Filed under: Apparel, Journeys

For Vogue India’s latest issue, editors decided to shoot some of the country’s poorest citizens modeling such luxury goods as a Hermes Birkin bag and a Burberry umbrella. An older woman — missing her upper teeth — held a baby wearing a Fendi bib which cost as much as she might earn over a several month period. (Remember most of India still lives on little more than a dollar a day.) The juxtaposition has a number of Vogue readers (and non-readers) astir.

In a place polarized by caste and an exceptionally apparent disparity of wealth, one would think Vogue might have been a little more discreet. What infuriates me most about the photo spread is that Vogue didn’t even get the names of the men, women and children posing. They are simply referred to as “lady” or “man” while the cutline goes into great detail about the various objects they model — people as props, handbags as the main story.

The real shame? That somehow poverty never quite goes out of fashion.

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