Cultural appropriation?Japanese clothing brand "steals" to the Mexican Sarape
The design house launched its line without having reached a fair agreement for Mexican artisans.
The Japanese brand Comme des Garçons co.He did not fulfill his agreement with the creative communities of the traditional Sarape when putting his commercial agenda to the ethical agreement that was with the artisan communities of Saltillo, Coahuila, and Contla, Tlaxcala, the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico reported.
It turns out that on November 24, the brand looked for the Mexico Embassy in Japan to express their interest in collaborating with the artists from our country and knowing what were the steps to use the patterns that only belong to the artisans.
The Ministry of Culture facilitated the meeting between the peoples owned by the traditional Sarape design to tell them about the proposal and serve as an intermediary between the two parties.The agreements promote fair payments, often work teams, and this time there was talk of the possibility of creating a line together in the future.
However, Comme des Garçons co.He did not respect the negotiations and hurriedly launched his Junya Watanabe Man Fall/Winter 2022 collection without having agreed a fair agreement for Mexican artists, who worked from the beginning with the brand.In addition, they published that the Ministry of Culture was aware of all this, this information was totally rejected by the agency, which reiterated that it only serves as an intermediary.
Sarape's rights belong only to the communities of Saltillo in Coahuila and Contla in Tlaxcala and they are the ones who decide that it is done and not with the cultural heritage of their region.
Mexican artists tried to ask the brand that the garments brought a special label that recognized the work of the communities, the payment of their rights and materials.Both parties would continue the negotiations until they reached an agreement that benefited the two.
The brand came forward and stole the work that the artisans had done, since it was not yet reached a fair agreement, so according to the Ministry of Culture they incurred a "bad practice".