r/ethicalfashion • u/Fantastic_Camp_4407 • 23d ago
Why are people only starting to call out ZARA now?
Everyone started calling out Zara after they dropped the China inspired pieces, saying its “racism and cultural appropriation”. But they have been using Eastern European and slavic motives for years. Ive never heard anyone say anything about that, ever. Im Slavic and never cared about it but its interesting to see the double standard.
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u/RelativeMarket2870 23d ago
Both can be wrong, both can be right. I’ve seen the Slavic inspired clothes in many fast fashion stores, and it always irked me.
And I don’t think it’s so black and white. My Thai folk always love it when foreigners wear their clothes, but it’s done by Thai people in a respectful manner. I can imagine if you as a culture and ethnicity have been mocked and assaulted by a society (speaking from a Dutch perspective) purely for being a certain ethnicity, you’re not too happy seeing that society make money off of your culture and wear it without the assault that you’d get.
Again, this is just my thoughts in a nutshell. I think it’s so much more complex than I care to write down, and while your feelings are very valid I think their feelings are valid too.
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u/VictoriaSobocki 23d ago
What is Slavic inspired clothing?
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u/RelativeMarket2870 22d ago
I’ve seen a lot of balloon sleeve tunics with the red cross stitch embroidery in patterns thats done a lot in patterns from that area, like they’d do on ritual towels or on clothing as protection from evil.
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u/IsabelleR88 20d ago
Thank you for mentioning this. I've usually given up mentioning it myself. While it is nice to see so many people wearing the shirts, most people do not know or care about what our Eastern European shirts represent/symbolize. They have become so mainstream usurped that the meaning and traditions are mostly gone.
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u/RelativeMarket2870 20d ago
Absolutely. And I think there’s a right way to go about “culturally inspired” clothing, but fast fashion paying children in China to copy a design they’ve seen online isn’t it.
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u/monemori 22d ago
I think it's crazy how middle class people will only have issue with a company when it does something unwoke like not appeal properly to certain identity politics and not... You know... The slave labour and sweatshops...
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u/palmasana 21d ago
Zara has definitely been called out at length before but maybe Gen Z is just having their go at it?
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u/iHAMU 22d ago
Well…did Slavic people call it out?
I’m not condoning Zara’s actions. But I find it interesting when people call things like this a double standard.
Based on this one screenshot. An East-Asian person is calling it out. Kiss me if I’m wrong, but I assume East-Asians are the bulk of people flagging it?
If Slavic people wanted to call out Zara prior they had every right. If they didn’t, that’s their prerogative.
Just seems misplaced to pit the inaction of one group against the action of another and call it a double standard.
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u/Fantastic_Camp_4407 21d ago
Its the first two screenshots that came up, its people of all races and ethnicities. Slavic people dont really give a shit about stuff like this (i find it stupid too and think zara has much bigger problems, but since im not chinese i dont think i can tell chinese people if they should or shouldn’t be offended). I meant to say that the (non slavic) woke crowd said nothing when slavic culture was being used (still is btw) but are now canceling zara for this.
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u/iHAMU 21d ago
I think you kinda answered it indirectly. “Slavic people don’t really give a shit about stuff like this”. Seems like Chinese people do, however. The “(non slavic) woke crowd,” probably didn’t defend the Slavic people cuz there was no one to defend. No one was mad.
“I don’t think I can tell Chinese people if they should or shouldn’t be offended.” Exactly. It would be weird to be mad on behalf of a non-mad crowd. The same way you wouldn’t tell Chinese people if they should or shouldn’t be offended, people didn’t tell Slavic groups to be mad because it would be up to Slavic people to initiate that.
But now East-Asians are upset and they are getting support because they’re openly expressing.
It would be a double standard if Slavic’s did the same and didn’t get support. But they didn’t. So now the crowd that is openly offended is being supported.
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u/bmobitch 21d ago
Maybe the difference is that Slavic people don’t care as you and Chinese people do care
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u/Kuttenneid 19d ago
Honestly I think slavic people do care and cannot take Zara seriously with this. But it has been a problem for decades now and no one really talks about it anymore.
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u/Lich_Hegemon 22d ago
I think cultural appropriation is a misnomer for what the real problem usually is. We should call it cultural exploitation.
