Designers embedded in the fashion empire are no strangers to cultural appropriation.
Countless runway shows have featured elements of other cultures, usually modeled on white women or men. Although some designers are presenting an appreciation for another culture, the idea is lost once these important features are modeled by white people.
The highly exclusive fashion world has been constructed by designers, celebrities, and the media as a next level realm where only the trendiest are granted VIP access.
Designers who exhibit controversial collections are somewhat immune to the repercussions because of this high-class fashion world that has been formulated. Though, consumers are still purchasing their products, even if they represent another culture that has been exploited in the pursuit of high fashion.
Thomas Do, an LSU sophomore studying apparel design and French studies, indicated there is a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation.
“In terms of the fashion itself, when misusing a culture’s dress, the fashion loses its honesty, it’s no longer genuine,” Do said.
Givenchy, a highly influential label, premiered a collection titled “Chola Victorian”, designed by Riccardo Tisci for Fall 2015. The collection featured primarily white models donning s-curl, gelled baby hairs, traditionally an African American and Latina hair trend among women.
Huffington Post stated that “chola” was a derogatory word that was used to describe Mexican immigrants, but was later used to label young Mexican-American women that sported slicked hair and wore dark lip products.
Although Tisci was inspired by these Mexican-American women, his interpretation of that hairstyle, modeled on white women, caused women of African American and Latina ancestry to feel stripped of their cultural individuality.  
As Refinery29 puts it, “The message this sends, even though it is hopefully inadvertent, is that baby hairs can look ‘chic’ on white girls, but are still ‘hood’ on Latina and Black girls.”
By primarily casting white women in his runway show, Tisci dismisses the importance of this hair trend that represents cultural value to the black and Latina communities, and parades white women who are meant to look stylish and trendy with this hairstyle.
Another recent example is Junya Watanabe’s Spring/Summer 2016 Men’s Collection.
The show consisted of all white male models who strolled down the runway, some displaying messy dreadlocks atop their heads and others having lines of cornrows as a hairstyle. This traditionally African American hairstyle provides no enhancement of the clothing collection, it is just another example of designers stealing a culturally significant hairstyle to provide “edginess” and a sense of diverseness within their runway shows.  
The clothing presented in the show promoted African fabrics and silhouettes, but was modeled by white men. The creativity of the designer is lost once the clothing resembles a characteristic of another culture, but is displayed upon white models.
The fashion industry heavily relies on creativity and ingenuity, but once a piece of someone’s culture is misrepresented, the fashion becomes an imitation of something that holds value to a group of people.  
The impact that the fashion world has is immense- influencing ads, clothing styles, videos, and much more. If cultural appropriation is involved in any of these platforms, it emits a disregard for other culture’s and instead puts forth the idea that white people can steal an aspect of another culture and ravish it to make it seem like their own.