Objects and images that create representations of 'ethno-cultural' groups through cliches, labels and text reflect the political context that lends meaning to both the production and consumption of these cultural artefacts. What is explored is the relationship between core institutions, the production of material culture and the interpretations of these products in response to the larger context. Ethnicity, culture and diversity are commodified through fashion products and presentations that essentialize ethno-cultural groups, through depictions created from stereotypes and symbols. The relationship between fashion and politics is explored in the context of objects and images that appropriate and replicate symbols and stereotypes associated with 'cultural other'. Fashion is understood as a system of communication, as meanings emerge relevant to the context that informs its production and consumption. It is within the current western social/political context of globalization and multiculturalism that fashion objects and images are labeled 'ethnic', 'diverse', and 'global'. This research focused on three areas of interest. Whether ethnic objects and images that are produced for mass consumption reflect core concepts related to political and economic activities, such as globalization and multiculturalism. And, whether these objects and images reflect a hegemonic relationship through their representations of 'cultural other'. In addition the research looked at how these objects and images were consumed by the individual, and how they were interpreted in relation to the political context from which they were produced. A model provides an outline for the presentation of the research, based on a metaphor of clothing as a communication system, that involves coding, recoding and decoding. Fashion images and objects exist as sources of meaning relevant to the context that they are produced and consumed in. The use of codes is borrowed and modified to capture how symbols are appropriated and altered in this process.