Laura, I enjoyed this piece so much! The Row’s connection to indigenous Colombian attire is indeed unexpected and uncanny. I would agree with you that’s it’s impossible to say if it is where the row definitively got their influence as there are many indigenous cultures who employ similar forms and techniques. Who knows if indigenous design is specifically the influence. But for the purpose of your connection to their design, what’s interesting to me is the meaning you ascribe to it based on your own history and culture. It reminds me of my silk/linen TooGood spinner dress - I’m 💯 sure that they didn’t model the dress after the hanbok, but over time, the shape has made its way into modern vocabulary and when I wear it, I feel like I’m wearing a hanbok and a connection to my history.
So interesting. Are these patterns and shapes inside us and manifest in different contexts? I read somewhere that an analysis of Navajo textile patterns revealed pattern similarity to Mozart’s twinkles. Reminds me of this. Maybe some of us are born with these patterns inside us and depending on context, materials, media…we produce those patterns.
Omg the collective unconscious of patterns! But I think you’re onto something…I think I read that the shapes seen in nature are based on repeatedly occurring mathematical patterns.
Per AI: “ Nature displays fascinating mathematical patterns like symmetry (starfish, flowers), spirals (seashells, galaxies), and fractals (tree branches, coastlines), showcasing the elegance and efficiency of natural systems”
Laura your writing truly blows my mind. I am struck by the question of what is fashion vs. what is artifact. I'm struck by the spectrum of femininity through exposure vs. shape through structure. The through line you drew from Arhauco to you and The Row. So, so well done. As always.
The parallel you’ve drawn here is incredible. Are there still original ideas or are all ideas just a rearranging of elements, things our brain has taken in, the stories, the images, our history, our ancestry, everything we’ve ever known connecting like puzzle pieces. It’s amazing how we assign labels like “luxury”. It’s in who is wearing the clothes, and where, and how are they presented to us, the price point assigned, the stories they tell us and others.
I’m so behind on my reading but I saved this post in my email along with my February birthday offer for free cream cheese wontons lol. I’m so glad that it didn’t get lost…thank you for the great pics and side by sides! 🙏🏻❤️
My brain hurts in the best way after reading this. You connected those dots like a master! I’ll be thinking about every runway differently from now on. Well done!
Niki. I don’t have the right words to express how thankful I am for you reading me and letting me know my words connect. Other than it means the world〰️
I think this is yet another of your pieces I will return to again and again. I've thought about this general idea so much over the years as someone who has also resided along quite a few margins, looking up at those in the inner circle who weren't actually too far from where I stood, wondering if and how I could ever access it... if I even really wanted to access it or if I simply wanted to experience the same beautiful things they had access to. Meanwhile I was also seeing the most powerful/influential within that same inner circle looking down and cherry picking what it liked of the margins. It's funny because I never felt quite the same level of outrage and resentment most people did about the inequality of when certain people decide to cross certain (cultural) borders, so I never felt like I could partake meaningfully in conversations about it. I do believe the movement of ideas, no matter which direction they flow, can't really be policed or stopped and I'm not sure they ever should be. But I always feel a sadness and a deep sense of injustice (and often asked myself what could I realistically do about this small fact of life as you so beautifully put it) when the elite few decided to be even more audacious in their ransacking of marginal cultures they have no intention of outwardly celebrating/uplifting. The question marks remain, but I'm so glad you've once again put such eloquent words to something I've always wanted to discuss. Thank you so so much.
I was able to hike in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in 2017 with a guide who is Wiwa and it was such privilege to be guided by someone who could tell us so much about history and culture in a way that can't be found in books. I was also very taken with the way Wiwa people dressed (there is some similarity to Arhuaco style) at the time, and like many travellers to Colombia, I purchased a mochila as a souvenir. But I have never carried it, because I couldn't shake the idea it carried cultural meaning that I had no business associating myself with. I love how you've found a way to connect to the visual codes and principles behind their way of dress without simply consuming a culture like a product.
What a thought-provoking post, Laura! Thank you for writing this piece!
I know that I'm awfully cynical, but fashion has always been busy digging through the clothes of indigenous people and those less privileged. Only, say, fifteen to twenty years ago or so fashion designers were openly and proudly telling us which culture they were ripping off (oh, excuse me, inspired by) on any given season. Just because designers aren't talking about it openly anymore, it doesn't mean that it no longer happens.
As to your question of what is perceived as fashion: it's such a vast and complex question, but I think at the heart of it is always money and privilege. Grimy hair at Prada (as opposed to, say, on a homeless person) is posh because of money and privilege. I can't think what else it could possibly come down to.
Re/rip-offs: I’ve been wondering for years if cultural appropriation is also a concept that wouldn’t survive outside of capitalism. Because… can cultural appropriation exist without the concept of private property?
