Venice Surf Lifestyle Brand Under Fire For Cultural Appropiation

7:06 PM - 3 Comments

Venice Beach based "surf lifestyle" hipster brand, Aviator Nation and it's Texas-born founder Paige Mycoskie are being acused of committing cultural appropriation by the Native American owned brand, NSRGNTS. It appears the hipster brand has been taking traditional Native American clothing, as well as tipis, and selling gaudy versions of them.

NSRGNTS has been calling them out on this on social media:

"We have had several relatives from this area reach out to us. We see problematic and harmful actions taking place by owner Paige Mycoskie and her clothing brand Aviator Nation! Her brand consists of the misuse of traditional regalia specifically traditional beaded moccasins. Her brand consists of hipsters wearing traditional “vintage” beaded moccasins. They are being referred to as “hippie slippers”, “boho”, “eccentric”, along with all those other usual cringey terms. Traditional moccasins are very sacred, and not to be used as a fashion accessory on hipsters for exploitation. Every color, pattern, design, and material has significant cultural meaning. It is a problem when people want to take bits and pieces of our culture and use it for their own personal fashion shoot. It’s problematic that they want to take from us but will not stand with us. Where are they when we are fighting pipelines, fighting to protect Mother Earth, fighting to protect our people, bringing awareness to MMIWg2S? Where are they then? Paige Mycoskie we demand you do better and stop with the cultural appropriation that is very apparent within your clothing brand, and your use of tipis at ACL Festival. We see that you are proudly boasting you “build tipis for a living!” Tipis are not yours to appropriate and paint hideous neon colors at festivals!!! Tipis have very powerful and significant meanings. All of this is not yours to take, or to be played with. We have entered new times, and we hope for your sake that you take the time to educate yourself and stop this behavior."

Aviator Nation responded to this by deleting people's comments on their postings and disabling all future comments on their Instagram account.

So now NSRGNTS going to hold a protest on Sunday in front of the Aviator Nation store on Abbot Kinney, here's the latest statement from them:

"Because Paige Mycoskie and her company Aviator Nation have decided to knowingly move forward with committing cultural appropriation after being told not to by the Indigenous community, Southern California relatives and allies have decided to move forward with action! Our culture is not yours for the taking! We demand you stop your profiting off of Indigenous culture, your misuse of tipis, your exploitation of serapes, and your misuse of Native regalia specifically moccasins. Our culture is not a costume, and appropriation is not appreciation."

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