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Berlin - Part 2
Well since no one told me any of their travel stories I suppose I will tell you when I had the most fun.
As you know, or don’t know, I was in Berlin and I had ditched my roommates. I escaped into the German Historical Museum, or Deutsches Historisches Museum, into one of my favourite kind of exhibits; a fashion exhibit. It was called Fashioning fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 - 1915 and I went completely mad for it. I spent most of the day there. I like embroidery more than I like lace. Shocking, I know. From there I went to the Typography of Terror museum, which focuses on the SS and Gestapo. That is not an easy museum to get through. I didn’t make it. Almost, so very nearly, but not quite. It’s hard to comprehend what people can do to other people… And to cheer myself up I went and had a delicious dinner served by a suave and gorgeous German man. I walked in the rain back to the hostel.
To finish an amazing day spent in all the ways I wanted to spend it, and partially to avoid the roommates a bit longer, I sat down in the lobby to email my people back home. A guy next to me asked the time and when I spoke he asked me where I was from. He was Canadian too. He invited me to the bar when I was done emailing. I went.
I remind you I was very an inexperienced eighteen year old. But the two Canadian guys I hung out with, very fortunately, were gentlemen. I did get very drunk, sang very loudly, but was escorted back to my floor at the hostel when I had had enough. Unfortunately making sure I had made it back to my floor was not quite enough, and I slept most of the night on the floor in the hallway. I still laugh whenever I think of that. I was so close to my door. So close.
That was probably the most fun I had my entire trip. The day I went to the fashion exhibit and got drunk for the first time. There’s something so special in firsts. There would be more firsts on this trip… There would be more firsts in Berlin…
You think you want it,
But underneath that silk lies the bodies of a thousand souls.
The souls who were forced to work beyond limits
The souls who watched their spirits’ paraded on colonists
The souls who could not fit the shape
The soul of the earth, ravaged and emptied for what?
A shirt never to be worn, thrown out after realizing it is lacking
Lacking quality, lacking ‘now-ness’
Lacking the ability to transform you into perfection
Lacking the capacity to fill that emptiness
You think you want it, but when you look to see, will you?
- secret-gate
Today I explained to one of my close friends why it was disrespectful for designers to use Native headdress as aesthetic. This made me really angry, not at him, because it was asked from a place of respect and open-mindedness, but because he was born and raised in Canada. He went through the Canadian schooling system and at no point during his education did anyone tell him that Native headdresses are sacred, and gifts of the highest honour and respect. They are given to chiefs and soldiers. No one told him that.
That made me think, I’ve been doing a project related to racism towards First Nations in the fashion industry, and many non-Native designers argue that Native cultures are North American culture, and so they can use the aesthetic, because it’s North American. But these designers clearly don’t know anything about Indigenous cultures. If they did they would know not to use headdresses or the word squaw (I’m looking at you Dsquared2, and I’m disgusted. It’s a really derogatory word for Native women). And I know that Native culture is highly sold worldwide as apart of North American culture, but I don’t think you should be allowed to lay claim to something that you know nothing about. I don’t think that North American culture, as a blanket idea, should include Native Cultures, because if you are going to teach your children that Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ the Americas and let them think all Native people lived in teepees then you know nothing about us, and you certainly don’t respect us enough to be inspired by our incredible cultures. Maybe when Native cultures aren’t taught from a colonial standpoint (cultural appropriation being recognized as the new colonialism), when we are recognized as a living culture instead of a stagnant, stereotypical one, maybe then North American culture can have the privilege of recognizing us as apart of their aesthetic. When they recognize us as a vital part of their nations.
Here’s a small list of appropriating designers that I’ve included in my project: DSquared, Pucci, Ralph Lauren, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Jeremy Scott, Isaac Mizrahi, KTZ, Louis Vuitton, JCrew, Lindsey Thornburg, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Victoria Secret, Forever 21, ASOS, and Paul Frank (who admittedly has done like the most sincere apology). Sources: CBC news, Beyond Buckskin, Huffington post, nymag.com, Native Appropriations, Jezebel, Indian Country Today Media Network.
Long time no see. I’m back and my blog is probs going to have a more fashion/travel focus. Thanks to everyone who didn’t abandon me. And here we go
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