The Truth About Cultural Appropriation in Fashion

Fashion has always been a mirror, but it is also a thief. It borrows, it reinvents, it steals, and sometimes it pays homage. But in the glittering halls of luxury, when a heritage motif or a tribal pattern suddenly appears on the runway, everyone knows what happens next: the crowd gasps, the critics applaud, and social media erupts. Yet behind the outrage lies a quieter, older story. Whose hands carved that pattern? Whose grandmother taught that weave? Whose stories sit embedded in the colors of that cloth? Cultural appropriation in fashion is not just a headline; it’s the recurring reminder that some voices are always celebrated, while others are left invisible.

When Big Fashion Steals From the Streets and Tribes

Luxury houses like to imagine themselves as the keepers of innovation, the visionaries who dictate taste. But what they often do is reach back into communities—remote, indigenous, or local—and scoop up fragments of culture to repackage as “new.” A beadwork pattern becomes a luxury embellishment. A tribal motif becomes a seasonal print. What was once the living language of a people is suddenly sold as a trend. It’s like a museum raid, except the objects aren’t behind glass—they’re on the backs of models, rebranded with five-figure price tags.

The Social Media Outrage Cycle: Loud But Short-Lived

Whenever these acts of fashion plagiarism surface, social media ignites. The internet acts like a jury with a short attention span. Influencers tear down brands, hashtags trend, and moral outrage burns bright for a week. But then it fades. The luxury house issues a carefully worded apology, or sometimes just stays silent until the noise dies down. Meanwhile, the artist or community that was borrowed from returns to daily life, unchanged. Outrage without structural change is like a storm in the desert: dramatic, loud, and then gone, leaving the ground just as dry as before.

Do You Really Care About the Artists, or Just the Likes?

Here’s the uncomfortable question: when people rage online about cultural appropriation, are they truly worried about the artists—or are they worried about their own image as defenders of justice? To care means to invest, not just to post. To care means to ask: who gets paid? Who gets credited? Who gets lifted from anonymity into recognition? Caring about artisans requires more than tagging brands in angry tweets; it requires questioning how much we, as consumers, are willing to support the original creators rather than just scolding the copycats.

The Faces in the Reels vs. The Hands That Create

Brands often try to soften the blow of appropriation scandals by showcasing local artisans in their marketing. A reel of smiling faces in a dusty workshop. A documentary-style clip of someone weaving under natural light. It looks supportive. But too often, it’s theater. The camera celebrates their presence, but the contract doesn’t reflect their worth. Their art becomes background noise to the brand’s storyline, and they remain nameless in the credits. Real support is not about visibility alone. It is about voice, agency, and the dignity of being treated as equals in collaboration.

What Real Support for Local Artists Looks Like

Real support is messy, time-consuming, and expensive. It means paying artisans fair wages, not just token fees. It means co-creating collections where the artist’s name is printed alongside the brand’s, not buried in a press release footnote. It means long-term partnerships instead of one-off campaigns designed for social media optics. Supporting local artists is like tending a garden—you don’t just pick the flowers when you want them; you nourish the soil, you return season after season, and you acknowledge that the beauty you enjoy is rooted in someone else’s labor.

The Future of Luxury Streetwear is Fair, Transparent, and Human

The future of fashion cannot be built on silence and exploitation. It must be built on fairness, transparency, and humanity. Imagine a world where indigenous designers are not side notes, but headliners. Where artisans are not props in a marketing video, but respected collaborators. Where cultural exchange is celebrated as partnership, not plunder. Streetwear has always been about rebellion, about rejecting systems that erase voices and flatten identities. The most radical thing fashion can do now is simple: give credit, give pay, and give space to the artists who shaped the culture long before the runway noticed.

FAQs on Cultural Appropriation in Fashion

1. What is cultural appropriation in fashion?
It refers to the practice of adopting elements of a culture, such as designs, symbols, or crafts, without permission, credit, or compensation to the original creators.

2. Why do big fashion houses face backlash for this?
Because they profit from cultural symbols while the communities that created them often remain unpaid and unrecognised.

3. Isn’t fashion always about borrowing and remixing?
Yes, but there’s a line between inspiration and exploitation. Inspiration acknowledges and uplifts. Exploitation erases and profits without recognition.

4. How can brands support indigenous and local artisans fairly?
By paying fair wages, sharing credit, creating long-term partnerships, and ensuring artisans have agency in how their work is represented.

5. What role does social media play in cultural appropriation debates?
It amplifies awareness and outrage, but without sustained action, it risks being performative rather than transformative.

6. What does authentic support for artisans look like in practice?
It looks like co-branded collections, transparent contracts, and a shift from one-off campaigns to ongoing collaboration that values the artist’s name as much as the brand’s logo.

Beyond Outrage, Toward Responsibility

Fashion is powerful because it tells stories on fabric. But stories deserve storytellers, not thieves. If luxury streetwear wants to claim authenticity, it must stop treating artisans as invisible suppliers of “inspiration” and start honouring them as equal creators. Cultural appropriation doesn’t have to be the future of fashion. Respect can be. Fairness can be. The question is whether brands, and the audiences who consume them, are willing to step beyond the outrage cycle and invest in something more enduring. 

UNMODA is India’s first progressive luxury streetwear label for women—redefining fashion through purpose, precision and passion. Rooted in the Inspired by Humanity vision and driven by the In Collaboration with Nature philosophy, UNMODA designs timeless silhouettes that honour real people, celebrate the planet and advance conscious progress. From ethically crafted hoodies to thoughtfully tailored dresses, every piece is created with intention and integrity. As a pioneer in sustainable fashion and streetwear for women, UNMODA invites the world to embrace a new era—where style is soulful, fashion is fair and luxury is defined by values, not just price.