Link Culture

Rihanna’s Met Gala Dress = Lesson in Cultural Appropration

Last night the world’s most famous people descended upon NYC for the 2015 Met Gala, which Rihanna took by storm in a show-stopping yellow dress. Though its already made rounds on social media spoofed as a pizza and omelet, her stunning ensemble reveals a very important lesson about cultural appropriation. The theme for this year’s gala honored the new exhibition “China: Through the Looking Glass,” making it a minefield for accidental racism, cultural appropriation and kitschy, costume-like outfits. But by going directly to Beijing-based designer Guo Pei for her dress, Rihanna—and her stylists—demonstrated exactly how to honor a culture. Logically, the popstar said, “I was researching Chinese couture on the internet and I found it.”

COOL HUNTING always gets permission to use the images we publish; however, as an independent publication, we cannot afford to continue fighting unfair claims of copyright infringement, so the images have been removed from this post.

Via mic.com link opens in a new window

Related

More stories like this one.

ninemoonspiercing-holidaypopupevent-
Read Design

BVLA’s Body of Work

Thirty years in, Body Vision Los Angeles has turned utilitarian piercing hardware into fine jewelry—and pulled more than one lapsed devotee back to the studio chair