Vogue India is taking heat for a haute couture fashion spread that uses poverty-ridden locals for models, the New York Times reports. A toothless, barefoot man holding a $200 Burberry umbrella and a rumpled baby in a $100 Fendi bib are just two examples that have irked some critics in a country where 456 million live on less than $1.25 a day.
“Lighten up,” the mag’s editor warns. “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.” But in a country where extreme poverty and high privilege often rub elbows, the spread is a “downright distasteful … example of vulgarity,” one newspaper columnist says. (More Vogue stories.)