Deputy Arts Editor Maya Campbell and Staff Writer Alyse Rovner attend “Let Yourself Go Gypsy: Rethinking Gypsy Stereotypes in Fashion” hosted by the Roma People’s Project at Columbia University. 

On Monday night, the Roma People’s Project hosted an event about Roma culture and stereotypes in fashion today.  This seminar event is one of a series hosted by the project in an attempt to bring more awareness to Roma culture and the oppression of the people.  The Roma people are the largest ethnic minority in Europe. They originally emigrated from India and are characterized by their nomadic lifestyle that is often a result of the discrimination they faced throughout Europe and Asia and still face today.

The beginning of the event focused on the appropriation, romanticization, and stigmatization of Roma culture by the fashion industry, providing a brief history of the ways in which the fashion industry has and continues to market stereotyped images of Roma culture without recognizing its history and background, and more importantly the negative effect it has on Roma people today.

The event then shifted to a presentation by Viji Reddy, Founder and Design Director of Alamwar Textiles. Alamwar Textiles is a sustainable company focused on providing hand-made textiles and supporting Banjara artisans, the ancestors of the Roma people from India. Reddy herself is not Banjara, but she was commissioned by the government of India to help preserve the culture. Reddy collaborates with the Banjara people throughout her design process, with the goal being to preserve the authentic culture while reinterpreting it to be marketable in the commercial world.

Reddy recognizes the Banjara culture in her designs not only through her use of prints and textiles but also through the use of cowrie shells and tassels. Additionally, Reddy provides background and historical information on the sales-tag of each design so that “people know what the story is and protect it.” The Banjara culture has been stigmatized, similar to that of the Roma culture, and Reddy hopes that by incorporating Banjara designs, people begin to feel proud. Traditional Banjara designs are elaborate, colorful, and utilize textiles; Reddy’s designs make use of simplified versions of these traditional textiles for the commercial market.

However, Reddy came into contact with the Roma People’s Project because of her permanent collection “Gypsy Soul.” The founder of Project, Cristiana Grigore, encouraged her to change the name of her collection, illuminating the ways in which the term has become pejorative. Grigore convinced Reddy to change the name of her collection to “Banjara Soul” and talked with Reddy about how to correctly support the Roma culture in a way that is not exploitative and recognizes the Roma people and their background.

The event was extremely interesting, and it was amazing to learn about the Roma People’s Project and their seminar series at the university. The Roma People’s Project wants to bring Roma studies to the front of Academia through events like this one to help ensure the culture and history of the Roma people are honored, not forgotten.

hand-made textiles via Bwogger