Pieces from Norma Espinoza’s recent collection and petate fabric, showcasing her indigenous heritage. Photo courtesy of Norma Espinoza.
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Her ancestors were weavers and seamstresses, but Norma Espinoza has found herself to be the only indigenous and Latin representing fashion student in her program. Her family’s “dying art” has created a passion for her: representing her culture. “The fashion industry, as much as it tries to market itself, is not very inclusive or as diverse as it seems,” Espinoza says.
But while using natural materials like weaved petate, or palm leaves, this Columbia College Chicago senior fashion designer has had garments and designs appropriated from her. “Symbols that are sacred, colors that mean things, have been stripped away from us,” Espinoza says.
Indigenous fashion is constantly being appropriated by big brands like Shein because there are little to no copyright laws for these designs. This is creating a loss of culture, meaning and revenue for these communities. “Homogenization brings loss. It brings loss of culture, it brings loss of music, it brings loss of richness of all these different communities,” says Melissa Gamble, fashion professor at Columbia College Chicago.
Gamble says that there are a lot of indigenous communities that are vulnerable to having designs taken, as there is no proper copyright and intellectual property protection in the United States. These communities only make up 6% of global population, but account for 19% of the world’s extreme poor according to Gamble.
Brands taking these designs is on a fine line for cultural appropriation. It’s about “taking traditional knowledge or traditional cultural expressions from a historically marginalized or oppressed culture by a dominant culture, and particularly for profit,” says Gamble. In a database where brands can check for tribal insignia to not use, some tribes have trademarked themselves. However, Gamble says most have not, adding that traditional Native American weaving is not protected by law. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Garment from CIPRIANAMÍA, featuring textiles by Carrillo’s grandmother. Photo courtesy of Nelissa Carrillo.
Using textiles made by her grandmother in the 60s and 70s, Nelissa Carrillo has created a brand focused on her ancestral Mexican heritage. CIPRIANAMÍA, which includes her grandmother’s name Cipriana, focuses on taking these large, crocheted pieces and stylizing them into garments.Carrillo says that “we had a lot of repairing to do, which was a labor of love but so much fun.”
Carrillo finds copyrighting indigenous designs to be tricky, as everything is shared online. It’s difficult to know who has your intellectual property, but “in order to stay true to keeping artisanal practices in place, we just have to use the best materials and best techniques so that it’s not reproduced,” says Carrillo.
Creating regulations for copyrighting indigenous designs would, as Espinoza says, “aim to prevent appropriation, ensuring that when these cultural elements are used, it’s done with respect, permission and fair acknowledgement.”