CIVILIAN

Alanui is an Italian luxury brand by siblings Nicolò and Carlotta Oddi. The Alanui brand, as described on the official website, “was conceived as a luxurious and emotion-charged garment that could be the perfect travel companion”. The garment, a unisex knitted cardigan, was released in 2017 in several patterns as the sole feature of Alanui’s first collection. Alanui has since entered the markets of a wide variety of garments and accessories, but the original cardigan remains central to the brand's identity and is a staple of their seasonal releases. In recent collections, new designs of the original cardigan are collectively named the icon series. This title attributes the garment as a symbol of the Alanui brand.

Alanui’s “iconic” cardigan design has a buttonless, oversized fit, wide sleeves and a long, folded collar which, in combination with the visual continuity of the patterns, “blankets” the wearer. It is often worn hanging open off the shoulders to the mid-thigh. Otherwise a tie-up belt is sometimes included in the design, and the cardigan can be worn wrapped around the body. They are tight Italian wool jacquard knits often lined with short, dense fringe. Alanui produces the cardigans in a wide variety of vibrant, complex designs in high contrast palettes of 4-7 yarns. Many of these designs feature Western/European popular culture iconography and fashion aesthetics, but since their conception the cardigan designs have predominantly referenced the aesthetics of Southwestern United States through their form (i.e. blanket-like fit, fringe, wool-knit); sometimes Southwestern iconography such as desert scenes, teepees, bison, horses, feather headdresses and cowboys; and also through liberal use of geometrical patterns that are distinctive to the Navajo tribe of the American Southwest. These patterns are arrangements of horizontal lines, “zig-zags” or jagged lines, triangles, diamonds, crosses, and other shapes that resemble distinctive Navajo geometry within a tight, wool knit, another characteristic of traditional Navajo weaving.

The Navajo tribe, who call themselves “Diné”, are recognized internationally for their beautiful and high-quality textiles known as Navajo blankets or rugs. Navajo blankets are marked by colourful and perfectly uniform geometrical designs created by intricate weaving patterns. These patterns commonly include geometrical motifs informed by Navajo culture and spirituality. Diamonds are frequently used to represent the “Dinétah” or Navajo homeland contained by four corners of four sacred mountains. Triangles and triangle forms are fundamental to Navajo design. Commonly, jagged lines and balanced crosses represent the Navajo creation myth, which also tells the story of how the Diné learned to weave.

Weaving is very significant to Navajo culture and spirituality. Navajo myth teaches that a god-figure named Spider Woman gave the skill of weaving to the first Diné after she wove the web of the universe. Dinés consider the craft sacred, for it is the gift from spider woman that has sustained their people and their culture. An interview with an elder Diné weaver illustrates how the craft is bound in spirituality.

In the interview the Diné woman reveals, “All of it begins at creation with Spider Woman. The rug is sacred...our hearts are in it”. To emphasize the sacred connection to the artist, her daughter added, “you weave your rug in your mind...even to feel the touch of the rug is sacred... the thoughts and ideas of the original weaver are in the rug...it must not be [repaired], nor should one copy another's pattern”.

HISTORY

Diné have been weaving from the wool of their flocks for centuries. Anthropologists speculate the Navajo weaving tradition developed after Athabascans settled in the American Southwest around 1400 AD. By the mid-1600s weaving blankets emerged as a distinctive Navajo activity and in the 1700s the Diné were actively trading their work with neighbouring tribes, which later evolved into trade with European settlers. The Diné have a long history of not only weaving, but also wearing their creations. Pictured below is a Diné family wearing Navajo blankets. By the mid-1800s Diné women were weaving extremely fine blankets for wearing known as “Chief Blankets”.

Navajo tribes do not have Chiefs, but the blankets were named for their value and their popularity among wealthy settlers and Chiefs of neighbouring tribes who wore them draped over their back. The Diné also wore their textiles this way, or wrapped into dresses, as cloaks, hair ties or breechcloths. Otherwise, thick utility blankets were woven to be used as doors and saddle blankets. It wasn’t until their work became popular with white settlers and tourists that the blankets began to be used as rugs.

Navajo culture is preserved through oral tradition. Under this guidance, weavers remarkably do not plan, outline or document their patterns or techniques. Not only does this reinforce their distinction, but the evolution of blanket designs trace Navajo history of adaptation and resilience against colonization.

