My girlfriend Kateryna told me of this Native-inspired spread in the Canadian version of Zink Magazine a few weeks back while we noshed at La Palette. I went out and got it right away but held back on posting it because of my mixed feelings. I loved the spread and have been inspired and excited to execute something similar since I started styling back in Vancouver.
However, with all that Ke$ha headdress talk about appropriation just a few weeks ago, I questioned myself. Here is where I am supposed to insert my rant about how evil and horrible appropriation is and how I am appalled by the careless and heartless manner in which this magazine and specifically the stylist and the fashion team chose to shoot a model in a headdress.
But you know what? I am really not all that mad about it. I consider this spread (and many fashion editorial spreads for that matter) a beautiful work of art. I have been reading Vogue since I was about 10 years old and have such an appreciation and reverence for fashion as an art.
Excerpt from my Ke$ha post
Now I know many of those traditional Native people are going to be all over my back about this and I am happy that they have their beliefs and opinions, but they are not mine. I totally understand how it can be deemed not politically correct, and can be seen through the cultural appropriation lens. But this is fashion people, it is not to be taken in with an academic and political lens at all times. Yes you can and yes that can even be fun sometimes but this is not one of those moments for me.
When this image was printed in Vogue (early 2000?) I felt empowered. Finally there was a presence inside the magazine that I have been so dedicated to. A symbol of Native peoples inside these pages that I held so dear (I even kept this tear in my fashion files all these years) That was enough for me. Although my lineage is full of Native chiefs (including my father, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather), none of them have ever worn a war bonnet, it is simply not part of my Tsilhqot'in culture. I grew up in the suburbs not on the pow wow trail, so I don't have the cultural experiences that so many traditional Native people have had.
For me, this suburban valley girl obsessed with fashion, this was just one reference to my Native culture that I could connect with in my own little fashion bubble. It may seem silly of even ridiculous, but for me it was true.
In all my years enchanted in the fashion world, I have always wanted to be a part of a shoot using the beloved headdress because it is such a thing of beauty, mystery and elegance. Maybe that would mean I am ripped apart by the traditional Native people or I am deemed "not Native enough" once again, but that is something that I would like to do. I think it would be art, and I think it would be beautiful, just like this "Native Daughter" spread in Zink Magazine.
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Don't you think that your feeling of empowerment is really just a byproduct of viewing these images in Vogue through a political lens? Or perhaps our definition of "political" differ, but when we're talking about empowerment and presence that seems points to a political act.
ReplyDeleteThe only difference you talk about is that this 'native daughter' is white and the industry produces billions just to make money for themselves, while our people live in third world conditions in this country. I remember a last comment you made was not going 'militant' on this issue. Many of our indigenous leaders have lived and died while fighting for our rights...militancy means talking action as a last resort to protect the dignity, lives and of our cultures. Maybe reading peace, power and righteousness, as you have posted on your myspace, can give you that understanding. Just remember that there are thousands of native people living and breathing, in this 'new world' continent, have been raped, disenfranchised, stolen and remains to be still living and dreaming today and casually accepted. That to me is sad.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to do a photo shoot with you in a headdress!
ReplyDeleteI think art is often used to make political statements and it's really difficult to separate it from an implied message, but art can also be just art. It can draw allusions to aspects of society or references, but that doesn't mean it's making a statement other than trying to get people to open their minds and think.
I got a bit of flack for the title of my play "The Frank Diary of Anne" because some people thought I was mocking the Holocaust/Anne Frank rather than using a reference to evoke thematic connections. Granted half of my heritage is Jewish and the people upset by the title were Republican Christians in the Southern US, but hey, as long as it got them talking.
Sometimes facing a taboo topic head on with art is the only way to get people talking about it and maybe understanding each other a bit more.
Just because a piece of art addresses a topic doesn't mean the artist agrees with it. Maybe, just maybe, the Caucasian model wearing the headdress is a comment about appropriation.
Headdresses are not made for fashion - they are an honour and those who receive these respect that honour. Not everyone just get's one to take a picture. They are seen as achievement and hard work for community.
ReplyDeleteHeaddresses are not fashion and shouldn't be put in place to feel like we are empowered. Instead - try something that empowers the people instead of ripping off another piece of our heritage and using it for "financial" benefits of the non-natives.
This just makes me wonder what is next.. They (the colonizers and consumers) steal land, resources, our identity... Now they put it on in these fashion magazines and it's now empowering. A bit crazy a low brow to me and very gross.
It's about time fashion stops stealing from cultures to sell adds and to be pretty, before it was profitable, it was not allowed. Or these non-natives wouldn't even stand to be in the same room as natives. Really sick... But I guess the entire industry is... Anorexic, bulimic, bone racks going down runways and now with headdresses. Exactly the way I was hoping to be empowered. Right.
ANON #1 - I am not sure about that political lens. I just know that it felt good to see some part of my culture represented in a mainstream magazine and a fashion magazine at that. I had been so separate from my culture, that tiny tidbit of connection made me happy and made me proud.
