Designers Fighting Against Asian-American Racism
In 2021, reported hate crimes against Asian-Americans have risen 1,900% in the past year in comparison to 2020. The March 16th Atlanta shooting of eight people—including six Asian women—is an example of the horrific violence that the Asian-American community has been subject to in recent months.
In the wake of these attacks, Asian-American designers and fashion leaders have become a powerful force organizing events to denounce racism against the Asian community. We’ll take a look at three designers on the forefront of the resistance:
Phillip Lim
(pictured above: Phillip Lim’s Resort 2021 Collection)
Phillip Lim is best known for his eponymous line of luxurious yet playful womenswear. Since February 2020, Lim has been raising awareness of asian discrimination. He co-founded The Asian American and Pacific Islander Community Fund, which has raised almost $5 million to fund community centers and projects aimed at uplifting the AAPI community.
Prabal Gurung
(pictured above: Prabal Gurung’s Spring 2019 Collection Inspired by Nepal)
This Nepali-American designer rose to prominence with his sustainable line of glamorous womenswear. Gurung described the criticism he received when he first launched his collection inspired by Nepal by saying, “a white, female director of a retail platform came to my showroom and screamed: ‘If we want to see something like that, we can watch the History Channel. We don’t need anything cool from you, we just want something pretty.’” He advocates for more Asian representation in fashion at every level of the industry.
Anna Sui
(pictured above: Anna Sui’s Spring 2021 Ready-to-Wear Collection)
“We need to increase awareness of this problem, learn tolerance, and practice acceptance of one another. ”
Being a holder of the Geoffery Beene Lifetime Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Anna Sui is one of the most accomplished fashion designers in American history. In a quote for Vogue Magazine, she explains her feelings about the issue: “What’s happening is not only tragic and horrible, but it brings back all the painful memories of the fear of the ‘yellow peril;’ the US’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the Japanese internment camps (where Japanese people in the US were forced into prison camps during the Second World War)... We need to increase awareness of this problem, learn tolerance, and practice acceptance of one another.”