Romanian Culture Minister asks Louis Vuitton to recognize items inspired by a traditional blouse

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s culture minister says she will ask French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton to acknowledge that a traditional Romanian blouse directly inspired items in one of its 2024 collections .

“We will ask Louis Vuitton to recognize the heritage and cultural value of the traditional ribbon blouse model,” Raluca Turcan wrote on Facebook Monday evening, adding that it was an opportunity for international recognition of the “value priceless” of the Romanian tradition.

The blouse in question is known in Romanian as the “IE” (pronounced “E-eh”), which typically features intricate embroidery and tassels and is widely recognized as a symbol of the country’s rich popular culture. In 2022, clothing with a specific embroidery style was added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list.

Louis Vuitton did not immediately respond to questions sent by The Associated Press.

The allegedly inspired clothing was part of Nicolas Ghesquière’s Resort 2024 collection for Louis Vuitton, where many items cost thousands of dollars (euros).

The campaign for Louis Vuitton to “pay homage” to Romanian heritage was launched Sunday by the online community La Blouse Roumaine, which has long urged fashion houses to credit collections that appropriate traditional clothing.

“We must protect our intangible cultural heritage. It’s our cultural right to express our identity through these clothes, through these traditional costumes,” Andreea Diana Tanasescu, the founder of La Blouse Roumaine, told the AP. “They are part of Romanian history.”

This outcry is not the first of its kind in Romania. In 2017, American designer Tory Burch changed the description of one of her designs, a traditional Romanian-style coat, after her brand angered thousands of Romanians for marketing it as clothing inspired by the ‘Africa. Burch said they had “missed a reference to a beautiful Romanian coat that inspired one of the pieces.”