Social Trends and the Exploitation of Indigenous Cultural Practices

Social fashion trends are always changing, whether conscious of such change or not. Take graffiti in London – if you walk through some of the areas now filled with iconic names of brands, you’ll see that some of the shops have removed many of their ‘real’ logos (ie, their brand image) to create a more anonymous space, to be more ‘in’. Or how about streetwear? Where once the ‘streetwear’ was about being cool and having a look at the latest trends, it’s now about being hip and making a statement. With the rise of tattooing, there have been emerging trends growing in all directions.

Take graffiti art, for instance. There used to be a time when graffiti was an expression of rebellious youth culture, with tags put up all over London walls, and the artists expressing their anger, frustration and solidarity with the causes that they believe in. Nowadays, graffiti has become much more about fashion trends. New graffiti is created by young people who want to ‘keep up with the Joneses’, or is just a reaction to current fashion trends. Or even for simple reasons, like saying ‘my kid is so cool I wanted to make a statement about it!’

Or perhaps you’d rather your feet not be on a piece of canvas, or perhaps your body not be on a garment. But most clothing nowadays, regardless of fashion model or advertisement, is designed not for individual expression, but for mass-market consumption. It is designed around mass audiences, and this can be both good and bad… because in some ways, it’s good. In fact, if people would take the time to stop and look at some of the indigenous cultural practices that have been hidden from view for years by mainstream fashion models, then maybe they would start to see these practices for themselves, as an attempt to connect with their true cultural roots.