Indian American leader rubbishes Vanity Fair's biased "International Best-Dressed List"

Nevada (US), Aug.6 (ANI): Indian American community leader Rajan Zed has criticized Vanity Fair magazine's just released prestigious "2009 International Best-Dressed List", saying that it smelled of unevenness.

In a statement issued in Nevada (USA), Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that although the list claimed to be "international", its 53 listed best-dressed people belonged to only ten countries out of total about 195, representing only about ten percent of the world population.

"So this "best dressed list" appeared to be telling us that we in about 185 countries representing about 90 percent of the world population, including the continents of Asia and Africa and most populated countries like China and India, did not know how to comb our hair or how to tie a half Windsor knot with a dimple on the necktie or our wardrobes were not chic or we lacked sense of style," Zed argued.

Zed further said that although Vanity Fair claimed of "in-depth reportage" and its publisher Condé Nast Publications Inc. professed of "journalistic integrity", except Colombia and Qatar, the rest of the best dressed people in this list were from USA or seven countries of Europe (out of total 46).

Even in the US of A, the majority of the listed people were from New York City or somehow linked to it, again indicating that we in USA, who were not associated with Manhattan in some capacity, lacked culture and style.

According to this list, 29 world's best dressed people were from USA, followed by five each from France and Spain, four each from Italy and United Kingdom, two from Greece, and one each from Ireland, Russia, Colombia and Qatar.

Vanity Fair's 70th annual International Best-Dressed List given in its September issue which hit newsstands on Wednesday, has politicians, wives of politicians, movie stars, writers, royalty, fashion professionals, jewelry designers, banker, artist, financier, singer, professional bullfighter, etc.

According to its mission statement, Vanity Fair is a cultural catalyst-a magazine that provokes and drives the popular dialogue.

Graydon Carter is editor-in-chief, while Edward Menicheschi is its publisher. Launched in 1913 and published from New York, it claims readership of 6,107,000.

Conde Nast, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of Advance Publications Inc., a privately held communications company. (ANI)