Exoticism and cultural appropriation: JT Mode returns to talk about the underside of style on Twitch

Fashion enthusiasts are ready to cry out for cultural appropriation without this notion necessarily being well understood. And for good reason: it is particularly difficult to understand, if you do not know the financial details of a collection, to what extent it attributes its sources of inspiration, especially if it is a minority, or if it claims to be pure invention. ex nihilo. For example, when a maison like Jean Paul Gaultier is accused of plagiarism … Jean Paul Gaultier, a great couturier himself often accused of exoticism and orientalism, we can ask ourselves about this new form of vigilance, about his interests and limits.

At a time when part of public opinion, critics and research are gradually changing their way of understanding Western fashion compared to that of the rest of the world, we wanted to invite two personalities to the crossroads of issues between heritage and innovation, appreciation cultural and exoticism. To solve it, we then receive the Tuesday 13 September, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, on Madmoizelle’s Twitch channel, the creator of the Gueras Fatim brand, Fatoumata Guirassy, ​​as well as the historian of oriental and orientalist fashion, Khémais Ben Lakhdar.

Fatoumata Guirassy and Khémaïs Ben Lakhdar, guests of JT Mode on 13 September 2022

Originally from Vichy, Fatumata Guirassy he studied arts and crafts at the Marie Laurencin high school in Riom, then at the Condé school in Lyon. She then cut her teeth at Balenciaga, Céline and Alexander McQueen as she completed her training at the Académie Internationale de Coupe de Paris. She finally launched her own brand in 2015, Gueras Fatim. Her collections want to be spiritual, inspired by contemporary women, but also by the energy of their ancestors.

As for Chemais Ben Lakhdar, he carried out a thesis on “Oriental fashion: the ethnographic turning point of Haute Couture during the Belle Epoque” at the Panthéon Sorbonne in Paris 1. He is an expert in the analysis of the relationship between haute couture and exoticism, orientalism and ethnography. He also co-founded the podcast “La penderie de Shéhérazade” which explores the richness of oriental clothing.