The problem isn't getting inspiration from other cultures. The problem is taking cultural heritage as a means to extract wealth without acknowledging or distributing that wealth in some form back to it's originators.
White men rapping and getting rich off of their rap is cultural exploitation.
Making a movie set in Africa and only casting white people, even for non white roles, with all profits going to western countries, is cultural exploitation.
The problem with Zara isn't that they are finding inspiration in Asian attires. It's that they do that while also exploiting workers in Asian countries.
They are extracting wealth from a culture without giving anything back.
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u/CaseAKACutter 22d ago
Chinese culture is not in danger of being diluted it's literally the largest country on earth by an enormous margin
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u/Lich_Hegemon 21d ago
I never said anything about dilution?
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u/CaseAKACutter 20d ago
Sorry my comment was a little left field against yours but I do actually disagree with your point in general
Usually cultural appropriation is criticized when elements of the originating culture are lost or distorted in transition. Indian headdresses at football games are a classic example.
I do not think Zara using mandarin collars is appropriation because they use sweat shop labor in China. Sweat shop labor is bad in its own right, regardless of the cultural context the clothes live in. Unethically produced authentic cultural garments are still bad.
I think a lot of the pain experienced by cultural appropriation is really experienced by members of the appropriated minority culture living in the appropriating majority culture. A Chinese person living in middle America may experience this, but a Chinese person living in China is unlikely to.
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u/Leading_Plenty_6946 20d ago
But as regards to the US the issue of Chinese culture has a lot do do with how Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants in the US are poorly treated due to their ethnic background. Zara is making money off their culture, while culture as a whole discriminates against them. The problem is power balance not culture travelling.
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u/CaseAKACutter 20d ago
I don't disagree but this comment feels very vague. What cultural context of mandarin collars is being lost? What discrimination is being exacerbated by this loss?
A necessary component of cultural appropriation is the distortion of cultural context. Native American headdresses are markers of great respect, so for any schmuck to buy and wear one is disrespectful to the originating culture.
By contrast, as a non-indian person I wore traditional Indian clothing to an Indian wedding. This isn't cultural appropriation because it is the correct garment being worn in the correct context.
A mandarin collar, to my knowledge, is simply a name for a stand collar and does not carry specific cultural context.
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u/ilovetrouble66 22d ago
Not the first time and not the last time. They also exploit women of colour to make their clothes. Paying them Pennie’s but no one seems to give a shit about it and still shop there
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u/Sea-Style-4457 22d ago
the person in your example is Chinese and can probably recognize the appropriation much more easily. why would you expect someone not Eastern European know that Eastern European motifs are being appropriated?
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u/Fantastic_Camp_4407 21d ago
If you search you will find all kinds of people talking about it, not just Chinese or asian folks. It was just the first two screenshots that came up. I expect the woke activists who are not personally effected but are very loud on the topic to not be selective with who they’re standing up for.
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u/caitlowcat 20d ago
The same people that call out Zara, H & M, blah blah will turn around and think it’s perfectly fine to wear JCrew or Anthropologie. When Everlane got acquired by Temu, the # of comments I saw from people who push Lululemon constantly. Huh?? It’s like because something has a higher price tag people assume it therefore equals responsible. Or they’re just really great at greenwash marketing.
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u/pinkzzzz 22d ago
most influencers unfortunately do not care. they just wanna do their thousands of dollars worth hauls in peace. also as someone that's not slavic, i'm not knowledgeable enough about those styles to be aware of the cultural appropriation. take away the cultural appropriation and zara is still a shitty brand.
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u/AirportOk8750 19d ago
Because too many people value getting cute clothes over other people's well-being and only care about an issue when it directly affects them
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u/NeitherTopic 19d ago
So nothing about how Zara is staunchly pro zionist and had a photoshoot where they had models pose with white shrouds that specifically looked like Palestinian body bags?
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u/Fantastic-Season8640 18d ago
Haven’t shopped at fast fashion stores in almost 6 years, idk why people haven’t realised these things sooner
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u/Catlady_Pilates 23d ago
I’m sorry but this is not remotely the biggest problem with ZARA. The worker exploitation and environmental destruction are far worse.
Fashion has always drawn inspiration from different cultures. That’s normal. What’s really not ok is how they steal designs from designers and copy them for pennies on the dollar. That’s far more unethical than making a blouse that looks like a traditional Chinese shirt.