Mexico accuses mega fashion retailers of cultural appropriation

Mexico says Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl have all used patterns distinctive to Mexico’s Indigenous communities and has requested each brand provide a ‘public explanation on what basis it could privatize collective property’.

Mexico has accused international fashion brands Zara, Anthropologie, and Patowl of cultural appropriation, saying they used patterns from Indigenous Mexican groups in their designs without any benefit to the communities. Mexico’s Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Friday that it had sent letters signed by Mexico’s Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto to all three global companies, asking each for a “public explanation on what basis it could privatize collective property”. The Ministry of Culture said Zara, owned by Inditex, the world’s largest clothing retailer, used a pattern distinctive to the Indigenous Mixteca community of San Juan Colorado in the southern state of Oaxaca.