Why Is Asian-Inspired Fashion and Beauty Only "Cool" When White Girls Wear It?

Perhaps you, like me, have noticed a slow and steady comeback of culturally Asian garments becoming fashionably trendy. I blame the 90s throwback, regurgitating its way back into the zeitgeist of cool with little to no reflection at all. When has being Asian ever been cool in a mainstream sense? It's never done anything for my "cool" cred personally. Some parts about being Asian however seem to come in and out of fashion at some invisible whim. Like 20 years ago... and now.

Rewind to the late 90s when Chinese-style fashions started becoming mall-friendly trends. Imagine my naive delight when the Delias and Alloy catalogs (the Cool Girl™ way to shop for clothes before e-comm) started forecasting cheongsam-inspired dresses, chopsticks as hair accessories, and little satin-printed take-out boxes as purses. How novel! How me! Finally, my time had come to shine in the predominantly white suburban town I grew up in. Looking like me and embracing my culture was deemed cool at the time and I was naively stoked.

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But, hold on — here comes a bummer twist from the early lifehood of young Sable.

Cut to a jr. high school dance where I wore a black satin two-piece set that had a mandarin-collared top and matching miniskirt with red piping and embroidered cranes. My mom got it for me. I loved these dresses for their modest but figure-flattering design and the bright colors and patterns they often came in (shiny was also very in then). At the time wearing a cheongsam felt very grown-up to me. But when I got to the dance, the overwhelming reaction to me was "china doll" comments (by chaperones and other kids, mind you) peppered at me in a mildly complimentary but ultimately alienating tone. I remember the bathroom banter about other girls wearing similar dresses talking about how hot they looked, while some of the boys at that dance karate-bow gestured towards me — mortifying to a 12-year-old me who just wanted to be liked by boys, not caricatured.

Anyway, I kind of blocked all that out and dismissed it since then, as one does with upsetting events that you don't feel entitled to be mad at so you're just left to deal being frustrated and confused by yourself. I never wore that outfit again or anything like it.

At the time, I didn't know why I felt so weird about it, because no one was really talking about it at the time. As I grew up and found more Asian friends, I realized that we all have nearly identical stories about growing up in similar small towns. It wasn't just me!

Cut to now, when the 90s have boomeranged back... along with some now-questionable fashion trends. Specifically — the chinoiserie trend of appropriating kimonos, cheongsams, and mass-produced asian "prints" to presumably exoticize one's own humdrum western wardrobe. Fashion always borrows and takes from certain styles and translates or re-designs it for more modern interpretations — but this imitation is rather costume-like...

"LUCKY IN LOVE CHINESE SHIRT."

"For the first time" ONE SIZE FITS ALL.

There are multiple angles here.

"Chinese Whispers."

Along with product copy that just purrs, "fetishize me, baby" to boot:

"Our divine little chinese babydoll embroidered dress is a showstopper.. Super mini, made to be worn over your favourite pants, or paired with your fishnets & boots to add an edge & sex it up, this mini dress is the perfect party dress for girls who like to look sexy with their clothes on.."

"Shanghai Nights."

Zara, of course, is on the pulse of what's trending with this kimono get-up...

Zara

And this upcoming number from Alexa Chung's new fashion line...

Instagram/@alexachungstagram

OK, Alexa Chung actually is part Asian, that fraction of which gives her a Chinese surname but otherwise the privilege of a white-passing appearance. Things get tricky with race and the politics of passing, and there is absolutely no questioning that Alexa Chung is "Asian enough" — in fact, if there was anyone who could single-handedly make a mandarin collar come back with a vengeance it would be her. But the irksome bit then is: Why not use a Chinese model? Rich white girls will still buy it, don't worry (the eponymous line falls under what I'd call Luxury Bish price point).

That is the pattern and the problem with all these looks actually — the image of that undone white model in a mandarin collar cheongsam dress filters this Chinoiserie trend through a French-girl-beauty filter. The next level of effortlessness would naturally be to take it someplace exotic, it would appear.

Mind you, it's not hard to find a Chinese or Asian model. Hell, Kenzo's Spring 2018 collection show intentionally contained an entire Asian cast of models so we know that there are Asian models working.

Look, I'm aware of how bomb these cheongsam dresses are — they're beautiful, and when I wear mine (of which I have a steadily-growing collection in many colors and lengths), I feel gloriously powerful, having grown into owning my own culture and race. They look great on everyone, pretty much. But if you're going to make a dime on appropriating my culture for the sake of serving lewks, please at least use an Asian model.

I can't stop white girls from wearing fashion kimonos flung loosely around them as outerwear, but purporting the image of such is alienating and disrespectful to the people whose culture you are taking from. Fashion and beauty still have a ways to go with inclusivity, but a scenario where a Asian-"inspired" fashion is modeled by an Asian person would arguably be one of the simpler and much appreciated ways to start, I'd think.

Let us make us cool again this time — not another prototypical white-washed French-girl-beauty Cool Girl™ please.

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Not Another French Girl Beauty:

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