Forget about Gustav and Palin – there’s a big controversy over Vogue magazine’s 16-page spread of high-end fashion articles displayed by poor people in India!
The spread includes a family of three on a motorbike with the mother holding a Hermes Birkin bag (priced at US$10,000, if you can find one). Elsewhere in the spread, a toothless man holds a Burberry umbrella (US$200) and in another photo, a woman (also toothless – makes you wonder whether my braces will make any difference in my life) holds a baby who is wearing a Fendi bib (US$100).
The controversy concerns the expensive fashions being modeled by poor people who – according to the New York Times – live on a bit more than US$1 per day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/business/worldbusiness/01vogue.html?hp
Apparently there also is criticism over the possibility of high-end stores opening up on the poorest streets of India where very few can afford the items for sale. Sounds to me like the critics don’t realize that that happens everywhere – why should India be any different? My friends in NYC can barely afford the rent in their neighborhoods never mind the items at the stores that have cropped up nearby over the years in SoHo and the West and East Villages.
The Vogue India editor has told critics to “lighten up” and, in what I consider to be the best quote about fashion ever made, states, “You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously.” Amen.
As for my take on the spread, I hope the family of three rode off into the sunset with that bag and live happily ever after.
1 comment:
Talk about being in the right place at the right time!! How come I never have found myself in the midst of some fashion (or movie or TV) shoot with a photographer eagerly looking for someone willing to pose with a Hermes bag??
I'm with you - I hope that person rode off to find the more-than-willing American (Martha?? Were you contacted??) who was happy to pay whatever overinflated price was asked for that bag!
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