French fashion company Sézane apologized for a photo and video shoot involving an elderly lady from an indigenous community that caused a scandal in Mexico, where the current government is particularly sensitive to respect for indigenous peoples.
“I would like to deeply apologize for my mistakes,” wrote Sézane founder Morgane Sézalory. Her message, in English, was shared Tuesday on the Instagram account of the NGO Lienzos extraordinarios, which had already published the video of the controversy two days earlier.
Morgane Sézalory apologizes after a Sézane video showing an indigenous woman
The video shows an elderly seated indigenous woman in a green vest being photographed by several young men speaking in French, some of whom are laughing or not wearing a mask. The woman is then asked by a member of the team to do some dance moves to Mary Hopkins’ hit “Those Were the Days.” The video was shot at an unspecified time in the southwestern state of Oaxaca and the lady belongs to the Zapotec community, according to sources in Mexico.
The Paris-based company was accused in an official statement on letterhead from the Ministry of Culture and the National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination (Conapred) of “manipulating, using and displaying elders from the original peoples as part of their advertising.”
The National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) also condemned “the Sézane brand’s exploitation of the image of indigenous people” and made “an appeal to brands and private companies to end the exploitation of indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities as cultural assets.” In its statement, the official announced an “investigation to act in accordance with the law.”
The current left-wing nationalist government is targeting international fashion brands that the Mexican executive says plagiarize motifs from indigenous handicrafts in their clothing lines.
Mexico City accuses companies of ‘cultural appropriation’
Another French designer, Isabel Marant, had previously apologized in November 2020 after being accused of plagiarizing Purepecha artisans’ patterns for one of her coats. In November last year, the government organized meetings between international fashion brands such as Isabel Marant or the Spaniard Agatha Ruiz de la Prada and artisans from communities across the country.
Mexico has a population of 126 million, of whom 7.3 million (6.1 percent of the population) speak an indigenous language, according to the latest 2021 census by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi). And two percent of the population (2.57 million) profess an identity of “Afro-Mexican” or “of African descent”. (AFP)
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ.