Modern Romani Designers:
Erika Varga, a Roma woman from Hungary, designed the high fashion brand Romani Design. The brand is devoted to creating unique designs of clothing that are directly based on Romani fashion and are a way for the Roma diaspora to connect to their culture. Furthermore, Romani Design also often holds classes for disadvantaged children. She was named Glamour Women of the Year in 2012.
Sondra Celli is a Roma designer that works in the USA. She is known for her large, blinged dresses and for being on the tv show My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding. She has gained notoriety for her work on the tv show and has been published in many magazines; Vogue, Town & Country, Harper’s Bazaar, New York Magazine, New York Times, Modern Bride, The Boston Globe, The Sun, and The Huffington Post.
Clothing inspired by Romani Fashion
MA RA MI, a brand created by Romina designer Andra Clitan, is inspired by clothing from her native area of Maramures in Transylvania, an area with a large amount of Romani. Furthermore, the clothing also takes inspiration from other countries and regions such as the Philippines, the Middle East, and Nepal.
Giorgio di Sant’Angelo, a Coty Award recipient, based his first clothing lines on traditional Romani and Native American dress. According to the MET, the clothing represented multiculturalism and the hippie ideals of "do-it-yourself", which was very prominent during the time period.
Indian-American designer Viji Reddy created a clothing line which she called Gypsy Soul. She did it because her Banjara origins have many connections to modern-day Romani, such as long, bright skirts, head coverings, and shiny jewelry, and she wanted to showcase that connection. However, after meeting with Stefania Magidson, Romanian-American founder of Roma People's Project (devoted to destigmatizing Roma people and their culture), she changed the name to the less offensive Banjara Soul.
There have been other designers, such as haute couture brand Giorgio Armani, which has created new fashion statements directly correlated with Romani fashion. However, it is not all peachy. For instance, a photoshoot for Look Magazine in 1967 has white Italian models with brownface, covered with dirt, and wearing stereotypical Romani clothing, with a caption that states "Let yourself go Gypsy!" Vogue has had showcased Romani-inspired spreads in their magazines multiple times, with the most recent one occurring in 2005.
The bohemian trend was directly based on Roma fashion and countless other microtrends such as free-flowing dresses, use of coins as ornamentation, rose motifs, and dikhlos are often worn and displayed on fashion without acknowledging the origin of the clothing, and how that clothing is directly tied to the Roma identity.
Like the majority of fashion, all of these Romani brands are connected to women and have women for their targeted market. Maybe it is because of how women have greater choices in fashion as a whole while men are constricted to certain silhouettes. Maybe it is because of how Romani clothing is more tied to female identity and her culture than a man's due to social norms. Whatever the reason, I was unable to find a Roma brand for males.
Dolly the Bird. “'Gypsy Glad Rags for High Fashion Nomads’: 1967, Look Magazine.” Blogspot.com. Last modified July 5th, 2011. Accessed November 1st, 2021. https://dollythebird.blogspot.com/2011/07/gypsy-glad-rags-for-high-fashion-nomads.html.
MaRaMi. “The Story | MaRaMi.” Ma-ra-mi. Accessed November 1st, 2021. https://ma-ra-mi.com/the-story.
New York Times. “Gypsy Style, in the Harsh Light of Day ” The New York Times. Published October 3rd, 2008. Accessed November 1st, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/style/03iht-rgypsy.1.16664803.html.
Sondra Celli Designs. “ Creating Uncommon Crystal Couture” Sondracelli.com. Accessed November 1st, 2021. http://www.sondracelli.com/about-sondra.html.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “ Gypsy Dress | ‘Giorgio Di Sant’Angelo.’ " The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed November 1st, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/105711.
Varga, Erika and Helena Varga. “About Us | Romani Design.” Romani.hu. Accessed November 1st, 2021. https://romani.hu/en/magunkrol/.
Wicker, Alden. “The Fight to Strike ‘Gypsy’ from the Fashion Lexicon.” Vogue. Last modified November 27th, 2020. Accessed November 1st, 2021. https://www.vogue.com/article/roma-activism-fashion.
Rohini, I love how you looked through the lens of fashion, and even made a point to look at the high fashion aspect of Roma fashion. I thought that you perfectly described the fashion of the Roma and its connection to the runway and the modern world. In correspondence with my blog, Roma and Muslim fashion from Turkey has become more normalized, and while Muslim fashion has not necessarily become a trend due to fear of cultural appropriating regarding the hijab, it has been fitted to a modern fashion industry and many Muslim fashion brands are making their name in Muslim dominated countries such as Turkey.
ReplyDeleteRohini, I loved reading all about Romani fashion through your post today! I really enjoyed how you connected the traditional styles of fashion to those of present day. I think it is also interesting how much of the culture of Romani people can be seen through the fashion and the clothes. This relates to my recent post because soccer has been targeted to a predominantly male audience for many decades similarly to the way Romani fashion is mainly targeted towards women. I wonder why this gendered division happens in many aspects of culture and if that will always stay the same, or if it will shift over time.
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