Exploitation or Exportation of Indian Culture? You decide.

[Summy]

Interesting article that was released yesterday. How do people feel? Is our culture being exploited or just exported? Amazing or concerning?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
India is influencing U.S. culture, from top designers to Disney
BY MARK ELLWOOD

Sunday, October 19th 2008, 4:00 AM

The influence of Indian culture in mainstream New York was once largely limited to yoga classes or a chai from Starbucks - and, of course, the added chance of a killer curry in Jackson Heights.

But as the Indian economy thrives, the South Asian subcontinent is driving taste and trends halfway across the world. All things India are no longer just exotic additions to American culture - they're transforming its very fabric.

"Thirteen years ago, when I first got here, I definitely felt like I was a visitor to a place, that people were unfamiliar with my culture," explains Priyanka Mathew, director of the just-opened contemporary Indian art gallery Aicon in NoHo. "But since then, there's been a transformational change in the Indian presence here - we've moved from being foreigners into being a legitimate minority."

Indeed, 1% of the American population is now of South Asian origin. The largest cluster, around 800,000, is here in the Tri-state area.

Indian influence on culture and entertainment - music, movies, art - is evident with Channel 500, the Bollywood movies-on-demand network, to the new Cheetah Girls movie, "One World," in which the Disney group breaks into Bollywood and records a soundtrack with an Indian edge.

Professional divorcee Denise Richards returned to acting with a lead in a pan-cultural Bollywood mashup, and Steven Spielberg's financing now comes from Bollywood backers. Then there's Jay-Z, who has remixed tracks to Bhangra beats, and Snoop Dogg's "Singh Is Kinng," a collaboration with Indian artist Akshay Kumar.

Southeast Asian taste is taking over fashion, too. High-end designers like Hermes (who chose Bangalore-born model Lakshmi Menon as the brand's official face) and Armani churned out an Indian-inspired collection recently, and Gaultier has even hired an India-trained designer, Ra-mesh Nair, to be his No. 2.

Ralph Lauren and Perry Ellis both hired DJ Suhel to spin for their runway shows. When the Pussycat Dolls vamped through a performance at "Fashion Rocks" last month, they were swathed in saris by Rocky S.

It was the work of stylist Hitha Prabhakar, who's also a New York correspondent for Elle magazine's Indian edition.

"Indian culture is influencing mainstream Western fashion now: Forever 21, H&M, American Apparel, so much of that everyday wear - there's gold lam? integrated into the clothes, the embellishments. It's more and more Bollywood," says Prabhakar. "In ready-to-wear on the runway, you're seeing a lot more chiffons and lighter materials, which is drawn from clothing we always wear."

But it's in the beauty realm that the Indian esthetic now has special clout. Space NK's new flagship fragrance, Champaca, is Rajasthan-inspired, and there's the saffron-infused KeSARI line. Lancome's fall collection, Maharani Jewels, is Indian-riffing with elephants imprinted on powder compacts.

"Everybody wants to be an Indian right now," says Shalini Vadhera, who runs Global Goddess Beauty. "We're starting to see an enormous influence on trends, packaging, clothes, shoes and jewelry."

Her company's beauty products, launched two years ago in Sephora stores, use Indian techniques and traditions to help all women of color. "We've spent a lot of time working on hard-to-match midskin tones - whether South Asian or Middle Eastern or Latino."

Then, of course, there's hair. "Indian women are known for traffic-stopping shiny hair, and 60% of my company's sales is Coconut Amla Hair Oil - that's the beauty secret of India," she laughs.

Meanwhile, Mathew expects India's impact on American tastes to continue to grow.

"The biggest marker of when a community moves from visiting a country into being a minority is when you see these signs of it socially and culturally. That's what happened with the Irish and the Chinese, and I think we're the next big wave."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2008/10/19/2008-10-19_india_is_influencing_us_culture_from_top-1.html

 

[campy614]

I think this is a really interesting article, btw.

To exploit something means to use something for any purpose (... or to use something in a cruel manner-but this doesn't apply here). So by technical definition, Indian culture is being exploited. But I don't think that their reasons for exploiting Indian culture are negative.

Are the designers using influences from Indian culture to attract customers? Well, yes. But designers don't create collections and accessories strictly to attract clients. A beginner designer might put out collections just to appease them. But the names that were mentioned in the article are very well established designers-who, most likely, are not going to put out products that they are not proud.

And I think that by using Indian culture as an influence in their designs, they are also making a statement about how beautiful it is. A visual artist doesn't want to put his/her own spin on a foundation that isn't already aesthetically appealing. The many artists who are doing this, by their designs, are bringing these influences into the fashion world and saying "THIS is beautiful."

As far as the Cheetah Girls go-I'd like to see the influence that movie has had on America's children. I could tell you from my education-I learned absolutely nothing about Indian until I met my best friend... in college. We covered Europe and the US... we didn't even do Canada. Maybe things like this could diversify education, and history/social studies classes could cover more than how much of an idiot George Bush is and/or Hitler's Germany. And if it's not taught in the classroom, maybe curiosity will kill the cat, and these children could find out by themselves (after all, we're in the age of technology).

And Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg have nothing better to do with their lives. I have no opinion here.

 

[ban3rg]

I think this is a really interesting article, btw.

To exploit something means to use something for any purpose (... or to use something in a cruel manner-but this doesn't apply here). So by technical definition, Indian culture is being exploited. But I don't think that their reasons for exploiting Indian culture are negative.

