We know there’s not one way, one light, one stupid truth…

Ah the fashion world. That well known cauldron of dubious editorial decisions, low carb intakes and crushing social responsibilities has again this week surpassed itself, by plunging headfirst into a steaming pot of ‘what the fuck were you thinking’. The Photoshop of horrors that is Vogue featured a fashion shoot in its latest edition of Vogue India that goes far beyond the parameters of common sense and takes my opinion of fashion magazines to a brand new level.

This month Vogue India editor Priya Tanna took the decision of using real people from the streets of New Delhi as the models for some obscenely expensive high fashion goods. In one double page spread a toothless and barefoot man stands in a roofless room holding a Burberry umbrella that currently costs around £190.

On another page a family of three grip tightly onto a motorbike for their daily commute. The mother, riding without a helmet and sidesaddle in the traditional Indian way, is holding a rare Hermès Birkin bag that would cost you more than £8,000. Perhaps the most tasteless shot of all though is of young thin child being held by an elderly woman and wearing a £300 Fendi bib. The irony that this child likely hadn’t eaten yet that day clearly escaped the editors.

According to World Bank figures released last week nearly half of India’s population (about 456 million people) live on less than 69 pence per day. However there is a stark dichotomy evident between an emerging, wealthy middle class that are making it one of the world’s best places to hawk insanely overpriced designer non-necessities. Many of the articles and online discussions that criticise Vogue’s photo shoot are focusing on the thousands of Indian farmers who have committed suicide in the last few years due to impossible amounts of debt, and the ever increasing number of young children who die in poverty before being given a chance to make a life for themselves.

In response to the criticism Tanna said in a telephone interview with The New York Times:

            “Lighten up! Vogue is about realizing the “power of fashion” and the shoot shows that fashion is no longer a rich man’s privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful. You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously. We weren’t trying to make a political statement or save the world.”

Admittedly fashion journalism is a world that has never stood up very well to critical social analysis, and I doubt anyone would dare suggest that a fashion rag should be taken seriously as a political force. But the sheer heartbreaking irony of this feature, and the knowledge that with the sale of just one of those items the nameless models could feed and clothe their families for months makes it a fashion forward step too far.