- For centuries, Asian fashion has been appropriated by Western designers.
- From cheongsam to áo dài to kurtas, Asian designers spoke to Insider about how traditional clothing influenced their works.
- The designers discussed the importance of promoting Asian-inspired clothing.
Áo dàis, cheongsams, samfus and hanboks are no longer reserved for Lunar New Year.
Representative Marilyn Strickland wore a hanbok, a traditional Korean dress, as she was sworn into Congress in 2021.
Actress Kelly Marie Tran, who has starred in films like “Raya and the Last Dragon” and the Star Wars franchise, graced the 2022 Oscars red carpet in a shimmering emerald áo dài, a traditional Vietnamese dress.
“Having my name authentically ‘Thai Nguyen’ and then wearing that áo dài on the world’s biggest red carpet is a thing of pride,” the dress’s designer, Thai Nguyen, told Insider.
Having that kind of authentic representation on a red carpet can have lasting ripple effects. Nguyen said that when a follower’s daughter first saw Tran wearing an áo dài at the virtual premiere of 2021’s “Raya,” she immediately took her áo dài out of her closet. Her mother said she didn’t want to wear Cinderella dresses anymore.
“It woke me up and it woke up our community,” Nguyen said.
A model wears an outfit designed by John Galliano for Christian Dior’s Spring-Summer 2003 Haute Couture collection
Pierre Verdy/AFP via Getty Images
The cultural appropriation of Asian fashion has been around for centuries
Throughout history, Western nations and luxury fashion houses have fetishized Asian cultures through their clothing. This has not stopped in recent years.
As of 2020, retailer Pretty Little Thing’s website listed qipaos complete with leg slits under the “Oriental” category.
In the luxury fashion space, Dolce & Gabbana canceled what would have been the biggest show in the house’s 33-year history after airing ads featuring a broadcaster mocking an Asian model for using chopsticks to eat pizza and cannoli.
During a Christian Dior show in 2003, a white model walked wearing geisha-style makeup and a silk balloon dress. That same year, Roberto Cavalli created a leg-revealing mini qipao — Kim Kardashian would later wear one while boarding a plane in 2019.
The history of the appropriation of Asian clothing is long. The Silk Road first brought Chinese silk and fabrics to Europe beginning in 130 BC Over the centuries, European royalty and elites would seek out the intricate embroideries for their court dresses and ball gowns. Eventually she emerged to create her own fusion aesthetic: Chinoiserie.
Rihanna at the 2015 Met Gala celebrating “China: Through the Looking Glass” on Monday, May 4, 2015, in New York.
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
A story in the making
After creating the dress that rocked the 2015 Met Gala, Guo Pei became a global household name. Photos of Rihanna wearing the yellow fur dress with a 16-foot train took the internet by storm, making the Chinese designer a hot topic.
Pei spent her decades-long career reviving China’s venerable art of embroidery — which, under the Cultural Revolution, was banned in the country — stitching dizzying threads to carve out what she calls “a nation’s DNA.” in her work.
“The meaning and the skills involved are not necessarily just a sort of rote recovery of the past, but it’s also a combination with my imagination and also a connection to the textile culture of the world,” Pei told Insider, through a translator. .
Rihanna’s dress at the 2015 Met Gala weighed 55 kilograms. The threads themselves took over 50,000 hours of hand embroidery to make.
“It carries the thoughts and spirits of the Chinese people. And it is also one of the languages of the culture in which I was born and raised,” Pei said.
A symbol of women’s liberation takes a modern twist
Like Pei, Cheryl Leung draws on Chinese tradition through her fashion label, Sau Lee.
“I was really inspired by my upbringing in Hong Kong,” Leung told Insider. “It was actually over the years that I really developed a sense of wanting to represent my culture and realizing that I’m not seeing it anywhere.”
While Leung pointed out that there are other retailers creating traditional cheongsams – a tight dress style that originated in 1920s Shanghai as a symbol of women’s liberation – her label aspired to “add cheongsam elements to international designs”. .
Cheongsam is one of the most appropriate pieces of traditional Asian clothing. Thus, Leung said it is important that her models avoid evoking fetishized stereotypes.
“I wouldn’t design anything that I wouldn’t wear as an Asian woman,” Leung said. Her spin on modernizing the outfit might mean using jacquard instead of traditional embroidered silk, or sticking buttons on an asymmetrical silhouette. These modern pieces have become Sau Lee’s best sellers.
“It’s so empowering that these Eastern designs are so widely appreciated,” Leung told Insider.
‘Code Bending’
Nyla Hasan’s brand, øther, was born to challenge strict, cultural boundaries.
Inspired by Hasan’s South Asian roots, the brand brings kurtas – a loose collarless tunic – to everyday Western fashion.
“The other kind came from this coming together exploring identity, what it means to be mixed, what it means to be American,” Hasan told Insider.
Nyla Hassan, creator of øther
Bianca Alexis
Hasan returned to the US after the events of 9/11. After graduating, Hassan said, she had “a little bit of an edge where I didn’t give a shit if I belonged or not.”
She started wearing kurtas and jeans to school, popular among South Asian teenagers.
While a traditional kurta is often plain and cut-out, Hasan’s version plays with the outfit, adding silk, high shirt tails or fully split sides. One of Hasan’s kurtas even includes a hidden belt.
Hasan said she sees øther as her way of “code bending”—as she describes it, “the harmonious state of being, not fitting into a space, but choosing how to bend our identity into the spaces we exist in. .”
Nothing ‘too much’ anymore
As one of the few Vietnamese haute couture designers, Nguyen said he is “proud, proud, proud”. But just five years ago, he said he would have struggled to say the same.
After leaving his job at fashion brand BCBG, Nguyen said he was constantly shut down for not following the “usual rules”.
“I wanted to follow my roots,” Nguyen said. “I wanted to put áo dài in my collection. And then they’ll say, ‘No, it’s too ethnic. That’s very Vietnamese.” a full side crack.
Now, Nguyen designs dresses for Ariana Grande, Sarah Hyland and Laverne Cox, to name a few.
Its Hollywood look, while Western, features subtle touches to the áo dài: a high neck with collar and full sleeves, a long, straight skirt.
Nguyen says his pieces are “the silhouette of the East with Western fabrication.” For Nguyen, áo dài is contemporary.
About wearing áo dài to an event, Nguyen said “I don’t want people to have that question anymore.”
“Grandma’s Favorite Wardrobe Set” Update
Trixie Chua, co-founder of dear samfu, found inspiration in her grandmother’s wardrobe.
“Asian women of the past wore [samfus] a lot, but it’s not that well known,” Chua told Insider. “So we decided to really shine the spotlight.
Trixie Chua’s grandmother (right) wearing a samfu
Trixie Chua
“Samfu” simply means shirt and pants. The longevity of this staple of Chinese fashion is the foundation for the brand. It’s a comfortable version of “t-shirt and jeans”.
Deeper than simplicity, Chua said the beloved samfu celebrates heritage. The brand is not only dedicated to “granny fashion” in a creative way, but it is also sustainable. Endurance, Chua said, before it became a common word, was practiced by her ancestors.
Cathy Liu, a beloved samfu customer, bought her piece because it was an homage to her Chinese heritage.
“As I’m getting older, I’m embracing my Chinese heritage more. So just being able to wear something like a samfu in public is something I’m happy to be able to do now,” Liu told Insider.
Liu posts collections of her everyday outfits on Instagram – many posts featuring samfu.
“Over time, I’ve just noticed that there’s such a lack of Asian-inspired clothing in the Western world. So I really want to be able to promote that when I can to other people, Liu said.
