I have great news for all you cool and interesting people in the market for a fashionable rainstick under $100. Free People has begun selling them for $68! Though some people believe the sticks were invented by the Aztecs to summon rainstorms by simulating their sounds, others believe they were invented for “impromptu…
Bey’s collaboration with Coldplay, presumably to be debuted publicly at Superbowl halftime, is called “Hymn for the Weekend” and now has a video, shot in Mumbai, with a guest appearance from the beloved Punjabi actress Sonam Kapoor, of Bollywood fame. Directed by Ben Mor, it depicts street scenes and curious, probably…
Miley’s free-love surprise album hit the internet like a glitter bath bomb last night, an off-label release just after her VMA-closing, neon drag-queen extravaganza introducing her new sound. The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, who co-produced “Dooo It,” told the New York Times, “Miley is the new Madonna,” referring to the…
“Burning Man is coming up!” a Topshop executive must have realized with a start, perhaps during an early-morning squash game against himself. “How” [thwack] “can” [thwack] “we” [thwack] “differentiate” [thwack] “ourselves?” [thwack]
The day before my friend Tayler Smith and I found out our photo series was appropriated into the New Yorker, I woke up to a text message from another friend. We’re psychic sisters; she has a nightmare one night, I have one the morning after. Her message was a two-liner: “I see your imprint everywhere. You are owed. I…
On Monday, Fashion designer Stella McCartney presented her 2016 resort collection at a Cuba-themed garden party in Nolita, Manhattan. Guests included big names like Cara Delevingne, Miranda Kerr, Liv Tyler, and—most noteworthy of all—two men posing as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Not present: anyone who’s suffered…
The London-based fashion line KTZ, designed by Marjan Pejoski, showed its Fall 2015 line at New York Fashion Week on Wednesday, and its appropriated "Native American" prints and caricatures were actually quite shocking—albeit in a boring, "we've been here so many times before" type of way.
Another clothing retailer is trying to make a run at sneaking cultural appropriation in under the radar as hipster boho chic attire.
Mary Fallin, Oklahoma's Republican governor, has issued a profuse apology after her daughter allegedly mocked Native American protestors and performed a "war dance" while on stage at the Norman Music Festival.
Another year, another Coachella, another trend mired in cultural appropriation. It's the true circle of life. You can almost watch the fixed gears of hipster logic grind: Now that Native American headdresses are offensive, we need to snatch some cool novelty from another culture. And so it came to be that bindis…
Yesterday, we brought you one of the most ill-advised ads for a tanning salon ever (as though tanning could get any more gauche), a tacky, racist mess that featured a white lady in a "Sexy Indian" Halloween costume along with copy that read "The Indians brought more than just 'CORN' to the first Thanksgiving... they…
Remember when Paul Frank was widely criticized for hosting a "pow wow"-themed party in Los Angeles last September where it encouraged guests to put on "war paint," put feathers in their hair, and pose with tomahawks? Unusually, after a spate of examples of unapologetic appropriation by the likes of Forever 21, …
For Fashion's Night Out this year, designer Paul Frank Industries hosted an outstandingly offensive Native American-themed party, featuring cocktails with names like "Neon Teepee" and encouraging guests to pose in "war paint" with tomahawks. Urgh.
Get ready to cringe: Paul Frank hosted a Native American culture-themed "Dream Catchin" party for last week's Fashion's Night Out that makes Urban Outfitters' Navajo Hipster panty fiasco look like a United Nations peace treaty.
Last month, Urban Outfitters drew popular ire — and threats of legal action from the Navajo Nation — for advertising such products as the "Navajo Flask" and the "Navajo Hipster Panty." The tribe owns a variety of trademarks on the term "Navajo," including one covering clothing — meaning that legally speaking, calling…
Overnight, something very interesting happened to the Urban Outfitters website: all 21 of the company's products that had been called "Navajo" vanished. At least at first glance.
Sasha Houston Brown's open letter to Urban Outfitters regarding its use of the word "Navajo" in its product names may or may not have inspired company C.E.O. Glen Senk to fauxpologize in the comments — the company still won't confirm or deny whether it was really Senk or someone impersonating him — but it's certainly…
Urban Outfitters may have been the recipient of a cease-and-desist letter from the Navajo Nation, which, as the holder of several trademarks on the word "Navajo," is seeking to stop the company from using "Navajo" in its product names and descriptions, but the current vogue for "Navajo"-inspired (and Native…
Sasha Houston Brown of Minneapolis published a strongly worded open letter to Urban Outfitters yesterday at Racialicious. Brown, who directly addresses C.E.O. Glen Senk, takes the clothing chain to task for its appropriation of Native American arts and crafts, and its frequent use of the word "Navajo" in product names…