That's thought-provoking, and I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Laura! I think you're onto something. I'd wager that cultural appropriation is a fundamentally capitalist idea: that individual elements of a culture can be deconstructed into solely material things that can then be sold.
Perhaps the problem is that our distorted perception of what’s fashionable is preventing us from rewarding merit, talent, etc. which is crazy, because rewarding merit is one of the core tenets of capitalism. So I wonder if the issue isn’t people rising to the top…it’s that those who deserve a place there aren’t being given a fair shot
I'd argue that the merit system is an illusion. It's not fair or equal in a capitalist system. Things like wealth, connections, race, gender, health, or just pure luck, always play a role in who wins the race. Just like the trickle-down-system is a myth, so is the idea that if you just work hard enough, you'll be rewarded. I'm looking at the current leadership of the United States and wondering what happened to rewarding merit there...
I’ve had a piece in my inbox for a year about Dolce & Gabbana being inspired by Sardinian costume for their Alta Moda 2024. While I was in Sardinia I visited an actual Sardinia designer making traditional garments, wondering what does “inspired” mean according to D&G? I remember them showing me a garment that took 7 months to make and it cost 3000 euros, something that DG would probably sell for 15K. It didn’t seem fair.
How amazing to think that a garment would take 7 months to make. Wow, my brain has stopped in its tracks!
I know that D&G have been borrowing heavily from Sicilian craftsmanship over the years and I've always assumed that maybe they work together with Sicilian artisans (and maybe they do? I don't know) because Dolce is Sicilian. But Sardinia is a different region altogether. I wonder how Italians feel about D&G in general, and what to me looks like a fetishization of Italian culture?
Yes. and Colombian mochilas “inspired”-bags being sold for 800+ dollars by European brands who claim to “elevate them” as if mochilas needed to be saved. It’s upsetting and I wish people who buy those items would understand luxury is not on the label or the artificially inflated price. But then our government, instead of helping, hinders their possibility to compete on equal/fair terms. There was an illuminating article on this written by anthropologist/designer Miguel Mesa Posada on the Harvard review if LatinAmerica. https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/author/miguel-mesa-posada/ great follow up read!
I wonder if a paradigm shift that upsets the oligarchy is different? Like the Beats wearing Levis and Hanes tshirts in the 50s when the oligarchy was suited. Or the Beatles haircuts? Or those Japanese teenagers being arrested in Ginza for wearing Ivy? Eventually the oligarchy co-opts it because rich people do not create trends. But these paradigm shifts can be driven by noisy young people, not marketers….? I guess it folds into your theory in the end because fashion houses rip off the ideas of others but I do think a teenager in Ginza or Hells Kitchen in the 50s is different than an indigenous society. I don’t know…talking myself out of it as I write it LOL
I want to do Book Club with Irene, Laura and Tiia!!!
I think we always need more noisy young people to upset the order of things! They work against the system and not to profit from those who don't have power.
It’s amazing how you feel the cultural impact, global tendencies, inner and external influences, how easy you can operate with tons of visual information and give it so meaningful structure 👏👏👏
Lovely commentary! I wonder if the Arhuaco dress influenced the remarkably similar styles of the ‘Andor’ Aldhani rebels, in turn inspiring The Row.
(Particularly ironic for the potential The Row inspiration: the rebel lead in Aldhani being from a wealthy family, regarded by her family as to some extent cosplaying.)
Love the parallels here, and the hard questions it confronts me with (in a good, challenging way!)
Who gets to name something Fashion and give it a price, and what about the rest? It reminds me of a recent show - I think it might be Prada’s fall 2025? - where much of the models’ hair was disheveled. For how gorgeous the clothes were it’s the hair and woke-up-like-this-esque styling I couldn’t stop thinking about — how on the runway, that’s fashion, but in the lives of many that’s just a fact — there’s always barely any time/energy/resource to get our hair done, polished and perfect, so we leave it undone and down.
I don’t know that there are clear answers (or at least I haven’t landed on them myself), but reading this reminded me it’s worthwhile asking the questions, worthwhile acknowledging and examining and prodding the differences you surfaced — fashion vs artifact, and who gets to make that call?
Exactly! I still admire The Row—I’m not against wealth or branding in itself. I want discernment, not envy. And I want people to reward merit and talent regardless of where it comes from.
Laura, I enjoyed this piece so much! The Row’s connection to indigenous Colombian attire is indeed unexpected and uncanny. I would agree with you that’s it’s impossible to say if it is where the row definitively got their influence as there are many indigenous cultures who employ similar forms and techniques. Who knows if indigenous design is specifically the influence. But for the purpose of your connection to their design, what’s interesting to me is the meaning you ascribe to it based on your own history and culture. It reminds me of my silk/linen TooGood spinner dress - I’m 💯 sure that they didn’t model the dress after the hanbok, but over time, the shape has made its way into modern vocabulary and when I wear it, I feel like I’m wearing a hanbok and a connection to my history.
