What seemingly appears to be faux feathers on a headband on the shelves of H&M, instead angers a Ojibwa-Mohawk woman, Kim Wheeler. The $15 headdress was in the new line of a summer music festival collection, “H&M Loves Music” and based off the trend of experimenting with wild, exciting accessories.
While others viewed it merely as a statement piece, Kim was baffled to see an item that represented her Native culture be exploited.
Kim Wheeler states, “Headdresses are a sign of respect and leadership,” “You wouldn’t find a colorful hijab or a colorful yarmulke on the shelves as some sort of fashion accessory to wear out to a nightclub or to a music festival.”
As a result, she emailed the company to express her negative views and her complaint was heard by H&M Canada. The following Tuesday, the company promised to pull the “hipster headdresses” from all 61 stores in Canada. A spokesperson for H&M comments:
“Music festivals these days are really about experimenting with fashion and dressing your personality. And they’re very heavily based on accessories, really accessorizing your look… Of course we never want to offend anybody or come off as insensitive. We’re always about being there for our customers.”
I admire the actions of H&M for respecting the 3 complaints that they received over this matter. However, the public needs to understand that while an item seems inoffensive, others view it differently. We should be understanding of the feelings and cultures of others and H&M Canada has done the right thing in listening and acting upon it.
The issue now is, why do the headdresses remain on the shelves at other H&M countries?
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