Vogue India enters the controversial pie

After American Vogue and Italian Vogue made headlines this year for their controversial issues, the "King Kong" and the "All-Black," Vogue India has entered the fray with some controversy of their own.
A spread that appeared in the August 2008 issue, featuring "real" Indian people carrying $10,000 Birkin bags and $200 Burberry umbrellas is being "blasted" by the press, calling it distasteful and an "example of vulgarity" because nearly half of India's population lives on less than $1.25 a day.

Is the shoot just a publicity stunt? Maybe they want some of the press the other Vogue editions got too. But Vogue India editor-in-chief Priya Tanna's says:

Lighten up . . . 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.

If by "fashion" Tanna means clothes and accessories worth thousands of dollars, than I think it is only a rich man's "privilege." If the point of the editorial was that "anyone" can carry $10,000 Hermès bags then I think it is in poor taste to have a family who probably lives in a shanty town, carry these items, when they can pick anyone to model these clothes.
A better idea would have been to photograph them as they were, without all the fancy accessories. They look beautiful in their own clothes.

A man modeled a Burberry umbrella in Vogue that costs about $200.

Could Vogue India be better than (gasp!) American Vogue?

I've only been a subscriber of American Vogue for one year now, but I have been tired of the photography for months. They use the same boring, blond, robot models who use the same poses (Stop jumping Trentini!), in front of the same backgrounds (grey equals boring) posing for the same photographers (Demarchelier, Meisel, Testino, Leibovitz.) Ok well sometomes US Vogue knocks one one of the park, but most of the time the editorials are just dull and bland and the same every month. And along comes Vogue India like a breath of fresh fashion-y air.
See this model? She is fucking GORGEOUS. She does not look like she was plucked from the market stalls in Eastern Europe which is very refreshing. She looks healthy, not waif-like. Basically, she makes me want to buy everything she wears. She could say the war in Iraq is a super idea and I would nod my head and say "Go Iraq war!"
Her name is Lakshmi Menon and you may recognize her from the new Hermes campaign which has an Indian theme. She also opened the Givenchy Fall 2008 Couture collection. I hope that she becomes a regular in the other Vogue mags and makes a showing at Paris Fashion Week in the Fall.
Also, the photography is stunning. The colours are so bright and warm. They really standout from the lackluster pages going on in other Vogues.

But don't take my word for it. Take a look at this deliciousness.