MILAN, Dec 20, 2004/ FW/ --- Fashion is all about recreating from others. Nothing is new under sun, but when does it become just wrong when designers steal an entire culture or race and almost exploit them through fashion?

Each spring/summer collection of a designer is mostly about vacationing and traveling. Many of the most beautiful vacation spots are in countries that are deprived from fashion representation. So designers take it upon themselves to take bits and pieces of a people’s culture or tradition and make it fitting to the Westernized world of fashion.

Not to say that these garments or accessories are not well produced or at least attempted to be authentically recreated, but they always seem to be an interpretation through Western thoughts.

The concepts of East meets West, Ethnic and Urban Chic and period-inspired glamour never seem to directly affect the people who originally started the trend.

John Galliano designing for his eponymous label and nomadic Yemeni tribes were “romantic and poetic” seafarers is one of the main designers who can take an ethnic concept and often times do it right.

For Fall / Winter 2004, which is currently in stores, John Galliano was inspired by nomadic Yemeni tribes when they were “romantic and poetic” seafarers by mixing and matching ethnic prints and solid colors plus a bevy of accessories also inspired by the Yemeni tribal symbols.

His Rasta collection for Christian Dior Spring / Summer 2004 pushed the ethnic theme to the limit with the use of a country’s national colors and encrusted it in hats, handbags, bathing suits and Dior signature logos.

Youths from Brooklyn to Brixton have been wearing these same styles and color combinations for years on wrist and headbands and since Galliano has decided to make it mainstream, it has been such a cute thing. Galliano also produced a collection inspired by Lauryn Hill at the height of her career that is based on denim.

For Spring / Summer 2005, John Galliano’s eponymous label was inspired by two disparate pop figures, Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, one of the most iconic society figures of 20th century America and UK’s current IT girl, actress Sienna Miller.

The 1930s meets the 2000s, as John Galliano created playful and inventive clothes and accessories as each period piece played counterpoint to each other. Though the inspirations had been seen before, the new treatment make it fresh, specially taking into consideration that most of Barbara Hutton’s peers are already in retirement homes or had passed away like the Woolworth heiress herself.

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel is another designer who is very in touch with the influence that urban street styles have. Lagerfeld is a man that can design over a million collections a year and have every one of them looking totally different. We must admire the man for that alone.

During his tenure, he has given Chanel a real new twist. It is amazing how Karl Lagerfeld can turn urban street styles into high fashion targeted for the affluent sector of our society.

Chanel has always been about accessories with their large signature logo earrings along with the gaudy pearls and chain link belts. A couple of seasons ago when Lagerfeld designed the tape player purse, it was a really cute twist on how in the 80s people actually carried their larger real tape players around the community playing the latest Run DMC jam…

Street style has become a common factor that has dominated the ready to wear runways. It is good to know that designers are paying attention to the emergence of hip hop and the power of the ethnic euro and dollar.

Many designers’ accessories often are directly rooted from the East or North African countries where rare jewels and beads can be found.

From Jimmy Choo Moroccan inspired collection to Fendi’s West African inspired accessories, one can see how a flare of culture can accentuate a collection.

There are many designers such as Elie Saab, Amaya Arzuaga, and Bisrat Neggasi who really stick to their roots and do their individual cultures justice when designing…

Even Vivienne Westwood somehow always remains to put that spice of quirky London punk and great construction in her collections.

It is ultimately left up to the consumer on how they choose to look at trends throughout the world of fashion. It is wonderful that fashion is global and can move so quickly from one day to the next or from sea to shining sea in a matter of minutes. Just be aware and conscious of what you are wearing and where its roots lie.

John Galliano Spring 2005

John Galliano Fall 2004

Chanel Fall 2004

Vivienne Westwood Spring 2005

Fendi Spring 2005

Elie Saab Haute Couture Fall 2004