March 04, 2009

Audigier's stereotypical fashions

Dare Wear:  New 'Native' FashionsTired of wearing the same old “rez rags” day after day? Consider the new Fall 2009 collection of Native American-inspired fashions by Christian Audigier, debuted at “an exciting fashion show set against the backdrop of a western saloon titled 'Dream Catcher,' ” as the press literature put it.

The fashion show was part of a trade show by Christian Audigier called “When I Move You Move.” It took place at Caesars Palace here Feb. 16-19.
Some comments on this show (with slight corrections to the spelling and punctuation):Awfulll!!
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2009-03-04 14:10.


The clothing seems to be what I think is the non-Indian stereo-typical perception of Natives, w/feathers, head-dresses, etc....that's not cool.

Fashion for Who??
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2009-03-04 12:32.


This is adding more insult to injury, I guess this is an attempt to keep the wounds open in case us Natives decide to heal, get stronger and smarter??

What Fashion?!?
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2009-03-03 12:19.


If this is Native inspired fashion, I would like to know which Native tribe in Indian Country dresses like that! Not all tribal nations wear war bonnets, whomever put this event together is an ignorant, uneducated planner.

what in the world?
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2009-03-01 17:14.


You call that fashion? That's more raggy then what we wear now. It looks as if the girls just got done have sex with the chief and took some of his belonging to cover up.
Comment:  You can see pix of these designs at the link above or at Christian Audigier When I Move You Move The Trade Show.

For the most part, I wouldn't even call these designs "fashion." They aren't something that anyone would actually wear. They exist solely to show that Audigier can create clothes using Native stereotypes.

These are as bad as the worst Indian mascots or Mardi Gras costumes. No Native except a fashion model hungry for work would be caught dead in them. Perhaps Audigier didn't think he was mocking or insulting Indians, but he was.

For more stereotypical fashion, see Male Models Playing Indian.

Below:  Although you can't tell from these thumbnail images, the models are wearing feathers in a headband, a buffalo helmet, and a full-length chief's headdress.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...


For the most part, I wouldn't even call these designs "fashion." They aren't something that anyone would actually wear.


I take it you haven't ever seen footage of major fashion shows...

dmarks said...

I think Rob's comment stands for those, too.

Ananda girl said...

You know it's shows such poor taste and lack of sensitivity that I don't even know what to say!