Saturday, May 4, 2019

Week 6: Material Mao

Week 6: Material Mao
Franchesca Flores
ASA 141

Modern Style clothing from, Top Fashion Tips for Women by Women's Fashion Tips


Before I read this article, I was unsure what “mao” was, but I wanted to be able to define the term for myself through the use of the article. After reading the article, I defined the term as an Asian style for clothing. I looked up the term in google and it defined it as, “denoting a jacket of suit of plain style with a mandarin collar, associated with communist China.” Reading the definition, I instantly thought of the designer in the article, Margie Tsai, who was not interested in incorporating Asian style/inspiration in her clothes because she said that she makes modern clothing for modern women. Which is fair to say least, because at the same time she is still embracing her culture not through her clothing, but through her presentation. It won’t be clear to any person who sees her clothing on the street because it does not incorporate Asian chic, but the consumer is aware of the culture it came from because of how the store is set up. Tsai designed her clothing in black and neutral tones, a modern style, however her store was filled with blue and white porcelain, bamboo plants, and Chinese furnishings, which was hard to ignore the relationship it has with the East. The question I want to pose is, if a designer chooses not to incorporate their cultural background into their clothing, do you think this because of political reasons or style choice?

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