Uproar Over Vogue India Fashion Shoot

Vogue India October 2008

Vogue India has found itself at the receiving end of numerous criticisms after deciding to feature some of the world's poorest people to model luxury fashion in its October issue.

The magazine featured 16 pages of photographs of India's poorest peasants wearing ridiculously expensive fashion. Particularly catching critics' attention is an image of a young poverty stricken child wearing a £50 Fendi bib, an accessory that is worth more than two month's income for an impoverished rural Indian family.

Many sectors accused the magazine of exploiting the poor and trivializing their plight by using them as props in a fashion shoot for British designers Alexander McQueen and Burberry, and criticisms range from "distasteful" to "callous".

Vogue India editor Priya Tanna, however, defended the magazine's decision to publish the pictures, and told critics to "lighten up".

"For our India issue we wanted to showcase beautiful objects of fashion in an interesting and engaging context. We saw immense beauty, innocence, and freshness in the faces of the people we captured. This was a creative pursuit that we consider one of our most beautiful editorial executions. Why would people see it any other way?" editor Priya Tanna told The Independent.

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