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To people like Visha Gandhi, this spring's Hindu-inspired line of clothing is offensive enough. But she feels that Le Chateau should really have thought twice before making sandals with depictions of East Indian gods on them. And the store should never have put up that six-armed mannequin in the window display, not with white skin, anyway.

Gandhi is a member of the Ad-Hoc Committee Against Appropriation, made up of students from Concordia, McGill, and the University of Toronto. The group has planned a May 18 protest against Le Chateau, calling the company "racially offensive" for its Taj Mahal, Hippie Deluxe and Indian Summer clothing lines.

"Ten years ago bindis were called 'Paki dots' and women were told to go back to their country," said Gandhi. "We don't even get to show how our culture is represented. Most often it's misrepresented by westerners." The group is circulating a boycott list for the store, even after Le Chateau removed the mannequins and sandals.

"She was right. It was not appropriate," said Le Chateau's vice president Franco Rocchi, "but there's no disrespect intended. It's more of a sharing of a global culture.":--Craig Segal

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