Backlash after Dubai designer Michael Cinco labels his Kurdish-inspired designs as Persian

Dubai-based fashion designer Michael Cinco has publicly apologised after he mistakenly claimed that part of his latest collection was inspired by Persian garments instead of Kurdish.

Michael Cinco originally shared his design, captioned Prince of Persia, with his 1.1 million Instagram followers, but was quickly called out by the Kurdish community.

Hundreds of people commented on the picture to praise the outfit, but point out it was actually inspired by typically Kurdish pieces - the kawa, a traditional coat, and the sharwal, a style of pants.

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A post shared by MICHAEL CINCO Dubai (@michael5inco)

At first, Cinco, who is Filipino, responded to critics by insisting he had done his research, and implied the clothes were Persian because they were inspired by Iranian designs.

But this led to further backlash, and a message from Dutch-Kurdish filmmaker Beri Shalmashi pressuring him to correct his mistake (but calling him Italian, which he is not).

Stop stealing our culture. This Italian designer takes a Kurdish coat, Kurdish pants and Kurdish shoes and sells it as ‘Persian’ because to him Iranian and Persian is the same. Wrong, @michael5inco. Wrong for many reasons. pic.twitter.com/zH4u3t31jT
— Beri Shalmashi (@BeriShalmashi) December 1, 2018

Her tweet sparked a further onslaught of comments, which eventually led to the designer apologising and acknowledging his error. In a message to Shalmashi, which she later shared on Twitter, Cinco said: “I apologise if I have offended you and thank you for your concern. I really appreciate that, thank you.”

Happy to wake up to a humble message from @michael5inco apologizing and seeing he reposted his Kurdish inspired designer pants. This was the effort of thousands of Kurds around the world last night. He just gained millions of fans who are proud to see their style go into fashion. pic.twitter.com/1y2tY1Ylbr
— Beri Shalmashi (@BeriShalmashi) December 2, 2018

He later updated his Instagram caption to say the model was wearing “Kurdish-inspired pinstripe pants”, and received dozens of comments to thank him for acknowledging Kurdish culture.

Cinco was showcasing designs from his latest collection for Arab Fashion Week, which took place in Dubai last week.

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Backlash after Dubai designer Michael Cinco labels his Kurdish-inspired designs as Persian

The designer, who created the collection for Arab Fashion Week, has since apologised to the Kurdish community