Hindol Sengupta, Mumbai: Does the arrest of Anand Jon bring out the darker side of the fashion industry?

Jon's charges looks like a list of all the things the world of high fashion wants to hide under its overpriced, over-hyped clothes - rape, molestation, lewd acts and even the involvement of a minor.

Exploitation of models and runway aspirants is common. But in the past few years, as fashion turned towards the androgynous, size zero look, runways in Europe and America have seen 13 and 14-year-old clothes horses strutting down the ramp.

That has added an even darker paedophilic twist to the tales of sex abuse. In many ways, fashion thrives on bad behaviour.

Kate Moss, for all her drug abuse, can still sell thousands of handbags just by carrying them once.

Naomi Campbell might have just been asked to mop floors for throwing a phone at her maid but she still carries enough clout to auction the boots and pants she will wear during the sweeping session to raise charity funds.

In India, designer and choreographer Prasad Bidappa has survived drug-peddling charges and continues in the limelight.

But both rape and paedophilia are grave charges. Jon has to only look at acclaimed filmmaker Roman Polankski who is unable to return to the US dogged by more than two-decade old child sex charge.

At the moment, the LA Fashion Week show of Jon, who has dressed the likes of Bruce Springsteen, stands cancelled. His dreams of bringing Paris Hilton to India for a big show this year, also seems iffy.

Perhaps, he like many others, will realise that in the world of fashion, friendship and beauty are both myths.