The Global Nomad Chic series stemmed from my assumption that veiled Middle Eastern women are oppressed, extremely religious, and would refrain from any ostentatious behavior. However, after moving to Kuwait, I saw that most showed off their wealth and sense of fashion with luxury branded handbags and designer clothing under their outer garments. Equally surprising was the attention Arabic men gave to grooming and to attractively arranging their traditional headgear and clothing. The resulting series multivalently examined conspicuous consumption, cultural stereotypes, and the forces of globalization. The cloth used was purchased from a Chinese textile dealer at a traditional Kuwaiti market. It is a fake copy of a collaborative design by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami for French fashion house Louis Vuitton. After consulting with a Kuwaiti fashion designer, I then had the series created by Filipino and Bangladeshi craftspeople. While my work critiques globalization, it also delights in the metaphoric potentiality of the new conflations of culture and production.

—William Andersen