Why is the representation of one culture by a person of another fraught with anxiety? Two designers debate cultural appropriation
Subject matter expert Gursimran Kaur, 24, and photographer Asees Kaur, 20, (foreground) featured in Karan Torani’s campaign. As Amritdhari Sikhs, both maintain five articles of faith, referred to as the five Ks. Pics/Vansh Virmani
Beautiful is not an adjective you’d usually associate with cultural appropriation. But that is the word that comes to mind when you see Gursimran Kaur, 24, draped in a saree with a print of a prowling tiger while Asees Kaur, 20, wears a rani pink kurta and Patiala salwar in Karan Torani’s spring-summer 2021 collection, Jhooley. It is only when your gaze shifts slightly closer that you go, hey, is that a dastar (turban) and kirpan (knife) they are wearing?
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In this instance, can the designer be held accountable for appropriation if the women in the campaign—who choose to identify themselves as Amritdhari Sikh—are wearing discernable symbols of their faith? Amritdhari Sikhs are individuals who have undergone the Amrit Sanskar initiation ceremony akin to baptism, and live by the rules of the Sikh code of conduct, including wearing a dastar and carrying the kirpan, a ceremonial sword or knife to emphasise martial strength.
Jasvir Kaur Rababen MBE, 37, wearing an Eina Ahluwalia Kirpan necklace she bought for herself in 2018. “As a practicing Sikh woman, the kirpan necklace holds a special meaning beyond being a piece of beautiful jewellery,” says the CEO based in London
The Delhi designer admits he is anxious about the backlash his campaign could invite on social media. “The whole cancel culture has made complex conversations even more difficult to have. [It’s] a distraction for designers like me interested in exploring identities in society.” He fears that he will be accused of capitalising on Sikh culture when his intended message is about celebrating sisterhood and female friendships, using visual stories of diversity in Indian culture. To build a design archive, Torani regularly documents his subjects via video interviews. This is the first time that he took the call to release the interviews along with the campaign images on social platforms. “It’s almost a justification for my intention, but I had to safeguard against attack,” he reasons.
Italian fashion house Gucci was accused of putting “white guys in turbans” and commercialisation of a religious symbol when it showed a head wrap strikingly similar to the Sikh turban at its Fall 2018 runway show.
Dr Anagha Kusum, Karan Torani and Eina Ahluwalia
Without embracing and adopting the ideas of other identities, fashion becomes dull, narrowing cultural diversity’s creative fodder. “Culture is nothing but a way of life, and this amalgamation of the past and the present is certainly not linear. It’s constantly evolving, modifying, deducting and adding [to itself],” explains Dr Anagha Kusum, community archaeologist and educator.
The call-out culture that willingly sticks its neck out for size and skin colour diversity in fashion doesn’t extend the courage to cheerleader identities. “I agree,” says Kolkata based jewellery designer Eina Ahluwalia, founder of her namesake brand, which she manages with sister Atikaa. “Culture is fluid, more holistic than binary,” she adds. While cultural borrowing is not okay without a deeper respect and understanding of the community, can we argue that appreciation can be potentially positive when representing every kind of woman?
When Ahluwalia chose her kirpan-inspired necklace to open her runway show in 2011, she wasn’t making a cultural statement. “Our intent was to highlight domestic violence in marriage using the overarching theme of ‘love, respect, protect’. I come from a Punjabi family, so for us, the kirpan was a clear connection with the icon of protection. Sikhism teaches us that the kirpan is to protect, not attack,” she explains.
The Kirpan design continues to be a bestseller. Sikh women buy it because of its religious symbolism; others because they identify with its message of strength. “I am not scared of appropriating when my customers believe in the product and relate to the meaning behind the message,” adds
Ahluwalia.
In doing so, she is inspiring meaning and relevance to various facets of her culture. “And once we are able to make any concept [culture] relevant, it automatically becomes normalised and easy to connect with and understand,” believes Dr Kusum.
How do you tow the line between appropriation and exchange?
Eina Ahluwalia: As with everything else, there’s a certain subjectivity that follows when brands use cultural appropriation for the sake of posturing. That is problematic. Exchanges conversely suggest a sort of generosity, openness to discussion and inclusion of different ethnicities.
Karan Torani: [You do it] By going beyond packaged inspiration and soulfully looking at the theme from a historical and cultural context. For me, culture is an emotion. I wanted to celebrate the bond of sisterhood and female friendships by looking at them through the prism of Punjab [for this collection]. As part of our research that began early last year, we recorded interviews with a wide range of women across class and age groups. Our cultural mood board was pinned with pictures of truck drivers, folk drawings and poetry. The exchange of ideas, styles and traditions is one of the joys of being an Indian designer. But this dialogue is missing in Indian design. I might make mistakes but I will also learn in the process.
Is appropriation a substitute for diversity?
EA: Appropriation becomes a problem when it stereotypes, alienates, exploits a minority culture. Now, juxtapose this appropriation with structural bias against women. We are marginalised in every aspect—for being dark, fat, old, difficult, divorced, infertile, and the violence against women is still endemic. Atikaa and I have lived through these insecurities, come to love and accept ourselves, and use jewellery to champion individualism.
KA: Cultural diversity is omnipresent in this country. Typecasting female identities using the ruler of shape or colour of skin is silly and piddling. It’s not so much about representing diversity, but figuring how to represent it.
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