India is nowadays a central reference for European cosmopolitan fashion. The consumption of its cultural references is na obvious phenomenon of Portuguese society, as in other European contexts, which is expressed in the growing demand for products such as film, literature, cuisine, clothing and props, by a section of the Portuguese population. These cultural products are increasingly available in the national market and they integrate what some authors describe as Indo-chic. The circulation and consumption of these products can be understood as a new Orientalism, recasting ancient representations from German Romanticism that exoticized India and its cultural references and whose nature I will evaluate. Through the analysis of the social uses of culture and its impact on consumer society, I intend to understand, through ethnographic observation, the phenomenon of appropriation of Indian cultural elements in the metropolitan area of Lisbon.