Before settlers reached the Navajo homelands, the Diné used exclusively Churro wool from their own sheep and their colour palettes were limited to the natural colours of the wool and dyes made from local vegetation which usually produced an indigo shade. The Diné favored the colour red, but there were limited resources for red dye. In 1821 the Santa Fe Trail connected the Navajo to Mexico where they traded their wool and blankets for red Spanish bayeta cloth, which they would unravel for their own use, and red became more common in Navajo designs. Until the mid-1800s Navajo blankets featured primarily horizontally striped designs (Figure 1).

The inevitable American effort to colonize the Diné was met with great resistance. Americans eventually resorted to a violent campaign that destroyed their villages, crops, livestock and killed many of their people until the Diné were forced to surrender. The surviving Diné were then required to walk more than 700 kilometres to an internment camp in New Mexico they named “Hwéedi” or “place of suffering”. Many did not survive the treacherous journey or the conditions at Hweedi. Four years later, in 1867, the Diné were relocated to an American reservation on their homeland. This event triggered a transformation of Navajo blanket design. Their time in New Mexico inspired new patterns that expanded on their banded designs to include more intricate geometry (Figure 2). However, their flocks of Churro sheep had been erased. From this point on, the Diné raised Rambouillet sheep and wove with merino wool.

ABOVE: FIGURE 1, BELOW: FIGURE 2

European Influence (1867 – mid 20th century)

Merino is much worse quality than Churro wool and Diné artists began to experiment with commercially dyed yarns newly available to them through American trading posts on the reserves and expanding railway systems. With increased access to new markets Navajo blankets adopted a wide variety of colours and saw soaring popularity. Government reports from 1913 confirm that Navajo textiles were “the most profitable of the Native industries” (Sells, 1913). Diné artists therefore began to adapt their patterns to suit European tastes for a variety of vivid colours and detailed patterns. Subsequently, blanket designs that emerged from the years post-1880 are collectively named “eye-dazzlers” (Figure 3).

FIGURE 3

Contemporary Diné Weaving (mid 20th century – present)

Kathy M’Closkey, who does research in appropriation with a geographical emphasis on the American Southwest, argues that with Navajo patterns’ popularity in Western markets Western insistence on dividing culture from the commodity threatens Diné weavers (2004). While the market for historic (pre-1950) Navajo blankets is sustained by their exclusivity and investment value, the market for textiles by contemporary Diné artists is sparse and saturated with appropriated designs. Traditional Navajo textiles have been estimated to require up to 345 hours, or two weeks, of active work. Modern technology can replicate their technique much more quickly and sell similar products at a much lower cost. With buyer’s preference for economic value and interference by non-Navajo producers, since the mid-20th century demand for Navajo blankets has steeply declined. Modern Diné weavers are heirs to a complex history of colonization and the accompanying violence, relocations, and social marginalization that is represented in their art. Yet, M’Closkey reported that at the beginning of the 21st century more than 25,000 Navajo artists struggled to find buyers (M’Closkey, 2004).

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

An Anishinaabe First-Nations traditional storyteller, Lenore Keeshig Tobias, has provided a widely cited definition of cultural appropriation as acts of taking intellectual property in the form of cultural expressions, including artifacts and history, and ways of knowledge from a culture that is not one’s own. A key distinction of cultural appropriation is that it concerns intellectual property of cultural groups. Appropriation replicates the cultural expression in a way that separates it from its creative origin, therefore erasing its history and cultural significance. Appropriated designs saturate Western markets and contribute to ongoing colonization and marginalization of Navajo culture. As a result, traditional Navajo artists that own the creative rights to the design (though, fatally, not legally) suffer to sustain their tradition and preserve its significance.