So interesting. Are these patterns and shapes inside us and manifest in different contexts? I read somewhere that an analysis of Navajo textile patterns revealed pattern similarity to Mozart’s twinkles. Reminds me of this. Maybe some of us are born with these patterns inside us and depending on context, materials, media…we produce those patterns.
Omg the collective unconscious of patterns! But I think you’re onto something…I think I read that the shapes seen in nature are based on repeatedly occurring mathematical patterns.
Per AI: “ Nature displays fascinating mathematical patterns like symmetry (starfish, flowers), spirals (seashells, galaxies), and fractals (tree branches, coastlines), showcasing the elegance and efficiency of natural systems”
Uh oh…now that we have shared our patterns with the machines….!!!
Laura your writing truly blows my mind. I am struck by the question of what is fashion vs. what is artifact. I'm struck by the spectrum of femininity through exposure vs. shape through structure. The through line you drew from Arhauco to you and The Row. So, so well done. As always.
The parallel you’ve drawn here is incredible. Are there still original ideas or are all ideas just a rearranging of elements, things our brain has taken in, the stories, the images, our history, our ancestry, everything we’ve ever known connecting like puzzle pieces. It’s amazing how we assign labels like “luxury”. It’s in who is wearing the clothes, and where, and how are they presented to us, the price point assigned, the stories they tell us and others.
I’m so behind on my reading but I saved this post in my email along with my February birthday offer for free cream cheese wontons lol. I’m so glad that it didn’t get lost…thank you for the great pics and side by sides! 🙏🏻❤️
Stunning piece! I will be thinking about this for quite some time…
Same. This one really made me stop and think!
You have a great mind & your writing is beautiful.
Thank you!
🥹🥹🥹🥹
My brain hurts in the best way after reading this. You connected those dots like a master! I’ll be thinking about every runway differently from now on. Well done!
Niki. I don’t have the right words to express how thankful I am for you reading me and letting me know my words connect. Other than it means the world〰️
Fascinating parallels. Thank you!
🤯
I think this is yet another of your pieces I will return to again and again. I've thought about this general idea so much over the years as someone who has also resided along quite a few margins, looking up at those in the inner circle who weren't actually too far from where I stood, wondering if and how I could ever access it... if I even really wanted to access it or if I simply wanted to experience the same beautiful things they had access to. Meanwhile I was also seeing the most powerful/influential within that same inner circle looking down and cherry picking what it liked of the margins. It's funny because I never felt quite the same level of outrage and resentment most people did about the inequality of when certain people decide to cross certain (cultural) borders, so I never felt like I could partake meaningfully in conversations about it. I do believe the movement of ideas, no matter which direction they flow, can't really be policed or stopped and I'm not sure they ever should be. But I always feel a sadness and a deep sense of injustice (and often asked myself what could I realistically do about this small fact of life as you so beautifully put it) when the elite few decided to be even more audacious in their ransacking of marginal cultures they have no intention of outwardly celebrating/uplifting. The question marks remain, but I'm so glad you've once again put such eloquent words to something I've always wanted to discuss. Thank you so so much.
I was able to hike in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in 2017 with a guide who is Wiwa and it was such privilege to be guided by someone who could tell us so much about history and culture in a way that can't be found in books. I was also very taken with the way Wiwa people dressed (there is some similarity to Arhuaco style) at the time, and like many travellers to Colombia, I purchased a mochila as a souvenir. But I have never carried it, because I couldn't shake the idea it carried cultural meaning that I had no business associating myself with. I love how you've found a way to connect to the visual codes and principles behind their way of dress without simply consuming a culture like a product.
What a thought-provoking post, Laura! Thank you for writing this piece!
I know that I'm awfully cynical, but fashion has always been busy digging through the clothes of indigenous people and those less privileged. Only, say, fifteen to twenty years ago or so fashion designers were openly and proudly telling us which culture they were ripping off (oh, excuse me, inspired by) on any given season. Just because designers aren't talking about it openly anymore, it doesn't mean that it no longer happens.
As to your question of what is perceived as fashion: it's such a vast and complex question, but I think at the heart of it is always money and privilege. Grimy hair at Prada (as opposed to, say, on a homeless person) is posh because of money and privilege. I can't think what else it could possibly come down to.
Re/rip-offs: I’ve been wondering for years if cultural appropriation is also a concept that wouldn’t survive outside of capitalism. Because… can cultural appropriation exist without the concept of private property?
