NO TO GUCCI TURBANS 

Despite us living in a Gucci obsessed era right now, they’re not excused from being criticized, no one is. In an attempt to maintain their winning streak of being “innovative”, “different” and “new”, Gucci culturally appropriated a Sikh Turban in their Autumn/Winter 2018 show. On Twitter, actor Avan Jogia, shared a picture of a white model wearing a Sikh styled turbans that was on Vogue's website. This specific image went viral quickly, being shared by 10,000+ people and liked 33,000+ times. It became a cultural moment that sparked debate of cultural appropriation from a beloved luxury brand.

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From the book, Practices of Looking (2003), it defines cultural appropriation as, "To appropriate is, in essence, to steal. Cultural appropriation is the process of 'borrowing' and changing the meaning of cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion" (59).

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Why is this so controversial? Because it's selling a look. It’s all about the production of meaning. Even if the turban doesn’t get sold, the implications of the look is insensitive. It tells impressionable consumers and the public that they can also appropriate the turban as a stylistic choice without taking on the same stigma as when a Sikh man wears it. Of course, Vogue would put out this look because it's their job to archive fashion shows. But every time this image of a white model in a turban is circulated, it's co-signing to cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation has a specific pattern, luxury brands exploit a minority group's clothing and try to rebrand it as their own trend. Then they distribute the look online so people can praise it. That's unfair.

 

On white bodies, the turban can be viewed as ethnically edgy and different without even being a member of that group, completely disrespecting it.  When a non-Sikh white man wears a turban they don't carry all the racist baggage that comes with it because they are protected by their race due to white privilege. But a turban on brown men, it becomes an instant signifier of a stereotype that puts their lives in danger because now they represents a popular false narrative as a terrorist instead as an individual. So to put a turban on a white model instead of putting it on brown model, makes the representation inaccurate and waters down the apparel. Avan Jogia was right for calling them out. 

 

Let’s take a look into the accurate stigma of wearing turbans that so many brown men have to endure that this picture doesn't represent. The most common and circulated visual representation of terrorists is brown men in turbans. The American media and public has shifted the meaning of head wraps to create a negative stereotype because of the history of Islamophobia in relation to 9/11 terrorist attacks, Isis, and Al-Qeda.  The stereotype being anyone that wears a turban, a hijab, or anything remotely similar must be associated with Islam and terrorism; Sikh Indians included. 

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  Racist people are so racist they lack the intellectual capacity to differentiate religions.

 

Yes, turbans are a cultural and religious head wear that are native to people of the Middle Eastern, African, Asian demographic. So it’s not wrong to associate turbans with them. But what the American public has done is group two visual markers of brown bodies and turbans together and try to pinpoint them as terrorists in the name of national security. Despite Sikhism being a different religion than Islam, many ignorant people group turban wearing Sikhs under the same religion just to stereotype them for harassment; this is racism and religious discrimination. Would a white man in a turban be harassed by the police, airport security, or in public spaces? Not really. There have been many accounts of microaggressions and hate crimes against Sikh men just because people assume they agree with Isis. It's wrong to accuse a whole religion of terrorism, especially when you do it to the wrong people. According to the Sikh Coalition in their 2014 bullying studies, they found that many people accused Sikh people to be hiding bombs and grenades in their turban (15). Below are just a few headlines of Sikh men in turbans being hate-crimed solely off their appearance and religion. A simple google search of different reports on Sikh attacks will show that it's not an isolated case but a pattern of discrimination. 

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/man-who-attacked-sikh-store-clerk-oregon-charged-hate-crime-n960316

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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/Sikh-boy-mocked-assaulted-on-bus-in-Australia-reportedly-for-wearing-turban/articleshow/51241871.cms

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/19/sikh-in-america-hate-crime-surge-trump-religion

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Many ignorant bystanders will verbally harass Sikh men and accuse them to be suicide bombers. They see turbans as a symbol of fear and foreign danger even though these men are innocent. Some of the harassment doesn't even have to be based in islamophobia, it can be xenophobic too. America's history of white supremacy has made immigrants and people of color uncomfortable to exist in the states as majorly white people feel that POC or immigrants don't belong on American land. Despite the U.S. being built by immigrants. 

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The racist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic connotation behind the turban in American culture is too strong to just isolate the meaning. Gucci can't place a turban on a white model, broadcast it to the world and call it good. Then have photos distributed of this look on a popular website like Vogue. The fact that a Michele, a white designer, is continuing the history of white people appropriating another culture is disappointing and to be honest not that shocking. Cultural appropriation is so common in fashion, it’s a given that a designer is bound to be offensive. But as an audience that has no creative say in the production of high fashion, we must value to read things in an oppositional way. Don't let elites like designers get to dictate insensitive trends and put out images like this as a fashion statement.

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Respect Sikh Culture