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30.9.07

Welcome to Vogue India 

Vogue India cover

[Cross-posted] As someone who has long championed the Asian subcontinent—and Lucire has been linking Indian and Pakistani sites as they came to light over the years—I was happy to see that Vogue India has made it on to newsstands. The new magazine is a milestone in the rise of the subcontinental fashion industry, which arguably has had a longer tradition than anything in the occident. It also signals a rise in global luxury brands entering India—something which I hope will soon be more of a two-day street.
   The cover, too, addresses concerns that I expressed in a blog post last week, on the ubiquity of the white model on catwalks. There has been some chatter about why Gemma Ward, a blonde, blue-eyed model, occupies a third of the cover, but the answer is fairly simple, I thought: Vogue India is evidently a magazine that appeals to the global nature of the Indian consumer. Her presence suggests that in a shot. But the international girl is usually quite desirable from a publisher’s or licensee’s eyes, too.
   As a man, I have to say that my eyes went to the other models first: Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Monikangana Dutta, Preity Zinta and Laxmi Menon grace the cover and gatefold, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier. Perhaps it is the ubiquity that I wrote about, but the south Asian models are stunning.
   The domestic cover girl is very important, as we learned with Lucire Romania. The original cover girl—Karen Carreño—made less of an impact than the first Romanian to appear, Monica Gabor.
   South Asia is a region that I am keen on getting in to with Lucire. My best wishes go to Priya Tanna and her team at Vogue India.

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Comments:
Jack, I think the girl in the middle was chosen to represent beings from outer space. What a bizzare image.

As a launch issue for Indian people I don't understand why the diversity of Indian beauty couldn't be celebrated, rather than Euro-manque's.

It makes a mockery of Indian independence - the Raj has returned.  
From my POV, it’s only bizarre because Vogue used exactly this idea (and this white model) to launch its Red Chinese edition in 2005. I believe the diversity was there with the five Indian models and a token white female to suggest the magazine’s international nature.
   Whatever the case, I believe the reaction against this cover has been stronger outside India (indeed the subcontinent) than inside it, and that opposition has, ironically, come from non-south Asians. I am detecting (though maybe a regular blog reader like Rohan will advise otherwise) that the Indian readership is enjoying the fact that Vogue India is not operating in a sense of isolation. The cover signals an “arrival”, if you will, of Indian fashion on the international stage, encompassing the occident (which is what I believe this cover suggests).
   Deeper analysis may reveal a more negative side of globalization and homogeneity among the magazine’s advertising, but that is another post.  
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Note

Entries from 2006 to the end of 2009 were done on the Blogger service. As of January 1, 2010, this blog has shifted to a Wordpress installation, with the latest posts here.
   With Blogger ceasing to support FTP publishing on May 1, I have decided to turn these older pages in to an archive, so you will no longer be able to enter comments. However, you can comment on entries posted after January 1, 2010.


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