Consious Fashion: Keeping Up With The Hilfigers

It’s not often that the worlds of high fashion and humanitarianism collide, but when they do, the outcome can be extraordinary. Some may dismiss fashion as frivolous and a self-possessed attitude to what is essentially a basic human need, putting clothes on your back. But I believe that fashion is art, and a form of expression just like any other, and so its potential for going far beyond its basic purpose is so great that it is impossible to place a limit on it. And so, I was only too happy to see everyone’s favourite Italian blogger, Chiara Ferragni of The Blonde Salad, visiting Uganda as part of Tommy Hilfiger’s collaboration with Millennium Promise proved that fashion can indeed have an impact on a world beyond fashion weeks and glossy magazines.

Photo credit www.theblondesalad.com

Millennium Promise is a non-profit organization set up as part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, the UN’s self-proclaimed deadline on the reduction of poverty worldwide by 2015. Tommy Hilfiger has been part of the Millennium Promise organization since 2009 and has donated over $2 million to its cause. As part of his commitment to the project he has also designed a Promise Collection, the proceeds of which also go towards Millennium Promise. The most recent collection is a vibrant mix of African prints on classic Polo shirts and bright, earthy colours all round.

Kofi Annan, the UN General Secretary said back in 2000 that “We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries, but only if we break with business as usual”. And Tommy Hilfiger has proved that his company can indeed break business as usual, and has paved the way for many others to do the same.

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