Sunday 7 September 2008

Vogue India's less than tasteful "poverty is fashionable" shoot


"An old woman missing her upper front teeth holds a child in rumpled clothes — who is wearing a Fendi bib" (retail price, about £50/$100)

486 million people in India are living on less than 65p ($1.25) per day.


A man models a Burberry umbrella in Vogue that costs about £100/$200.

These wonderfully stark contrasts are brought to you by Vogue India. In its “16-page vision of supple handbags, bejeweled clutches and status-symbol umbrellas, modeled not by runway stars or the wealthiest fraction of Indian society who can actually afford these accessories, but by average Indian people.”

Hey, after all, why buy actual food when you can spend the £100 that took you 178 days to earn copping that very pretty Burberry umbrella? Right, Vogue?

*smh*

(Pictures from NYT)

Artist Nadia Plesner recently did a campaign for the starving in Darfur:




The image casts a Sudanese child from the troubled Darfur region in the role of Paris Hilton, complete with small pink-clad dog and designer handbag, in order to criticize the media's excessive coverage of attention-seeking celebutantes rather than genocidal conflict. In Nadia's words, "Since doing nothing but wearing designerbags and small ugly dogs appearantly is enough to get you on a magasine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention."

LOUIS VUITTON SUED HER.

Nadia's website: Click! Click! Click!

10 Comments:

Good 'Uns said...

good post. these images in the Guardian or similar would make a poignant message, similar to Nadia's work, but having them in a fashion magazine is just sick.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post. It angered me to begin with (the content) and I wanted to immediately contact Vogue and express my disdain for their ethics and exploitation....but then I thought about social marketing and community development. If this is one way to get the rich to heed the plight of third world women and children then so be it. But....there appears to be no attempt at consciousness raising or community development. Vogue - poor taste and poor public display of a non existent corporate social responsibility.

Funny Videos said...

Very nice post. Simply awesome

Burberry Watches said...

I highly doubt that these people would purchase these items. Good post though.

jake @ Purple Handbag said...

Me too i am totally become angry at first.. but on the middle when it starts on the bag section it becomes interesting

Tours of the Vatican said...

Vogue India? That is ridiculous.

Rug Cleaning Los Angeles said...

Wow, that's appalling.

Therapist New York said...

I can't believe they would do that, Vogue or anyone else. Ridiculous

Auto Lease Broker Los Angeles said...

Hope someone got fired over this, and I hope the people involved got paid a LOT. Vogue definitely has the money

RV Backup Camera said...

That pic by the artist is creepy and gross but she does have a point.

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