Far Northern Attire

[ZephyrMenodora]

Ultimately I think this whole thing could and should have been avoided by not putting an exact copy of Sami cultural dress in the game, especially devoid of context and being sold for real money.

Did anyone specifically want to dress up as a Sami, or did they just see it as a cute winter outfit? If just a cute outfit, why did it need to be that precise copy of a cultural outfit instead of something amalgamated from the style of dress worn in cold climates across multiple cultures? What benefit is there to making it that exact design and colour scheme, where anything else would be just as well received?

Why exactly do they need to avoid this culture or any culture for INSPIRATION for clothing? Many different cultures are represented by items INSPIRED in the game. The dev's don't have to avoid this culture entirely just because they want to extort money out of it afterwards. No culture has the right to demand this.

[Kes13a]

Ultimately I think this whole thing could and should have been avoided by not putting an exact copy of Sami cultural dress in the game, especially devoid of context and being sold for real money.

Did anyone specifically want to dress up as a Sami, or did they just see it as a cute winter outfit? If just a cute outfit, why did it need to be that precise copy of a cultural outfit instead of something amalgamated from the style of dress worn in cold climates across multiple cultures? What benefit is there to making it that exact design and colour scheme, where anything else would be just as well received?

you must be looking at a different google page than I found because I couldnt find that as an exact match to any. but it is possible my search was faulty.

[Iscah]

you must be looking at a different google page than I found because I couldnt find that as an exact match to any. but it is possible my search was faulty.

I haven't done a recent search but I recall people showing comparative pictures at the time and it was very close – particularly the distinct combination of blue cloth and red embroidery.

[Boblawblah]

I'll be honest, I've never understood someone being angry another culture is using part's of their culture in their products, especially if it's in a positive way. I'm trying to imagine Europeans being angry because Dark Souls has armor inspired by European armor, and it's just silly to imagine.

[Iscah]

I'll be honest, I've never understood someone being angry another culture is using part's of their culture in their products, especially if it's in a positive way.

Does "no mention of the culture, just passing off the outfit as an original product to sell" count as a positive way?

I think it would feel different if they had incorporated some kind of far northern tribe into the game and this was their clothing, but when we've seen no sign of them except this costume, it just seems like an odd choice even before you get to debating the ethics of it. (And that goes for other real-world cultural costumes as well, IMO.)

[ZephyrMenodora]

Does "no mention of the culture, just passing off the outfit as an original product to sell" count as a positive way?

I think it would feel different if they had incorporated some kind of far northern tribe into the game and this was their clothing, but when we've seen no sign of them except this costume, it just seems like an odd choice even before you get to debating the ethics of it. (And that goes for other real-world cultural costumes as well, IMO.)

I mean this is a weird take to me. Why would you need to add tribes of people into the story just to have an outfit? They’d probably be even more outraged. “Oh the tribe acts like this or said this or was used too much or too little”. I don’t know why you think this is needed for an outfit lol.

[Iscah]

I mean this is a weird take to me. Why would you need to add tribes of people into the story just to have an outfit? They’d probably be even more outraged. “Oh the tribe acts like this or said this or was used too much or too little”. I don’t know why you think this is needed for an outfit lol.

I'm not sure what the best approach is, but I do think it is not a good approach to put in a real-world culture's clothing with no in-game context, doubly so if there is no specific need to use that exact culture's clothing where something else more unique would work just as well.

[RobynDaBank]

I'm not sure what the best approach is, but I do think it is not a good approach to put in a real-world culture's clothing with no in-game context, doubly so if there is no specific need to use that exact culture's clothing where something else more unique would work just as well.

As an Indian, when I saw the Star Himation casting top I definitely wasn't miffed they didn't add an entire India-themed quest chain over it TBF.

[Nanne]

Some of my friends are Sami and they didn't really care that this outfit was made

[Midareyukki]

Some of my friends are Sami and they didn't really care that this outfit was made

This is what I find odd. The Sami Council is the one issuing this statement, that Square Enix is appropriating their culture and selling an outfit based on the Gákti without consent or research.

But if you go on Twitter (I know, not the best location for these things), most people identifying themselves as Sami or with Sami-descent seem to be fine with this.