Week 6
ASA141
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| Article: https://nextshark.com/instagram-bikini-asian-women-fetish/ |
While reading The Cultural Economy of Asian Chic, Nguyen stated, "At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Asian-inspired clothes that inundated fashion were almost invariably 'updated' or 'reinterpreted' in the same way: as sexualized objects made tighter and shorter than their ‘‘inspirations" (50). This made me think about how designers continue to perpetuate Orientalist ideas about Asians. I think the words, "updated" and "reinterpreted," gives off an impression that Asian fashion and costumes are "too traditional" which makes it seem like designers from the West are doing the East a favor by giving them some type of (mis)representation within the modern fashion sphere. In addition, it also can be assumed that Asian costume in its original form can never be accepted in the West or in high fashion because it does not fall into the category of sexualization or what is trendy.
The picture above is a bikini/lingerie that was designed by a black fashion student and sold on her Instagram on Chinese New Year. There was some backlash on her design because many thought that she was sexualizing and fetishizing Asian women and was cultural appropriating. The designer commented back and said that she is not sexualizing Asian women because it was not worn by an Asian woman and that there is no law that says "black people can't use Asian fabrics." This makes me question: How do we truly differentiate what is appropriation or appreciation? At the same time, who gets to determine if it is or not?
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