Hindu outrage over Aussie swimwear
An Australian fashion house has apologised to Hindus across the globe after it used an image the Goddess Lakshmi on swimwear at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney last week.
Indian activists burned an Australian flag at the weekend, waving pictures of models wearing the offensive bathers.
Lakshmi is the goddess of good fortune and beauty in Hinduism and is also known as ‘world-mother’.
This morning a statement from Byron Bay-based Lisa Blue Swimwear said: "We would like to offer an apology to anyone we may have offended and advise that the image of Goddess Lakshmi will not appear on any piece of Lisa Blue swimwear for the new season, with a halt put on all production of the new range and pieces shown on the runway from last week removed.
"This range will never be available for sale in any stockists or retail outlets anywhere in the world. We apologize to the Hindu community and take this matter very seriously.
"Lisa Blue has been born out of a love of conservation, spirituality and a respect for all people. At no time would we ever have intended that the brand would cause offence. The use of images of Goddess Lakshmi was not in any way a measure of calculated risk taking, simply it was a desire to celebrate different cultures and share that through our brand”.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, said the apology was “a step in the right direction”.
He said inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agendas was offensive to devotees. Symbols of any faith should not be mishandled.
Zed has earlier called on Lisa Blue Swimwear to fashion week organisers to publicly apologise and immediately recall all swimwear which showed the Hindu Goddess.
"Lakshmi was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not for pushing swimwear in fashion shows for mercantile greed of an apparel company," Zed said.
Lisa Blue Swimwear claims to represent “the girl of the future who can be sexy, beautiful, powerful and environmentally aware at the same time”, whose designer-owner is said to be Lisa Burke. Besides Australia and an online presence, it has stockists in USA, Ireland, New Zealand, and Indonesia.