Research into the creative process of Alanui’s “original” cardigan reveals that it is undoubtedly inspired by Navajo patterns. Their resemblance to Navajo design, as can be seen in the fashion for the December-January 2017 issue of Glamour France titled “L’aura Najavo” or “Navajo vibes”, did not go unnoticed. As further evidence that the design takes Navajo inspiration, Nicoló Oddi cites a trip to the Southwestern United States as the catalyst for the Alanui brand and their first collection of cardigans in an interview with Coveteur. In contradiction, Alanui’s official website credits Alanui’s founders, Nicolò and Carlotta Oddi, for “[conceiving] the cardigan as a canvas of artistic expression and a celebration of superior craft” and offers no reference to Navajo culture in exchange for borrowing their patterns and likeness, and with this statement a resemblance of the Navajo Blanket’s history. As they expand on the design with every collection Alanui continues to maintain that the cardigan is signature to their brand, effectively claiming Diné intellectual property and erasing the design’s rich history and cultural significance.

Alanui never officially cited the American Southwest as inspiration until the release of their latest collection, about four years after they began producing appropriated Navajo designs. Alanui for SS21 invites buyers to travel “with the mind” to Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, the only US states that overlap Navajo territory, but Alanui continues to exclude credit to the Navajo people for their patterns. Instead, Alanui builds a narrative that actively removes Navajo culture. The SS21 promotional material continues to describe the sacred Dinétah land as unexplored”, “apparently bleak” and “vast and silent” which dramatically reduces the Navajo’s connection to their homeland and their history of resilience and suffering as it was colonized. Additionally, the promotional images use nearly exclusively white models, and certainly no overtly Navajo or Native American models, or even cultural associations. Alanui instead chooses to adopt Hawaiian cultural affiliation, the name “Alanui” is a Hawaiian Oleo word meaning “large path” and Hawaiian fragrance is sprayed on every cardigan. This way, the design is removed from the Diné and misattributed to Hawaiian culture, or the Italian origins of the brand.

Beyond actively distancing the design from Navajo culture, Alanui shows no evidence of economic or creative engagement with Diné artists which could aid the preservation of the Navajo culture and the significance of their patterns. Alanui boasts that their cardigans are made in Italy with Italian wool, therefore not by a Diné or with Diné wool, and it seems Alanui is not minimally compensating for their appropriation’s impact on the Navajo economy. Nor does Alanui engage with the significance of Navajo weaving tradition. For Diné artists patterns are deeply personal to the artist, yet Alanui is mass producing these designs and does not attempt to personify the pattern or even the weaver. Alanui makes ample use of motifs that represent Navajo culture and spirituality in their cardigan designs.

The Seattle Sound Cardigan’s, cross, square, and “zig-zag” motifs originated to represent Navajo creation myth, but no cultural significance is identified in the garment descriptions. This lack of cultural engagement from Alanui leads to speculations that Alanui did not seek creative engagement with Diné artists, or quite possibly even consent to use their patterns. Consequently, Alanui contributes to the ongoing colonization and marginalization of Navajo culture through their failure to contribute to the Navajo economy or recognize cultural significance.

With recent designs however, Alanui juxtaposes such symbols of Navajo culture against symbols of white culture. In this context, these Western symbols outwardly represent the continued colonization of Indigenous people by white society.

The Candy Cane Cardigan for the 2020 Christmas Capsule, for example, incorporates Christmas motifs. As a Christian holiday, these symbols can easily be associated with residential schools and forced assimilation of Indigenous communities into Christian culture. Another especially cruel example from the SS21 collection is The Doctor is In Cardigan which features a Navajo “zig-zag” pattern behind a large image of a Charlie Brown character, an icon of American entertainment, advertising psychiatric help for 5 cents. This imagery is particularly insensitive to the trauma experienced by North American Indigenous groups as a result of their marginalization, especially as oppression of Indigenous culture has brought significantly higher rates of mental health problems and suicide in Indigenous communities. These juxtapositions of White and Navajo culture within the design confront Navajo culture with the trauma of colonization and is Alanui’s most aggressive act that separates the Diné from their own cultural expression.

Alanui’s increasing erasure and commodification of the designs dense history and tradition is a representation of fashion’s, especially white fashion’s, tendency to marginalize. Alanui union with the design is insignificant and shadowed by its sacred and deeply personal relationship to the Diné. Yet while Diné suffer to sustain their tradition and culture, Alanui’s appropriation becomes “iconic” by Western standards.

EDITOR'S NOTE: "Materializing Cultural Appropriation: Traditional Navajo Weaving" was originally submitted to Ryerson University for the author's final thesis. CIVILIAN Magazine did not reach out to Alanui for comment before publishing.