Conflicts And Anxieties In Fashion: Disputes Over Brand Insensitivity To Culture

Another brand has fallen into controversy over cultural insensitivity.

As part of the Nike AIR MAX 270 shoe sole Logo printing appears to be part of the Arabic language Allah, Saiqa Noreen, a British Internet user, issued a petition on change.org on January 27, calling for Nike to recall the shoes globally.

In his petition, he said, "the behavior of Nike to print the name of Allah on the sole is very frightful and terrible.

This is not only a shame for Muslims and Islam, but also a shame. "

Nike then responded in an official statement to the media: "the purpose of designing the logo is to display Nike AIR MAX logo in a stylized way.

It's just to refer to the AIR MAX brand.

Other interpretations or symbolic meanings are not our original intention.

Nike did not say it would recall sneakers.

According to CEO Mark Parker in June last year, Air Max 270 was one of the top three shoes that promoted sales growth of the brand in the past year.

By the evening of February 3rd, the number of petitioners has exceeded 31 thousand, close to the target figure of 35 thousand.

The last time Nike experienced similar incidents was in 1997.

At that time, the brand designed a flame shaped Logo on the back of a sneaker, which is very similar to Allah in Arabic.

According to The Associated Press's then report, the Council on American-IslamicRelations (CAIR) was subsequently reviewed.

Nike finally apologized, donated $50 thousand to build a sports ground in a Muslim primary school in the United States, and recalled 3.8 million pairs of shoes worldwide.

This time, CAIR was not involved in the incident.

"Obviously some people think this is a big deal.

But no matter what the facts are, some people's ideas are hard to change.

Ibrahim Hooper, director of CAIR communications, said in an interview with CBS, "when we investigate such incidents, we first need to classify them into three categories: intentionally offended, unintentionally offended or controversial offences.

I'm not sure how the incident should be divided, but I'll think they're not on purpose.

In recent two years, the controversy about "cultural insensitivity" has become more frequent.

In May 2017, Chanel was accused of "cultural appropriation" for selling a black boomerang with a brand name and a price of $1350. In August, in the great show of Marc Jacobs, some white models appeared in colorful dirty braids, and were criticized for embezzling the dirty braid culture.

Last January, H&M released a new season of Lookbook. One of the black boys was wearing a sweater, and the word "coolest monkeyin the jungle" was printed on the chest. It was considered racial discrimination. In February, Gucci made the white model wearing a scarf as a fashion accessory, and criticized as disrespecting the Sikh religion because "the scarf is a symbol of faith in Sikh religion, not just accessories."

At the end of the year, Prada listed a black faced red lipstick monkey doll, who was accused of racial discrimination.

In fact, one of the most important ways of fashion evolution is to draw inspiration from different cultures.

BoF Fashion Critic Liroy Choufan has pointed out that "novelty" is the main characteristic of fashion, and it has been generated by citing products from other regions and other cultures.

Designers need to keep looking at the other people for inspiration, and the more distant it is, the more charming it is.

But at the moment, the two forces of globalization and localization are becoming more and more frequent hedging.

Bain consulted in the global luxury industry research report released in November 15th last year, pointing out that the globalization of big companies has entered a new stage. With emerging markets becoming the main driving force for growth, fashion brands will be more dependent on in-depth understanding of local culture and market, and deepen interaction and relationship with local consumers. 2018

More importantly, the digitization of social media and information and consumption channels has drawn into the distance of all "it", making cultural digestion, recreation and consumption become more fast food, but it also makes people's demands for cultural understanding and respect become more immediate and strict.

It's hard for you to imagine how a designer can create the 4 6 season series in a year, fully consider and assimilate the minutiae of the source of inspiration, make real innovations, and display them in an adequate and proper way.

But consumers can find problems and express opinions at a faster pace.

"There may be more than 100 different customs and cultures in a country. How can you get to know the details of every culture?" in the comment on the black monkey doll event, Miuccia Prada expressed this confusion and anxiety to WWD directly.

In the words of Liroy Choufan, "on the one hand, the world is more open than the original; on the other hand, many things can not be used without compensation.

In terms of form, business, logic or industry, fashion is a modern western way of creation based on take-and-use (ortake-and-abuse).

Now it needs to squeeze itself into the postmodern globalized state of mind, but the variables of this state are more and more closely scrutiny.

At present, there is no best solution to this problem.

Prada apologized for the two time and said he was going to take off the "black monkey".

H&M said after the boy's clothes event, it will improve the diversity of employee background so as to find problems in a more timely manner.

But in fact, no brand can guarantee that every product can be carefully examined by people of different cultural backgrounds.

Conflicts and anxieties about cultural inspiration, fashion creation and expression will continue for a long time.