The luxury brand, Dior, is in hot water and facing backlash from Chinese netizens and Hanfu supporters as they protest against Dior's "cultural appropriation" of the traditional Chinese mǎmiànqún that translates to mean "horse face pleated skirt." The brand has continued to maintain their silence over the controversy and hasn't given Hanfu supporters any answers or explanations.
The disputed skirt design is reminiscent of a style that appeared in China during the Song and Liao dynasties, and became popular during the Ming dynasty. Chinese citizens, mostly students, gathered outside the Avenue des Champs-Élysées Store. They demand the luxury brand to apologize for the design, which the company proudly labeled as a "hallmark Dior silhouette."
More about the ongoing protests of Chinese netizens against Dior over Hanfu
The luxury fashion house's latest silhouette takes inspiration from the Horse Face Skirt or Mamian Skirt, which was popular during the Ming dynasty. To take up the issue, around 100 Chinese netizens took to the streets of Paris to protest against the fashion label's cultural appropriation.
According to the social-media accounts and multiple news channels, the protests have been going on outside the luxury fashion house's store on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées since Saturday, July 23, 2022.
The protesters, mostly Chinese students, themselves were dressed in Hanfu clothing and asked the luxury brand to stop selling the skirt at the retail stores in Paris.
These students were seen holding signs like, "This is a traditional Chinese dress," and "Dior, stop cultural appropriation" in the protest. A protest crasher, who wasn't a part of the group, was seen holding a poster that read, "Dress > Human Rights."
The protest crasher was not accepted by Chinese students and was attacked to leave, according to the images online. The protest, however, did not last long and was shut down by police in around 10 minutes.
According to the Chinese media outlets, Weibo and WeChat, the protest rally was livestreamed online and garnered around 500,000 and more views. The livestream's hashtag, "Chinese students protest Dior cultural appropriation in France" has also received more than 51.1 million clicks on the official Weibo site.
According to many sources, similar protests are expected to be held at London and New York locations. The Chinese netizens were triggered by the $3800 black pleated skirt, which was introduced by the luxury brand in its Fall 2022 collection.
The Fall 2022 collection was shown to the world in December, 2021, and was paraded on the runway in Seoul, in April 2022. During this time, the collection also became available in stores.
According to the show notes by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the artistic director at the luxury fashion house for women's collection, the collection was aimed to pay a tribute to Christian's sister, Catherine, and was inspired by school uniforms.
The student protesters wish to get more support and attention from people who aren't aware of the fashion label's cultural appropriation, due to little knowledge of traditional Chinese garments.
