Racism and the limited coverage of international fashion

What I find more wrong than the lack of colored models in the fashion industry, is how the fashion industry completely ignores the existence of fashion talent in Asia, Latin-America and Africa. 


White people get inspired, coloured people imitate


When a Western designer copies a typical Asian, African or Latin-American way of dressing, it is called “(s)he was inspired by …”. When an Asian, African or Latin-American designer copies a typical Western way of dressing, they say (s)he's imitating the West.

Fashionweek is white

There are four fashionweeks that get a lot of coverage. Three of them all take place in European cities and only one of them in another continent, but still in a mainly white country. That Europeans are mostly focused on European fashion, I regret, but I understand. But that people from all over the world are only interested in white people’s fashion seems outdated to me. 


I think it’s time we realise that Europe is not the only real (other) civilisation in the world and that we can learn a lot from all corners of the world.

For example when I would read the tales of 1001 nights, it would strike me that the heroines of these tales were nearly always described as beautiful AND smart. A book from the Arab world written in the medieval ages tells women to be pretty and smart. American movies based on fairytales of Europe tell women that in order to be successful you need to be beautiful, sleep well and be able to talk with birds. I’m really good at the second part and I’m still working really hard on the last one.

They have adapted these movies to go better with the time spirit: for example in the movie of the little mermaid she marries the prince at the end, in the fairytale she dies. So in the movie aspiring to become part of another social class has a great result, in the fairytale not that great. If they don’t stay loyal to the original tale, why can’t they make the smartest woman in the movie the heroine instead of the evil witch?

I believe every culture has another way of respecting and disrespecting women (or people).  If only we could learn from each other on how to respect one and another, instead of comparing ourselves in a way that is the most flattering to us. Europeans and Americans about Arabs: “How sexist, women aren’t allowed to show their bodies.” Arabs about Europeans and Americans: “How sexist, women are only judged on their bodies."

Be a man. Are clothes that flatter a woman's body bad?

I really don’t understand why clothes that are not flattering for a woman’s body are often called ‘intelligent’ design, while clothes that emphasize a woman’s femininity are called vulgar or are called clothes for women that don’t understand that those clothes come from an era where they had no rights.

I find it a reflection of where feminism failed, when they said that women had the same rights as men and that women had the right to do the things men do, some feminists told women that in order to acquire these same rights that they should act more like men. There is a real fine line between telling women to act like men and between telling women that there is something wrong with being a woman.

As much as I feel like women have the right to act like men, if they feel that way, I feel like when a woman feels like acting like a woman, by dressing like one for example, it doesn’t mean that she’s doing that to please men. It doesn’t mean that she’s naïve or cheap. It means she likes dressing like a woman.

When you call clothes that make a woman look more like a man ‘intelligent’ and clothes that emphasize a woman’s body ‘vulgar’ or ‘naïve,’ you’re basically saying that men look more intelligent than women.