Are the designers using influences from Indian culture to attract customers? Well, yes. But designers don't create collections and accessories strictly to attract clients. A beginner designer might put out collections just to appease them. But the names that were mentioned in the article are very well established designers-who, most likely, are not going to put out products that they are not proud.

And I think that by using Indian culture as an influence in their designs, they are also making a statement about how beautiful it is. A visual artist doesn't want to put his/her own spin on a foundation that isn't already aesthetically appealing. The many artists who are doing this, by their designs, are bringing these influences into the fashion world and saying "THIS is beautiful."

As far as the Cheetah Girls go-I'd like to see the influence that movie has had on America's children. I could tell you from my education-I learned absolutely nothing about Indian until I met my best friend... in college. We covered Europe and the US... we didn't even do Canada. Maybe things like this could diversify education, and history/social studies classes could cover more than how much of an idiot George Bush is and/or Hitler's Germany. And if it's not taught in the classroom, maybe curiosity will kill the cat, and these children could find out by themselves (after all, we're in the age of technology).

And Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg have nothing better to do with their lives. I have no opinion here.

Word. Exploitation might be "caricaturization" like Apu in Simpsons or Kal Penn as Kumar, but esp. the fashion-world thing is just showcasing something with an Indian twist and presenting it as beautiful. Exploitation of Indian culture would be like what Russell Peters does, (I love his comedy personally but if we were to look at it) some of his jokes are funny simply because they come off as "foreign" or "strange" for example no one would laugh if he said "somebodys gonna get hurt real bad" in an American accent.

 

[campy614]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://style.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/indiavogue.jpg&imgrefurl=http://style.popcrunch.com/vogue-india-debut/&h=340&w=502&sz=53&hl=en&start=1&um=1&usg=__NkoPI6ipJSUf2N7HKsPdRbXC4KA=&tbnid=cjY8bKCOlEt7nM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3DVogue%2Bindia%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

So, while we're on the topic of fashion-this was the cover of Vogue India's first issue. What do you feel about the addition of Australian supermodel Gemma Ward (note: token white girl). Many people were upset-being it was Vogue India's first issue and not having an all Indian female cover.

I'm on the fence. I think it would have been nice having an all Indian female cover for the the first issue of Vogue India, but at the same time I think the addition of Gemma Ward really makes your eye wonder at the picture and notice how beautiful those women are, how fantastic the makeup looks on them, the beautiful dresses, the jewelry, etc. To me, at least, having her on there and the contrast of skin color kinda takes your eye away from the beautiful faces of these women and to the products that are really on display-the clothing. Either that or having her there kinda accentuates how pretty the other women are.

Also I did a little research on Gemma. Many european designers love her-she's been featured in a crazy number of high fashion ads, and landed the cover of Vogue (all the countries it projects to) many many times. She's had the same impact on modeling as Kate Moss did in the 90s-cokehead or not, thats big!! Many current high fashion models owe their careers to her.

Maybe having here there is meant to be like a "handing down the torch" to a new fashion capital. I don't know...

 

[Saab]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/business/worldbusiness/01vogue.html

We talked about this article in our Hindu Students Council our school. I think this is a little bit more debatable.

 

[Summy]

I remember reading this a while back and thinking how disgusting it is. Why is it accpetable or why should we "lighten up" when we are displayed as surboordinate to the majority. I wonder how appealing it would have been to put a laughing poor black person on the cover of vogue after the Katrina diaster and let us stare at how the distinctiveness positive or negative, in poverty is a trend.

An appalling level of arrogance, an utterly clueless infatuation with ?edginess?, and a heartless disregard for those for whom India does not yet shine. Surely, and I mean SURELY, they could have found a skin bleached, contact wearing model somewhere for dim witted adolescent infactuated adults could slobber over, but the fact that mocking the poor which in my mind is what is happening here, is a way to create conterversy.

But those in th fashion world, and the mindless stooges that seems to be 95% of the indian diaspora, especially the kids, will answer with: "ummm like you know, umm whatever, like you know, if i dont see it everyday it doesnt exist you know, poverty is bad, you know umm like".

When people wonder if it was exploitation, let me ask a question: Did these poor people on the cover of the vogue magazine be provide with the craft services, the nasauting amounts of caffeine and the thousand dollar make up artist's that the other models were? Or more likely, did they just travel to an average slum, and hand a poor person about 10$ USD, and tell her to hold a bag?

I understand the appeal of the models really. But their faces are chizzled, and their ribs are showing and they are starving NOT as a choice but as a reality.

The worst part of the whole thing, how about you acknowledge the humanity that you have absolutely no respect for. If your going to trample all over their existence, mock their positions in life and switch around as some sort of edgy fashion trend, at least give them a bandage after you throw salt in their wounds. The caption of "The bag is worn by some man or woman" is not good enough.


They were just used as props. A show of decency would have been nice... But I guess decency is not "in" this season.

 

[campy614]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/business/worldbusiness/01vogue.html

We talked about this article in our Hindu Students Council our school. I think this is a little bit more debatable.

Ive seen this before-and I had a feeling that this topic was going to take this turn. From a moral standpoint I find this picture absolutely disgusting. I don't have much more to say after Summy.

I can offer a picture analysis. The picture, by itself-as a tool to attract clients and customers, is horrendous. The lighting could be better, the picture's depressing (reminder of the poverty in India), and the viewer could barely find the object being advertised... just to name a few of the MANY things wrong with this picture.

Talk about exploitation.