French fashion designer Isabel Marant has
apologized after the Mexican government criticized her for appropriating and
selling clothes based on traditional indigenous patterns.
Marant heads the latest fashion brand to be condemned by the Mexican
government for copying indigenous designs, with similar complaints levelled
against Spanish retail giants Zara and Mango.
Culture minister Alejandra Frausto Guerrero published an open letter
earlier this month demanding an explanation as to why her Paris-based company
was selling garments based on motifs with documented origins in Mexico.
One includes a cape that appears to copy a pattern used by the Purepecha
community of northwestern Michoacan state, which retails on the fashion
house’s website for 490 euros (580 dollars).
Marant acknowledged to Frausto that Purepecha textiles had influenced her
latest collection and said future designs would properly “pay tribute to our
sources of inspiration”.
“If the Isabel Marant house and the designer have disrespected the
Purepecha community… they implore you, and the country you represent, to
accept their most sincere apologies,” said a letter from Marant, dated
November 6 but made public on Frausto’s Twitter feed late on Monday.
In recent years Mexico has sought to publicly shame multinational brands
that it has accused of ransacking the cultural heritage of poor villagers.
Some of the country’s leaders have also pushed to toughen a copyright law
that already protects traditional patterns to punish “plagiarism that
different indigenous peoples have suffered”.(AFP)
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