Repurposing Myanmar’s cultural traditions for the glitzy fashion world has rarely worked.
In 2015, there was the outrage over the skimpy sarongs and the furore over the airline magazine with the Shwedagon dress. The year before, a supermodel posed next to people in traditional dress as part of a crude presentation called “Gilt Trip.”
After those missteps, you might think the fashion world would give Myanmar a break. And you’d be wrong.
Enter “Colors of Burma,” the summer line of Swedish designer Gudrun Sjödén. The clothes, which can be yours for about $100 a piece give or take, were “inspired by the craftmanship” of the country (guess they went with Burma for the name because it sounds a little cooler).
In the promotional video, models (sometimes wearing thanaka) are seen chatting in Bagan and traipsing through the colonial streets of Yangon.
The clothing has some interesting names: tiger tunics, rice pants and thanaka garments, to name a few.
“Women and children often adorn their cheeks with a paste made from the bark of the thanaka tree that is used as a sunscreen,” a write-up on the company’s website said. “Based on this inspiration we created the “Thanaka” garments, which are adorned with a pattern that the women often paint on their cheeks.”
This one features the “sooni” cardigan, which costs $118.
Compared to its predecessors, this attempt may be the least tone-deaf, and hey, those rice pants look kind of comfortable (the company did not respond immediately to a request for comment about the line).
But a post on Instagram may indicate how popular the items will be in Myanmar itself.
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