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BL Lecture 11 – Representation, Diversity / Teleica Kirkland
At the beginning of this unit I thought I will reflect on more than one of the lectures and my body of work would be a mixture of what I have understood about them. Later on, however, I found out that maybe my reflection will be much more thorough if I addressed only one of the themes of the lectures. For this very reason I chose to work over Lecture 11 – Representation and Diversity.
As I myself come from a not so big and not so commonly spoken of country (or at least not in a good way), the representation and diversity theme was really interesting for me. I am from Bulgaria and I have seen many fashion shows or photo shoots inspired by my homeland (For example : John Galliano Fall 2010). However, not often do I see any kind of “shout out”. Nobody really knows what is happening over there on the border between Europe and Asia. I am not bitter or angry about it, my sole interest is that people start learning about us and do not only assume. I have heard many times “Aren’t Bulgarians racists?”, “Weren’t you Russian?” and so on. Obviously nowadays people do not ask you “How is it there?”, “Who are you?” etc., but straightforward assume what the answer would be. Experiencing this on an everyday basis, when Teleica Kirkland said “Not talking doesn’t solve anything.” I thought “Yes, it doesn’t and I shouldn’t assume vice versa, that every Westerner thinks Eastern Europeans steal their job, or are racist or can only work as cleaning ladies or plumbers, I should just ask.”
Before this lecture I myself did not really know what cultural appropriation or appreciation meant, I have read and heard of it, even discussed it, but listening to this lecture and understanding it, I found out that it is easy to label different people. For example, black people can be involved only in sports or music, Spanish and Italian can work only in hospitality, Chinese are fit to work only in the fields of science, Eastern Europeans can only work as cleaning ladies or janitors. But this is a fallacy. All people are born with the same capabilities, we all dream, aspire and we all can learn.
It is common knowledge that we learn the fastest through seeing, observing our environment. Our eyes are the primary source of information, words come thereafter. Consequently, when we meet new people we observe their appearance first and then we speak. The first impression of someone is their clothes, the second is their words. It is said that one cannot judge a book by its covers, but we can learn a lot about peoples heritage, culture by only looking at what they wear, which is absolutely spectacular. Fashion is what connects us all, modern one as a matter of fact. In my opinion, it is the main tool, with which we can create bridges between different cultures, as long as we truly appreciate and not judge each other, or do not understand culture and fashion as pure profit.
“Design, fashion is all conversation.” says Telicia Kirkland and she is right. I feel tremendously grateful and happy, that fashion designers and brands find inspiration in Bulgaria, in our many-sided culture. However, I want people to interpret my culture with a deep understanding and not only, because it looks “exotic” or “other-worldly”, just as I will always strive to do with theirs as well. Therefore, what this lecture taught me is that fashion, culture, people, we should talk to them in order to fully understand them, and there is nothing wrong about asking or talking.