That's thought-provoking, and I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Laura! I think you're onto something. I'd wager that cultural appropriation is a fundamentally capitalist idea: that individual elements of a culture can be deconstructed into solely material things that can then be sold.
Flash thought:
Perhaps the problem is that our distorted perception of what’s fashionable is preventing us from rewarding merit, talent, etc. which is crazy, because rewarding merit is one of the core tenets of capitalism. So I wonder if the issue isn’t people rising to the top…it’s that those who deserve a place there aren’t being given a fair shot
I'd argue that the merit system is an illusion. It's not fair or equal in a capitalist system. Things like wealth, connections, race, gender, health, or just pure luck, always play a role in who wins the race. Just like the trickle-down-system is a myth, so is the idea that if you just work hard enough, you'll be rewarded. I'm looking at the current leadership of the United States and wondering what happened to rewarding merit there...
I’ve had a piece in my inbox for a year about Dolce & Gabbana being inspired by Sardinian costume for their Alta Moda 2024. While I was in Sardinia I visited an actual Sardinia designer making traditional garments, wondering what does “inspired” mean according to D&G? I remember them showing me a garment that took 7 months to make and it cost 3000 euros, something that DG would probably sell for 15K. It didn’t seem fair.
How amazing to think that a garment would take 7 months to make. Wow, my brain has stopped in its tracks!
I know that D&G have been borrowing heavily from Sicilian craftsmanship over the years and I've always assumed that maybe they work together with Sicilian artisans (and maybe they do? I don't know) because Dolce is Sicilian. But Sardinia is a different region altogether. I wonder how Italians feel about D&G in general, and what to me looks like a fetishization of Italian culture?
Yes. and Colombian mochilas “inspired”-bags being sold for 800+ dollars by European brands who claim to “elevate them” as if mochilas needed to be saved. It’s upsetting and I wish people who buy those items would understand luxury is not on the label or the artificially inflated price. But then our government, instead of helping, hinders their possibility to compete on equal/fair terms. There was an illuminating article on this written by anthropologist/designer Miguel Mesa Posada on the Harvard review if LatinAmerica. https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/author/miguel-mesa-posada/ great follow up read!
I’ll get the piece out eventually!
Can’t wait!!!!
I wonder if a paradigm shift that upsets the oligarchy is different? Like the Beats wearing Levis and Hanes tshirts in the 50s when the oligarchy was suited. Or the Beatles haircuts? Or those Japanese teenagers being arrested in Ginza for wearing Ivy? Eventually the oligarchy co-opts it because rich people do not create trends. But these paradigm shifts can be driven by noisy young people, not marketers….? I guess it folds into your theory in the end because fashion houses rip off the ideas of others but I do think a teenager in Ginza or Hells Kitchen in the 50s is different than an indigenous society. I don’t know…talking myself out of it as I write it LOL
I want to do Book Club with Irene, Laura and Tiia!!!
Digesting these comments. Listening and thinking. Reviewing my first principles to see where I stand here.
I just want to say I love you being here.
I think we always need more noisy young people to upset the order of things! They work against the system and not to profit from those who don't have power.
It’s amazing how you feel the cultural impact, global tendencies, inner and external influences, how easy you can operate with tons of visual information and give it so meaningful structure 👏👏👏
Laura leyendo tu articulo me sentí en la Tagua y en San Lorenzo en las cabañas del Inderena! Que bien concebido tu escrito.🥰🙏🏽
Lovely commentary! I wonder if the Arhuaco dress influenced the remarkably similar styles of the ‘Andor’ Aldhani rebels, in turn inspiring The Row.
(Particularly ironic for the potential The Row inspiration: the rebel lead in Aldhani being from a wealthy family, regarded by her family as to some extent cosplaying.)
Ok fascinating and will be digging into this totally new info for me🤯 i love all my readers
Love the parallels here, and the hard questions it confronts me with (in a good, challenging way!)
Who gets to name something Fashion and give it a price, and what about the rest? It reminds me of a recent show - I think it might be Prada’s fall 2025? - where much of the models’ hair was disheveled. For how gorgeous the clothes were it’s the hair and woke-up-like-this-esque styling I couldn’t stop thinking about — how on the runway, that’s fashion, but in the lives of many that’s just a fact — there’s always barely any time/energy/resource to get our hair done, polished and perfect, so we leave it undone and down.
I don’t know that there are clear answers (or at least I haven’t landed on them myself), but reading this reminded me it’s worthwhile asking the questions, worthwhile acknowledging and examining and prodding the differences you surfaced — fashion vs artifact, and who gets to make that call?
Exactly! I still admire The Row—I’m not against wealth or branding in itself. I want discernment, not envy. And I want people to reward merit and talent regardless of where it comes from.