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Turbans: The New Fashion Trend, according Gucci at Least

FASHION: Public reacts to Gucci’s appropriation of Sikh religion.

Gwen Langi | Opinion Writer
March 15, 2018

On February 21, 2018, the luxury brand Gucci held a fashion trend that featured various pieces from baby dragons to three-headed models. But one thing in particular stood out to the media and caused great backlash: turbans.

One of the controversial issues involved the turban models on the runway who were not Sikhs. Turbans are typically worn by followers of the Sikhism religion and many people criticized how the models were not representative of the turban culture.

Tina Daheley, a British journalist who has Sikh family members, commented, “While Gucci sends white models down the catwalk wearing turbans, a Sikh environmentalist has his turban ripped off outside parliament in a hate attack. As someone whose family has been on the receiving end of this sh** for decades, this is utterly depressing.”

Social media users also took to the internet to attack the brand.

“This is unacceptable and offensive @gucci. Wearing another religions article of faith is not fashion, its appropriation! Sikh men are profiled and discriminated against every day for wearing a turban, yet when you put in on a white person, it’s suddenly fashionable and cool?” – Twitter user @gurpycolor

“Sikh Turban is not a hot new accessory for white models but an article of faith for practising Sikhs. Your models have used Turbans as ‘hats’… Using fake Sikhs/Turbans is worse than selling fake Gucci products,” a Sikh man tweeted to the brand.

“The challenge of the disciplinary power is to impose a precise identity on the subject. This operation is carried out placing the subject inside binary fixed categories, as the normal/abnormal one, with the specific intent of classifying, controlling and regulating the subject. The regulative strategies prove so alluring that the subject voluntarily chooses to stick to that particular categorization, claiming its positioning inside a given social structure. In this frame of reference, the regulation of the living body uses the concept of identity as a device of bio-political control,” said famous French philosopher Michel Foucault.

Gucci used turbans in their collection in an attempt to set a visual for this quote. The brand’s target was to express the “abnormal” category, hence the mythical creatures, three eyed-models and the misuse of the turban on the runway.

This type of reasoning could be justified but consumers do not see the purpose of misusing a sacred headpiece.

This fashion incident is offensive and disturbing for most customers, especially Sikhs.

To avoid such incidents, brands should be careful with the usage of valued religious and cultural clothing and accessories in their fashion pieces.

Gwen Langi is a writer for the opinion section for The Mirror.

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