints- they are welcome on everyone. Anywhere . Any culture. Any color. But when I do wear my self made aloha wear to the east coast, when I visit my family, I stick out like a sore thumb. But I wear it anyway.
I will not use or wear wax prints. Being Dutch, that fabric is part and an expression of our kolonial history and was used to make a cynical profit of people. I do not particulary like seeing it on other white people, knowing how little of a reckoning we have had over it.
[…] If you’d like, you can find me on my website and on Instagram @lavieshobaine. […]
I wrote this after my lst trip to Asia: https://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/02/for-fun-attention-or-quiet-self-identity-national-heritage-dress/
I think Ankara is probably OK, under certain conditions:
1. That the print does not resemble kente cloth or anything of that nature that is inextricably tied in with African identity
2. That it is not part of a costume, in other words, that you don’t wear it with chunky “African” style jewelry, a headwrap, etc.
I wear a jade bangle. It’s not an attempt to look Asian. I just love my bangle and I wear it with everything. Today I’m wearing it with a lightweight summer midi made from Swedish cotton.
I think it’s important to purchase cultural items from members of that culture. I would never purchase a “Navajo” ring from a chain store or a new age website. I’d purchase from a Navajo silversmith.
The same with Ankara. It’s a beautiful, quality fabric and if appreciation of that is your motive for wearing it (and not novelty or looking “cool”, as Johana-Marie Williams mentioned), I don’t really see a problem. And I think that the people who produce it are worthy of our support.
But I’m willing to listen other opinions from members of the culture who don’t agree, and act accordingly. Because ultimately, it’s not up to me. It’s up to the culture Ankara belongs to.
An interesting and disturbing thread. I look white but am part Indigenous. I identify with the latter only because my parents gave me Indigenous items and books about Indigenous people when I was a kid. No coincidence, I was the designated victim of the family, the outcast, the one abused by both parents. My part-Indigenous mother and my racist white father agreed on this. I understand how cultural appropriation gives offence, and I also understand that people who look white may not be, entirely. Or they may have histories that draw them to different cultures. In order to heal, I began to wear Indigenous items as a way of honouring my ancestors and loving the traumatized part of myself. To me the only criterion is respect. It’s not respectful to wear the religious items of another culture, if that isn’t your religion too. And it’s not respectful to buy appropriated cultural fashions mass-marketed by people who aren’t part of that culture. Otherwise, I think it’s wonderful to appreciate the arts and crafts of marginalized people.