Mexico accuses fashion retailers of owning culture through Art and Culture News

Mexico says Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl have used distinctive models from Mexico’s indigenous communities and called on each brand to “give a public explanation of what basis it can privatize collective ownership”.

Mexico has accused the international fashion brands Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl of embracing culture, saying they used models of Mexican indigenous groups in their designs without giving any benefit to the communities.

The Mexican Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Friday that it had sent letters signed by Mexican Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto to three global companies, asking each of them for a “public explanation” on what basis it could privatize collective ownership. “

The Ministry of Culture said Zara, Inditex, the world’s largest clothing retailer, had a model that distinguished the Mixteca Indigenous Community community in southern San Juan Colorado, Oaxaca.

“The said design was in no way necessarily taken or influenced by the art of the Mexican town of Mixtec,” Inditex said in a statement to Reuters.

The ANBN-owned Anthropologie used a design developed by the indigenous Mixe community of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, and Patowl copied the model of the Zapoteco indigenous community of San Antonino Castillo Velasco, both in the state of Oaxaca, according to the Ministry of Culture.

The URBN and Patowl did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The extent to which fashion designers have benefited by incorporating their cultural designs without acknowledging their origins or having been quite a compensating community in recent years.

In 2019, the Mexican government accused the fashion house Carolina Herrera of adopting the culture of indigenous Mexican models and fabrics in its collection.

Carolina Herrera’s main company, Puig, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In 2019, Herrera’s creative director Wes Gordon said the collection “pays homage to the richness of Mexican culture”.