ReplyDeleteANON #2 - I have read the book but even Taiaiake get's judged and criticized for being an academic and not more of an activist. You can never please 'em all eh? It is sad that First Nations peoples are living in third world conditions, I do agree. I am not discussing that here, just a headdress in a fashion shoot.
fishbowlmuse - Ah a creative spark in the midst of darkness. Thank you! I admire your work so greatly, especially since you chose to shoot an aspiring Native model for one of your shoots! It is so great to see and hear your support. I would love to shoot with you :). Just let me wrap up this degree.
ANON #? - You have such strong opinions that you like to share without a name. Perhaps you could be as so bold to share it since I am so bold as to share mine with a name and a face behind it? I know my opinion is not popular with all but it is my opinion. And who is to say that if I did this shoot that it would be for the profit of Non-Natives? It was empowering for me because I was at a disconnect with my culture and wasn't seeing anything but negative stereotypes in my current reality at that time and it was a beautiful sight for my youthful eyes. I actually don't understand your fourth paragraph about "adds" but ok fight the power!
I've commented before that one thing I love about your blog is that you don't take a standard Native party line. Still, I was curious about this sentence : Finally there was a presence inside the magazine that I have been so dedicated to.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see that photo I see Native absence. I see a white culture that loves our stuff but not us -- I see Congolese masks stolen by colonial generals hanging in museums in Belgium, bandolier bags snatched from graves, natural history museums exhibiting the art of "vanishing peoples" (apparently unproblematicaly and inevitably vanishing without cause.) And I wonder, why do we not see fashion spreads with pope hats or yarmulkes? Are other peoples' sacred objects treated with more respect?
My gaze may not be right -- all I'm saying is that it scares me a bit when I see a picture of an Indian object -- with no Indian.
US Urban Native Girl - My guess it is a highly educated gaze (even by the simple fact of using that word). When I looked at this photo I was still really young and it was before any form of liberal education so I didn't have this perspective. But even looking at the new layout that I posted, I am not as concerned with the absence of a Native model because I don't know many Native models that are working in the fashion industry and represented by agencies such as Elite except for Tara Gill (part Mohawk) who is so highly sought after, she would be nearly impossible to book. I do hear you on the pope hats or yarmulkes although my bet is that they have been used before but certainly not to the same extent. I think it is because the headdress is so beautiful and striking. Fashion is all about image and beauty and thus there in lies the marriage. Thank you for your insightful input!
ReplyDeleteYou know i considered that when i saw the spread first - is this...a close call to something that could be seen as in a sense offensive (oriental is not quite the right word) but than they were just so beautiful. It is really nice to see these pieces integrated, especially so appropriately. Not that a head dress will make a difference but it will definitely remind people of the indigenous culture. So long as the history is not forgotten.
ReplyDeleteKateryna - Thanks so much for the heads up on this spread - you knew it would speak to my heart :).
ReplyDeleteModern fashion pulls on influences from different cultures and periods all over the world. These places and times breathe life into the clothing. Colors that once only Emperors were allowed to wear adorn women and children. Symbols of status, ethnicity, and bravery are re-worked over thoughtless strung-out figures. The cultural baggage of the creator weights the clothing down, no matter who makes it or when. Orientalism, the noble savage, the current barbie-doll imagining of beauty, are all sewn into the design. I suppose because of this, I think that while some things are obviously offensive, most fashion is just another product of the time it's made in - an imperfect melting pot of cultural fascinations.
ReplyDeleteOver sexualized memories of the clothing of Native American girls is part of America's cultural baggage, traced down from the Puritans who encountered young women who didn't have heavy starched European robes. The portrayal is offensive, when it crops up in books, and pictures, and so on - but the integration of aesthetic pieces of those outfits into fashion is more understandable. The fashion designer who doesn't look around and borrow from many sources, won't do justice to clothing at all. And to make feather headdresses, and not nod to Native American creations, would be both insulting and a confusing gap of cultural loss to the viewer, for better or worse.
Just a thought! Sorry you got so much negative response. I've definitely seen photoshoots I *didn't* like along these lines, but these weren't them! (here's one I wasn't offended by, but I strongly disliked: http://community.livejournal.com/foto_decadent/1983554.html#cutid1)
Thanks for your input faynudibranch - I wasn't offended by that set at all. It had more of a "Wild Wild West" settler feel to me than a Native exotification, but that's just my sentiments :).
ReplyDeleteForgive me, I'll admit first that I'm a white girl. So take this with a grain of salt and not meant to be condescending!!! :-o
ReplyDeleteI get your appreciation for the art in fashion spreads--I do think people are too quick to overlook that, and my girlfriend and I had a recent rant about it after she attended a conference on fashion makeup. :-)
At the same time, if your family tradition isn't one of pow wows, war bonnets, maybe it's okay to step back and say--it isn't really for me to decide whether this is appropriation or not. It's for Plains people, etc. ? Sort of like, a Kenyan wouldn't necessarily fully grasp the cultural issues facing an Algerian?
Just a thought. If an offensive one, then forgive me!!!
What bothers me is that the what starts in the fashion world, maybe in a tasteful way, spreads to the general public in a really distasteful way. Did you see the pictures of every person and their dog wearing a made-in-China headdress at Coachella this year? Maybe not as pretty as these pictures are. Meep!
(Okay... I'm going back to enjoying your blog now. Thanks for letting me give my 2 cents.)