Fashion has never been short on references. Yet the industry’s relationship to culture feels adrift. What used to be a slow conversation between designers and living traditions now looks like a feed of extractable motifs. The speed of marketing, the logic of algorithms, and the pressure to produce recognizable “brand codes” have turned culture into content and content into currency. The result is confusion about what counts as inspiration, what crosses into appropriation, and how to work responsibly in a global marketplace that is far more vocal and far better informed than it was twenty years ago. The Adidas “Oaxaca Slip-On” controversy is the latest flash point. It also offers a path to clarity if the industry is willing to listen.
