Over the past 10 years, the concept of cultural appropriation has become part of our regular vocabulary in the crafts industry. It’s a complex subject with many nuances. Let’s look at the concept and provide ideas for businesses to move forward with.
African wax prints are fabrics with a complex and nuanced history and, although they’re trending on the fashion runways, some consumers question whether wearing these garments is cultural appropriation.
The craft industry is a perfect microcosm of the larger tensions that are pulsing through our national and global cultures in 2017: racial, social, economic. And corporations everywhere—their advertising choices, their mistakes, and their responses to those mistakes—are often the battlegrounds where those tensions come to the forefront.