One question for fans of the “hipster indian” look
If its just that you “appreciate the culture” and “think its beautiful” why don’t I ever see fashion spreads of Native Americans dressed in the attire as it was meant to be worn? Why is it always shirtless white ladies in the desert with a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of whisky in the other?
My theory? Its because the culture being appreciated is not any particular Native American culture. It is the culture of middle class America from 30 years ago, back when if you dressed your kid up as an “indian princess” for Halloween no one would think twice about it (I’m looking at you, mom.)
You can tell because all these pictures also often exhibit artifacts of the 70s, like feathered hair and tube socks pulled up to your knees, or have orangey red faded color palettes or excessive lens flare like a flashback in a Wes Anderson movie or something.
The “more innocent time” these images are hearkening back to is not to some imagined time of pre-colombian noble savagrey but the time from my childhood when middle America felt free to stomp all over Native American culture without guilt.
I plan on writing a more thought out post about this on blogger when I’m more awake. It will have spellchecking!
ooh, good point.
I read this interesting article a while ago — I wish I could remember where, sorry — about young women dressing in 50s fashion. and one of them mentioned in passing that women who were actually alive in that time had come up to her and been like “what the fuck are you doing? why do you want to go back to then? do you know what life was actually like?”
threadbared had a really good link round-up on the politics of vintage fashion a while ago, check it out
