Columnist Kanika Gahlaut called the editorial spread "not just tacky but downright distasteful." But it's coming from a magazine which had a blonde wedged between two brown women on its debut cover. It's a Western-owned fashion magazine in a country that values Western beauty, where skin lightening is big business. But, you're thinking, when people are destitute, why photograph them holding an Hermès bag? Says Vogue India editor Priya Tanna: "Lighten up." Her argument: "You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously."

The Times points out that around 456 million Indians live on less than $1.25 a day. But there is an emerging market in India; there are women who shop, love luxury brands and read magazines. So. What kind of editorial photo shoots should Vogue India have? Only the kind with gorgeous, languid model indifferent to the designer duds she is sporting? Should "real" Indian people not be pictured in the magazine?

Not to be jaded, but it's tough to get outraged when we live in a country where Vogue has a history of being offensive. Fashion is about exclusivity, which means it's almost always inherently about how you, the fashionable, are "better." To be better, you must have an "other" to be better than. And so exclusivity means someone is being excluded. And Vogue has no problem shilling a $64,300 24K-gold mink coat — like the bib, by Fendi! — in a country where 37 million people live in poverty. True, they didn't shoot the coat on a woman from Ziebach County, South Dakota, but maybe doing so would alert readers to the fact that Ziebach County, South Dakota is the poorest county in the U.S.? In any case, the number of Americans who can afford the coat is marginal, and it doesn't matter; it's a business mired in advertiser relationships and fantasy. Most magazines have problems with "real people" and luxury goods. Even Marie Claire used a Bhutanese man to "model" a $395 hat. It would be great if Indian Vogue, American Vogue and lots of other ladymags could figure out how to entertain women who are interested in fashion without offending, alienating or exploiting people. India has a tumultuous history of poverty, exploitation and colonialization, and a poor kid in a Fendi bib doesn't exactly help heal wounds. Maybe the real question is: Should Vogue India even exist?

Vogue’s Fashion Photos Spark Debate in India [NY Times]
Earlier: Using A Woman Of Color As The "Background" In A Photo Shoot: It's Not Okay
Free People: Someone Watched The Darjeeling Limited Before Booking This Photo Shoot
Vogue India Debuts With Australian Blonde On Front, Bleeding Heart Inside?
MagHag India
'White Beauty' Has An Ugly Message
Dear Anna: I'm Outsourcing Your Job To Vogue India. 8 Pictures That Explain Why…
Is Vogue's "LeBron Kong" Cover Offensive?
Marie Claire & The 75-Year-Old Bhutanese Model

Nylon positions itself as edgy and fashionable. Are we to assume that taking advantage of the help is all the rage? It's like, "OMG, I was so bored I played gin with the maid. "Mimi continues:

We are not meant to consider her story. (And I’m made uncomfortable by my own attempt to "give" her an interior life.) Instead, the woman of color in her drab housekeeper’s uniform is simply another part of the furnishing in this bland motel room. She is banished as mere and muted background, the better to illuminate Ditto’s extraordinary excess of shine and glamor.

The thing about using people of color as props or background is that it's not only offensive, it is so damn old. Colonialism, slavery, movies in which the maid, porter or chambermaid has no lines — we've seen it all a million times. The lady of leisure as compared to the hard-working woman. Haven't we made any progress? How come no one cares when a company like Free People shoots in India using a blonde as the star and relegating cows, camels, elephants and indigenous schoolchildren to props or background? By using a non-white person as a backdrop against which the white person is supposed to shine, a photographer creates a world in which one person has more value than another. Clearly, the paid model (or, in Nylon's case, the celebrity) is the "star," but if you can only see her light by diminishing those around her, how bright can it be?

Background Color [Racialicious]

Earlier: Free People: Someone Watched The Darjeeling Limited Before Booking This Photo Shoot