Hanfu Supporters Protest Outside Dior Over Disputed Skirt Design – WWD – Pen 18

Shanghai – About 50 Chinese students took to the streets of Paris to protest A Dior skirt that online viewers claim resembles traditional Chinese clothing from the Ming dynasty.

According to social media accounts, the protest took place in front of Dior’s store on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées on Saturday.

Protesters wearing Hanfu clothing demanded an apology from Dior for a design the brand labeled as the “Hallmark Dior Silhouette” and attributed the design inspiration to the Mamian Skirt, or Horse Face Skirt, dating back to the Ming Dynasty. was popular during They also wanted Dior to stop selling skirts at Dior’s Paris retail store.

According to online footage, many of the students at the demonstration were wearing Mamian skirts or various Hanfu robes, a style of dress dating back to the Qing dynasty. The Weibo accounts identified the participants as students.

They placed signs on the scene like “Dior, stop cultural appropriation” and “This is a traditional Chinese dress”. According to online images, a protest crasher was attacked by Chinese students holding a poster bearing “Dress > Human Rights”.

The protest lasted for about 10 minutes before being called off by the police. According to Chinese media outlets, the rally was livestreamed on Weibo and WeChat, garnering over 500,000 views.

The hashtag “Chinese Students Protest Dire Cultural Appropriation in France” has already received over 51.1 million clicks on Weibo.

According to local media, similar protests will be held in New York and London.

The Chinese social media storm started with a $3,800 black pleated skirt from the Dior Women’s Fall 2022 Collection. The collection was shown to the fashion press in December and paraded down the runway in Seoul in April, the same time it became available in stores.

According to the show notes of Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of the women’s collection at Dior, the collection was intended to pay tribute to Catherine, Christian DiorK’s sister, and the uniform, was particularly inspired by the school uniform.

According to Weibo, student leaders of the protests issued a notice saying that the Mamian skirt is in danger of “no longer being ours”.

Dior has yet to comment on the incident.

related:

Dior sparks online criticism for traditional Chinese dressing design

Beauty Before Identity: Less Cultural Appropriation Awareness China

Originally published at Pen 18