Gwen Stefani has been repeatedly accused of “cultural appropriation” because of her love of Japanese street style, but the pop icon isn’t caving in.
Speaking to Paper Magazine, Stefani said there would be much less beauty in the world if people stopped cultural appropriation.
The issue the singer has received the most heat for has been over her Harajuku clothing line and backup dancers.
“I had this idea that I would have a posse of girls — because I never got to hang with girls — and they would be Japanese, Harajuku girls, because those are the girls that I love. Those are my homies,” Stefani told Paper. “That’s where I would be if I had my dream come true, I could go live there and I could go hang out in Harajuku.”
Stefani also insisted that the rules of cultural appropriation are divisive and stop the sharing of beauty.
“If we didn’t buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn’t have so much beauty, you know?” Stefani said. “We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more.”
