Conference: Fashion and cultural appropriation

Fri, 31 Oct

Fondation Opale

The term “cultural appropriation” is on everyone’s lips today. It is often used as a final judgment—yet it remains difficult to define. Where does the term come from? Under what conditions did it emerge? In which academic disciplines did it first appear? Between a genealogy of the concept and contemporary examples, this conference by Khémaïs Ben Lakhdar, in discussion with Marie-Amaëlle Touré, journalist at Le Temps, seeks to clarify the development, meanings, and transformations of a term that is particularly present in today’s fashion and luxury industries. Khémaïs Ben Lakhdar holds a PhD in Art History from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Combining methodologies from material culture, visual culture, and decolonial thought, his doctoral dissertation is entitled “Colonial Couture. Orientalism in Parisian fashion at the turn of the 20th century (1860–1930).” His research focuses on the relationship between haute couture and Orientalism, as well as on the connections between the expansion of European colonial empires and Oriental fashion during the Belle Époque and the Roaring Twenties in Paris. He is also the author of the book L’Appropriation Culturelle. Histoire, domination, création : aux origines d’un pillage occidental (Stock Editions, April 2024).   CHF 10.- | Free for Friends of Fondation Opale and with AboboBooking recommended