Can Padma Lakshmi and India’s relationship with sensuality impact global fashion?

We noted the comments in forums about Padma Lakshmi’s Vogue India January 2011 photo shoot by Prabuddha Dasgupta. Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania, the comments were “I don’t like Vogue India. It always looks like something GQ would do.”

Another key piece of New Eroticism thinking involves the rise of Brazil and India as two BRIC countries.

In our connected world where America’s lack of sensuality values will no longer drive a global agenda 20 years from now, and the Europeans are comparatively liberated sensually, Brazil and India seem to be the wild cards in how female sensuality is presented.

We expect China to remain restrained, relying on lots of glamour and baubles to drive the luxury message.

In Brazil and India, natural beauty is revered and a more organic, holistic approach to style should influence the global marketplace. Take a look at Vogue Padma Lakshmi photographer Prabuddha Dasgupta’s website for words and images of women in India.

Indian women as subjects of photographic representation have never been seen as anything other than exotic models of attractiveness… its current avatar being the one dimensional Bollywood stereotype. And that, ironically in an age where women’s accomplishments in practically every arena have far surpassed their male counterparts.

These are portraits of urban Indian women, selected for their interestingness rather than their physical charms, drawn from a variety of disciplines, sometimes confirming to gender stereotypes and sometimes defying them.