SHANGHAI — Dior sparked controversy on the Chinese internet for a mid-length skirt that online viewers said resembled a traditional Chinese garment from the Ming dynasty.
Chinese users online criticized the French luxury house for not acknowledging their possible Chinese origin. The hashtag “plagiarism from Dior” entered Weibo’s search list on Saturday and received 13.7 million clicks on the Chinese social media platform.
However, when WWD previewed the skirt in December and it was shown on the Seoul runway in April at the same time it was available in stores, women’s show notes artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri said that The collection aimed to pay homage to Catherine, Dior’s Christian sister, and was inspired by uniforms, specifically school uniforms. “Maria Grazia Chiuri became interested in school outfits and, above all, in the way students dust off, renew and update the tropes of these garments, personalizing them with distinctive details, bordering on punk, before venturing through urban landscapes in search for spaces. of freedom,” she reads in the show notes.
The $3,800 black pleated skirt sparked controversy among China’s Hanfu enthusiasts, a popular subculture group that enjoys traditional Chinese clothing worn by people of the Han dynasty. They claimed the black wool and mohair wraparound skirt looked too much alike. to a Ma Mian skirt, or horse-faced skirt, which was popular in the Ming dynasty.
The skirt is marked “out of stock” on the Hong Kong site and cannot be found on Dior’s mainland China website.
Dior did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some Chinese online users thought Dior’s product description was not misleading, saying the A-line skirt harkens back to the brand’s New Look silhouette.
But despite Dior’s explanation that the inspiration was school uniforms, which have included pleated skirts for decades, Chinese netizens maintained that the one-piece skirt has the same construction as the Ma Mian skirt, which initially has slits at the sides. the front and back and side pleats. designed to make riding easier for women. The only difference is the length. An Orthodox Ma Mian skirt reaches the floor, while the Dior version sits below the knee.
The opinion section of state media People’s Daily Online responded with a post asking Dior to comment on the matter.
“Without revealing trade secrets, Dior should be as candid as possible about the skirt design process,” the post read. “Industry insiders and copyright experts have joined the discussion. This can be an opportunity to discover the border between plagiarism, design reference and paying homage to something”.
This is not the first time Dior has been embroiled in controversy in China. In November 2021, Chinese netizens accused the brand of featuring photos of renowned Chinese fashion photographer Chen Man at an art exhibition in Shanghai. The show featured one of Chen’s earlier works filmed in 2012. The image captured a young Chinese woman dressed in traditional Chinese clothing holding a Lady Dior handbag. Chen was accused of perpetuating Western stereotypes of Asian faces, such as the slanted eye.
The state-run media outlet Global Times also criticized Chen for his “Young Pioneer” series filmed in the same period for “targeting child pornography and insulting the Young Pioneers,” the youth branch of the Chinese Communist Party.
Chen issued a formal apology a week later, saying his “early artistic views were not yet fully formed”, causing earlier works to “lack thought”. Dior removed the photograph from the display, saying the brand “takes online sentiment very seriously” and “respects the Chinese people.”
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Source: wwd.com