Lucy Ewing

My work documents the fashion industry’s uncomfortable appropriation of cultural styles--both contemporary and historical. For example, Marc Jacobs featured white models with dreadlocks on the catwalk in his spring 2017 collection and Gucci showed a misuse of the Turban on non-Sikh models in Autumn/Winter 2018. My work plays with these references and examines the level of each season’s cultural disrespect. Most recently I’ve been photographing a Nigerian model wearing a Bindi, this may appear beautiful at first but it disregards the Bindi’s roots within the history of Hinduism. I live in an area which has a wide range of ethnicities and I am constantly astounded at the lack of respect shown to different cultures and beliefs. I think that practice should be reserved for those who belong to that culture and not to be used in high street marketing.