Why is it that fashion often places itself in a special place above politics, above ethics; after all its just clothes is it not? Vogue has just published a fashion shoot in India where villagers, clearly living in extreme poverty, have the 'opportunity' to dress in the latest fashion. In the picture above a child wears a Fendi bib priced at $100, the equivalent of a years income for one of local families. In another picture a woman carries a Hemes bag, and so on.
Apologists would claim all this is aspirational - but it's not, it is just offensive. People who live in poverty are not there to service the excesses of western consumerism.
The New York Times quotes Vogue India editor Priya Tanna’s message to critics of the August shoot: “Lighten up,” she said in a telephone interview. Vogue is about realizing the “power of fashion”. Indeed fashion has power; to exploit, to patronise, to trivialise. It's a shame it does not appear to care about using its power to help those less fashionable.
