Home
Has Vogue India crossed limits of decency with its latest fashion photos?
Share
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Stumble Upon
Technorati
Mixx
Sphinn
Twitter
SphereIt
Propeller
Gmarks
Newsvine
Yahoo! My Web
Live Journal
Blinklist
E-mailMade Popular Sep 2 2008
India :
Vogue India has published a series of pictures in its August issue that shows the Indian poor using expensive designer wear and accessories.
One picture shows a toothless and apparently poor old woman carrying a child wearing a Fendi bib priced at around $100. Another shows a barefooted poor villager carrying a $200 Burberry umbrella. Yet another shows a typical middleclass family of three squeezed onto a motorbike for their daily commute, the mother riding sidesaddle in the traditional Indian way prominently while displaying a rare Hermès Birkin bag that usually costs more than $10,000.
This has irked a lot of Indians who say that in a country where more than 450 million people live on 1.25 dollars or less a day, the pictures were in bad taste as they seem to rebuke the Indian poor.
Image: The New York Times.
Add Images and Videos
Close X
Recommended Tags or Keywords
Search by Tags or Keywords
Selected Media ( You can Upload only Six media )
Sorry no picture found for this combination of tags. Try to search minimum number of tags at once
RSS 
Jaiyant Cavale
Sep 2 2008
Bangalore,
India
No.. They don’t cross any limits of decency. The limits of decency has been crossed by many in India much before vogue even entered here. Why don’t we talk about all the kgarish ksoaps and of course tasteless movies? I think the limits of decency has been crossed by news channels which air disturbing images of dead people and their bodies rotting. now that is indecent.. Not showing respect to dead people.. Vogue need not be blamed for anything, they are just a lifestyle/fashion magazine who decided to make the promos a little fun and interesting..
Comment Link
(Local Perspectives)
Completely agree with Jaiyant. There are other things we must focus on that are crossing all levels of decency on an everyday basis. What's fashion after all without a little fun (and perhaps a little controversy)?
(Local Perspectives)
these western companies thrive on controversy to market their products. vogue, benetton etc have all been guilty of creating some controversy or other from time to time...
they completely lack sensitivity of people and often cross the line to be downright disrespectful...
they completely lack sensitivity of people and often cross the line to be downright disrespectful...
(Global Perspectives)
I am a middle-class and perhaps a poor Indian whose relatives live in remote village and not much different from the people shown in the pictures. But I don't have a problem. I have problem with only those people who see a problem and a controversy in everything Western.
(Local Perspectives)
Personally, I find it sad that those in poverty may have been exploited, I’m hoping the folks shown in the photographs were paid lots of $$$.
(Local Perspectives)
It is fashionable for fashion houses and fashion journals to make fun of people often creating controversies. As there is nothing called 'bad publicity' such attempts often work out in their favor. Fashion knows no decency and this is one such example.
(Global Perspectives)
Yes they have crossed limits by making fun of Indians who are poor. What do the images want to say? See, we don't have money to buy a pair of shoes but I can't be seen dead without the designer umbrella. Or I don't have milk to feed my baby but I can't take her without that Fendi bib.
(Global Perspectives)
Vogue sucks. Period. The elitist class who subscribe to the magazine also sucks. Period. Such magazines are social menage. They show no cultural sensitivity and do whatever they feel like in the name of artistic freedom. Period.
(Global Perspectives)
It depends on the way one takes it. Some might think Vogue is making fun of the poor, but if view it from another angle it is not so. Being toothless, walking barefoot or riding threesome on a bike in the typical Indian way does not portray poverty but the rural Indian habits. I heard that there are some really rich guys amongst the rural lot, but its just that they don’t flaunt their wealth and remain very rural in their dressing sense and lifestyle. Maybe the ads are for such people to learn to live a polished lifestyle.
(Local Perspectives)
Vogue India is completely justified in its branding campaign; though its success is rather doubtful. Posing rural folks with expensive stuff is just trying to position the brand as something that’s not the monopoly of the rich.
The only thing that I disapprove of is the fact that the Indian models remain unidentified. Name them and the campaign may generate more arguments in favor.
The only thing that I disapprove of is the fact that the Indian models remain unidentified. Name them and the campaign may generate more arguments in favor.
(Local Perspectives)
Add your Comment
