Romanians vs Dior: how national clothes became a stumbling block in the world of high fashion

Fashion is a changeable thing. But colorful ethnic motifs are always popular with fashion designers. However, such borrowings are often followed by a barrage of criticism and accusations. Recently, the problem of cultural appropriation, that is, the borrowing of elements of one culture by representatives of another, has been increasingly emerging. Residents of the Romanian region of Bihora decided to cope with this problem in their own way.

When the Dior pre-fall 2017 collection was released, people noticed the striking similarity of the creations of fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri with the national clothes of the inhabitants of Bihor, a region in Romania.

For 30 thousand euros, the famous fashion house offers fashionistas to buy a vest strikingly similar to the traditional costume of the inhabitants of Bihor. But the representatives of Dior did not say a word about what inspired the creation of the haute couture collection.

In general, there are a great many examples of cultural appropriation in fashion. Mainstream culture borrows the unique cultural features of other countries, levels them and tries to get the maximum benefit. This is not the first time Maria Grazia Chiuri has been criticized against the background of the problem of cultural appropriation. In 2016, Valentino showed a collection inspired by Africa with all the accompanying attributes: prints, beads, feathers. But there was not a single model of African descent on the podium. The problem is that in such cases, the thing is torn out of context and loses its original meaning that has developed over the centuries.

So in the case of Dior, they saw an appropriation. The Romanian fashion magazine Beau Monde and the McCann Bucharest agency decided to restore justice. With the help of craftsmen and designers from Bihor, they created a line of traditional Bihor Couture clothing. Jackets, coats, vests, skirts are created by local craftsmen manually. Now fashionistas will be able to buy a traditional Bihor vest not for 30,000 euros, but for only 500.