Mannequin

The fashion industry in India is huge, employing more than sixty million people and, at $70 billion, accounting for a sizable chunk of the nation’s economic activity. Despite that, it remains a startlingly unprofessional industry—particularly when it comes to the work of modeling, and how the women who perform that work are viewed and treated. With Mannequin, Manjima Bhattacharya takes readers into the world of fashion in India to show what the work of a model is like and the difficulties it entails, from the struggle by trade unions to organize models to the fundamental question of whether fashion objectifies women or acknowledges their agency. Spanning from the 1960s to the present, and taking account of changes from globalization and shifting beauty standards, Mannequin is an up-to-date account of fashion’s forgotten workers.