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Close encounters with beauty - Vogue India launches.

Vogue is one of my favourite media brands. It manages to remain constant in the constantly changing world of high fashion. While tragically hip fashion magazines come and go with increasing frequency Vogue seems to have resisted the urge to follow. I guess leaders don't follow.

I read about the launch of Vogue India on Jack Yan's blog and was struck by how weird the cover image was. Not only by the astonishingly euro-friendly beauty of the Indian women but also by the bizarre look of the Australian model. Well, they say she is Australian but I couldn't help feeling that she looked more alien than Aussie. So I couldn't help but goof around with the image (but only a little I assure you - here is the original).

On a serious note - When India won its independence from Britain (thanks in no small part to the leadership of Ghandi) - it was a triumph over imperialism. It seems a shame that Vogue haven't embraced Indian-ness (which I am sure is mind-bogglingly diverse) rather than a homogenised model of western beauty.

Here's to diversity and distinctiveness over melting pot 'normalisation'.
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  1. bwooce4:07 pm

    You certainly made me look twice, and made me think that I must dig out my link for the winner of the "completely over-photoshopped photograph" sometime. They ran a service that removed all abnormalities from photographs, ostensibly for child models, wedding photographs etc.

    The result was art, of a sort, but I don't think the statement was intentional.

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