Filed under: Jamati Catwalk, Style
Designer Matthew Williamson Takes Ethiopian Inspired Designs Too Far
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Matthew Williamson’s Spring/Summer 2008 collection was met with applause and criticism. Two dresses from the collection were so similar to Ethiopia’s traditional dress that the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs investigated the matter. Abdurazak Omer of the Intellectual Property Office in Addis Ababa said, “We are vey unhappy with the actions of Mr. Williamson. These are the dresses of our mothers and grandmothers. They symbolize our identity, faith and national pride. Nobody has the right to claim these designs as their own.”
Matthew Williamson spoke out and insisted that that the designs were intended to celebrate traditional African costumes. An official release from his office reads, “Historically, Matthew Williamson bases his collections on the idea of a modern girl who is a global traveler. Her style is in part defined by incorporating many different cultures, traditions and customs. The Spring/Summer 2008 season was particularly inspired by the idea of modernizing and celebrating certain traditional African fabrics and custumes.”
Some don’t see the problem here and say that Williamson is not the first designer to be inspired by African dress. McQueen, Cavalli, and Red or Dead are all designers that have had African inspired designs in their collections. Some are adamant that Matthew Williamson’s designs were just his interpretation of the design and he didn’t ’steal’ the design as is being suggested by Ethiopians.
The issue here according to many Ethiopians who have shown outrage on blogs and message boards is that these two dresses are the exact copy! Something that is considered sacred is now all of a sudden westernized without their consent. Matthew Williamson came under fire and the good news is that this opened the discussion worldwide on design and inspiration. The question that still needs an answer is, “How can designers take inspiration and make it their own without offending and imitating?”
Only time will give us the answer.
21 Responses to “Designer Matthew Williamson Takes Ethiopian Inspired Designs Too Far”
marian says:
January 10th, 2008 at 5:42 am
I’ve no problem with a discussion on designers, ethnicty and inspiration but you should be aware that the orginal article published is inaccurate. It stated that Oxfam is investigating Mr Williamson and I can confirm that Oxfam isn’t, wasn’t and wouldn’t investigate this.
http://www.fuk.co.uk/news/matthew_williamson_ethiopian_investigation
Mwabi Murdock says:
January 10th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Thank you for the update Marian.
missbruno says:
January 25th, 2008 at 8:33 am
This is an interesting quandry and it brings up the an age old questions: who owns culture? Culture is transient. Culture is synthesized and disseminated over and over again. Can culture even BE owned or claimed? Well, I think if culture can be co-opted and appropriated then the implication is that it CAN be owned. And Williamson’s work seem like complete carbon copy to me. He is trying to own something that is not his.
Gorgeous Black Women says:
January 27th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I do like to have access to other African clothes that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to in the US, BUT I would prefer that an African distributor make it. I’m sure he’s selling these things for thousands. Unless the money from the sales are going to benefit the women and girls of Ethiopia in some shape or form, he can’t ethically copy them to this extent.
It’s funny to me that the same people who cry about other designers borrowing liberally from their designs end up doing the same.
Jamati Online | Liya Kebede in Cookie Magazine says:
January 30th, 2008 at 8:46 am
[...] The clothing is beautiful and it is good to see authentic traditional clothing unlike the imitators. [...]
ngum says:
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
williamson is simply doing what many designers before him have: pilfer african designs and play the innocent.
malinda says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
beautiful2111
eric says:
May 30th, 2008 at 7:25 am
he has claimed these to be his designs(or inspired by “African”), when clearly they are direct copies, I want to ask what he changed or how he made them “modern”, because I see no change.
Saba says:
October 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
This dress is not his design, this dress is Eritrean or Ethiopian dress and it clearly made in africa. The price is so cheap in Eritrea, you can get it from £10-£50.
hana says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:44 am
he did nothing bad, it is just that our closen is so butiful he can not cange it
Davis says:
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
He is not crazy! Ugh! I do not know one woman who wouldn’t want to wear those clothes!
Sara Yohanes says:
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
hi my name is sara yohanes im a junior in high school. I’ve looked a your designs and i feel that u stole a culture a tradition from anoter country and that is wrong. a TRUE Desinger doesn’t take criedit from someone else work.
mekdes asefa says:
March 26th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
all of us in ethiopia, particularly in Addis, at one time or another have wondered why our traditional dresses are not popular all over the world. now there is someone out there who modernises them and displays them in an elegant way, for me i say designer mattew deserves a clap and a thank you from ethiopians. those dresses in the picture are beautiful, we should be proud, and not complain, for a change.
Mimi Hailu says:
May 11th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I think that’s not real designer. real designers they would use their own creativity and art. design is something from his own idea.This our cultural dress,our tradition our religion.
Our Great grand Mothers wore the cross on the dress to celebrate christianity,and our religious holidays.
Shame on you Mr.william.
Andrea says:
June 7th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Ok so what if a designer was to thoroughly research the history and meaning of this garment and present it some way-say on a tag for every garment that was sold-or some other way….
What do you believe is the correct way of going about celebrating something that is beautiful and culturally rich without being considered plagiarism??
I can understand the concern about Mr. Williamson’s collection being too close to the original garment, but truthfully nothing is new anymore. Industrial design borrows from art, the media borrows from art, design culture…as does everything else. Personally I think it CAN be a beautiful thing as long as it is represented correctly and not misused ONLY for monetary profit.
I truly believe that a true designer draws inspiration from a variety of sources, and interprets them in their own way.
zion says:
June 10th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
this so embrasing he stole our traditional clothes,its ETHIOPIAN he have atleast change the style n tell that its ETHIOPIAN traditional cloth he isn’t a designer .u can find this clothes by fashionable n stilish way in ETHIOPIA
Andrea says:
June 30th, 2009 at 6:58 am
So then, how do you define a designer? And he did say it was Ethiopian inspired-nobody is denying that. The question was when (in your personal opinion) is it ok to borrow from different cultures?
Every single object is inspired by something.
Take for example the Nike swoosh-Nike was actually a winged Greek Goddess of Victory (or something like that)…legend had it that she would swoop down when the soldiers were in trouble and bring them to safety. Hence, the Nike check was created.
minni says:
August 4th, 2009 at 6:24 am
just because two white girls are wearing the dress it does not mean it is modernised!!!! I have worn the very exact similar dreses back in ethiopia. if any of you have grown in ethiopia u kno this is not inspiered bt copied.
Addis says:
August 31st, 2009 at 11:21 am
That is Ethiopian traditional clothes. Like we ask for our monument from Italy we will fight for it and make sure at least he apologize. We have obligation to do that and transfer our tradition to the next generation.Even if we are poor we don’t sell our identity.
Addis
melat says:
December 10th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
this is un cool man! my mother had the exact same dress 20 yrs ago am not even kidding THE EXACT SAME DRESS! SHAME ON U.
Meraf says:
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Yo Man, I get that you think our dress is Beautiful, but you using it as your own design is just bloody Stupid. You should have just said that you got it from Ethiopia.
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