"MY CULTURE IS NOT YOUR PROM DRESS" KEZIAH DAUM AND THE QIPAO SAGA

I've written on cultural appropriation before, (You can read my thoughts on it here), so it should come as no surprise that Keziah Daum, the target of the #mycultureisnotyourgoddamnpromdress hashtag, has my full support. We recently sent her one of our full skirted cheongsam style dresses, and she was sweet enough to do a photoshoot for us! Here are some of the pictures:

Keziah Daum in our "Wanderer" cheongsam style dress, named after the song by Dion

Kudos to the photographer on another beautiful shot of Keziah during the golden hour 

More Keziah in her yellow striped modern qipao

I gotta say, the outrage over her wearing a formal dress to a formal event was ridiculous. The qipao isn't religiousm garb, it was traditionally made of cotton, or other simple fabrics, and worn loose as everyday wear. The formal version Keziah wore to her prom was the westernized version that was very popuar in the 30's... keyword: westernized. If you'd like to read more on the history of this dress, this blog has a very thorough rundown on the historic evoloution of the cheongsam.

I do have a lot more to say on this topic, but will leave that for a future post. Until then, thanks for reading, and here's another photo. Enjoy!

Keziah in the green wheat fields of Utah

Happy Yellow Dress Featured on the Flashback Summer Blog!

"Vintage lifestyle with an intercultural twist!"

One of our fave people, Emileigh Rogers of the Flashback Summer blog, has done a feature on our Wanderer dress! You can find her full post here!

Here she is! Emileigh Rogers from Flashback Summer looking gorgeous in our Wanderer dress.

Here she is in our Wander dress, named after the famous rock and roll song by Dion. You can listen to the song on our (very small and very new and very amateur) Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDruZyXqlD4

For more great shots of Emileigh in our Wanderer dress, go check out her blog! Make sure to leave her a comment and tell her Debbie sent you!! 

Controversial Blog Post

Hello friends, I wanted to talk about something a wee bit controversial... I've seen a lot on social media and the blogosphere in general lately, about cultural appropriation. As some of you know, my brand is named after the happiest little yellow dress that I ever designed! You can see it down here: vvv

The Wanderer cheongsam style dress in yellow, by Happy yellow Dress

I designed this dress waaaaaayyyy back in 2004. It is inspired by what I consider to be the prettiest most feminine thing in fashion, the cheongsam. I had never seen one with a full skirt before, so I created my own version out of my faaaavourite yellow striped cotton.

My Love of the Cheongsam

Growing up in a tiny town, my only escape from the humdrum existence of small town living, was through books and classic movies, such as The South Pacific and Flower Drum Song. Although I was too young at the time to understand what these movies were all about, I was fascinated by the beauty of the fashions, which I had never been exposed to before.

The Wanderer  cheongsam style dress with full skirt, by Happy Yellow Dress

The Wanderer  cheongsam style dress with full skirt in teal stripe, by Happy Yellow Dress

I fully understand how wrong it is to mock an entire group of people by diminishing their culture to a costume, but fashion is not a costume. Fashion, (and I'm talking real fashion, not fast fashion), is something that hours of time, energy, money, sweat (and sometimes even blood and tears) are poured into the creation of, so the end product can be worn with great pride.

The Wanderer cheongsam style dress with full skirt in poppy, by Happy Yellow Dress

The Wanderer cheongsam style dress with full skirt in poppy, by Happy Yellow Dress

Of course I am always open to respectful discussion on these topics, but I have seen some very positive independent companies, as well as their customers being verbally attacked to the point of physical threats by people who disagree with their mixing of cultural elements into their collections.

Since those small town days of escapism, I have gotten the chance to travel the world, and have discovered first hand, that in reality, this is all fashion is and has ever been. A gigantic mix of cultural elements from here, and cultural elements from there. From the days of the silk road, to the present Rockabilly comeback in Japan. A collar is a collar, be it the cheongsam, Peter Pan, button down, edwardian high neck etc.  and fabric is fabric, be it tartan, batik, lace, silk, denim etc. Everything has come from one culture or another, and will be recycled, shared and re-used for centuries to come.

I have seen many of these companies who've been under attack, publicly respond with a canned apology, and promise to do better... but in the cases I have seen, there really is nothing to apologize for. To dictate who can wear what based on skin colour, is completely ridiculous and wrong.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Any abusive comments will not be removed to prove a point ;)  Thanks for reading!