Fashion in All its Shades and Hues (Photoshoot

Through this eccentric, but quaint photoshoot, I wanted to highlight the beauty of culture. The brown skin tones, contrasted with beautiful bright colours are quite distinct to the Eurocentric, skinny models we see in the media every day.

Diversity in fashion - or the lack thereof - has been a discussion for years. Often always being rejected for perhaps being too dark, or having unusual facial features, models of colour have become sidelined. Or when diversity is included, it has become a token of novelty, or inclusion.

FASHION

IN ALL ITS SHADES AND HUES

Photographer - Deniz Pasli Stylists - Priya Jain & Deniz Pasli Models - Maahika Singh, Ravleen Kaur, Shriraam Thiagarajan 56

BY PRIYA JAIN

And when they are picked for their vibrant skin tones, it is people with Eurocentrically similar or “whitewashed” features that are chosen.

Thus, the point of this shoot is to emphasise just how elegant our natural features and skin tones too, can be. The dark hair, charming noses, colourful accessories all come together to display the need to be included in the wider fashion industry.

Projecting stills of old Bollywood movies creates a nostalgic idea of how fashion is perceived in India, versus other parts of the world. A lot of beauty lies in the eyes, with dark eyeliner drawn across the edges, a bindi (red dot) on the forehead or large earrings decorating the ears. Not much focus is placed on the size

of their waists or how tiny their noses are, contrasting the conventional beauty standards we see every day.

A huge percentage of fashion consumers are little boys and girls who would love to see people who look like them in magazines, or their favourite TV shows. And through shattering these outdated and unhealthy fashion norms, we can give them just that.