''Asian Woman'' is a fashion and lifestyle glossy catering to South-Asian women. The magazine was established in June 2000 and first released in 2001. It was started by Smart Asian Media headed by Sarwar Ahmed and Samina Saeed. Since 2009 the magazine has branched out into a more diverse mainstream market with non-Asian cover stars including BBC ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'' star

Alesha Dixon Alesha Anjanette Dixon (born 7 October 1978) is an English singer, rapper, dancer, television personality, and author. She rose to prominence in the early 2000s as a member of the R&B / UK Garage group Mis-Teeq, who had seven UK top 10 hits, ...

and UK girl group

Sugababes The Sugababes are an English girl group composed of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan, and Siobhán Donaghy. The lineup changed three times before returning to the original lineup in 2011. Formed in 1998 by Ron Tom, the manager of All Saints, ...

as part of a mission to "bring the beauty and appeal of Asian fashion and culture to a wider audience". In late 2011 the magazine hit national headlines with its decision to use the stars of ''

The Only Way Is Essex ''The Only Way Is Essex'' (often abbreviated as ''TOWIE'' ) is a British reality television series based in Brentwood, Essex, England. It shows "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." Broadcast on ...

'', Jessica Wright, Sam Faiers and Lucy Meck on its Winter 2011 cover. The juxtaposition of what was seen as two opposing cultures fuelled an impassioned racism row. Comments on the official

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page branded the covers stars as “not Asian at all… it’s being fake tanned brown asian”, while a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

user posted: “well I just couldn't imagine the Asian community being appreciative of what #towie brings to the table". ''Asian Womans Editor-in-Chief J Wimal responded to the debate on Twitter: “Rather impressed by the huge and mixed response to the new @AsianWomanMag cover and the impassioned debate that it's sparked... On the one hand a lot of people are appreciating our mission to bring the beauty and appeal of Asian fashion and culture to wider audience. On the other hand it's also unveiling a mass of ignorant opinions that are at best irrelevant, at worst horrifically prejudiced." Less controversial cover stars include Bollywood superstar

Aishwarya Rai Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (; Rai; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil films. Rai won the Miss World 1994 pageant and later established herself as one of the most-popu ...

, ''

Slumdog Millionaire ''Slumdog Millionaire'' is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel '' Q & A'' (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel ...

'' actress

Freida Pinto Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films. Born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra, she resolved at a young age to become an actress. As a student at St. Xavier's Colle ...

, and British-Asian singer

Jay Sean Kamaljit Singh Jhooti (born 26 March 1981), known professionally as Jay Sean, is a British singer and songwriter. He debuted in the UK's Asian Underground scene as a member of the Rishi Rich Project with " Dance with You", which reached No. ...

. ''Asian Woman'' magazine is published by Jayson Emerald Media, which acquired it in 2013. The company's stable of titles include ''Asian Bride'', ''Asian Fashion'', ''Asian Groom'' and ''Asian Home & Style''. ''Asian Woman'' is the publisher's flagship title and has aided a number of mainstream brands in reaching the South-Asian market, including

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

Swarovski Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Tyrol. It was founded in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski. The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal Business, which primarily produces crystal glas ...

Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior, is a French Multinational corporation, multinational luxury goods company that is controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH. , Dior controlled around 42% of ...

and

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

References

External links

*{{dead link, date=March 2017 2000 establishments in the United Kingdom Fashion magazines published in the United Kingdom Lifestyle magazines published in the United Kingdom Quarterly magazines published in the United Kingdom Women's magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 2000 Women's fashion magazines