Fashioning Identities

Fashioning Identities
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Introduction
Said’s defines Orientalism as an assessment of the ways by which Britain and France settled depicted North African Middle East in the 19th and 20th century. He attempts to assess how this concept continues to exist even today as evident in the way the media in these regions continue report on and depict these Arab nations in after independence (Trefflich, 2011: 16). He appears to suggest that, the machinery of these western super powers continue to exist even after independence. When the European powerful nations started entering the Northern African and Middle East lands, they interacted with the natives in these places that were still much less developed. While interacting with their culture and civilization, they found it to be quite bizarre. This is the point where they came up with the science of Orientalism. Then, this was the Oriental’s study, trying to settle in these areas. Looking at Said’s synopsis, it is quite evident that he believes the Western powers divided the world into two segments i.e. east and the west or rather the civilized nations and non-civilized nations. At this point, the west often used the terms them and us to show the distinction existing between them in terms of culture, civilization, and even skin tone.
Generally, Orientalism can be defined in simple terms as an approach of study or perception that appears to misrepresent and corrupt Arab personalities and their culture in comparison to that of the western world. The objective of this paper is to discuss critically how elements of Orientalism continue to exist in fashion branding campaigns and collections.
Edward Said clearly exposes to his readers how this concept of Orientalism was advanced and how the Orientals or rather the Middle East settlers started being viewed as non-human beings that were inferior. The western people clearly attempted to create a clear distinction between their culture and civilization using the terms theirs and ours. Considering the Orientals as uncivilized and unsophisticated, they believed it was their duty to civilize these individuals since they believed they were the advanced and superior race (Varisco, 2007: 31). To achieve this, they decided to colonize these people. They even believed that the Orientals were incapable of governing themselves. For this reason, they believed it was even their duty to represent them in the west (Varisco, 2007: 31). In the process of doing this, they started shaping this people the way they believed they were supposed to be. The process was referred to as orientalization. The west also viewed the Orientals as being indolent and illogical. This meant that, to be successful in their mission they had to become the opposite of these traits.
To see this through, they decided to generalize the culture, including fashion, of the inferior group. This has not changed much even in current times as evident...