The Hindu Business Line : Fashion wears conscience on its sleeve!

Fashion cares. That is the message from South-African designer Gavin Rajah who is using his haute couture creations to raise funds and support for abused and HIV-infected children.

“All my shows and your attendance is a support to vulnerable children from Africa,” Rajah told a packed-to-capacity hall, before his creations went on the catwalk at the recently concluded MTN-Durban Fashion Week. While other fashion designers gifted their audiences with chocolates or cosmetic products, Rajah had “pledge cards” placed on the chairs, so that people attending his show could commit their support for children’s charities.

Fashion is increasingly wearing it’s conscience on its sleeve. Only last year, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Irish rock-star Bono launched the global brand “Product Red” with a fistful of corporates, including clothing-chain GAP, American Express, Nike-owned Converse and designer Giorgio Armani.

Different products including credit cards, sun-glasses, T-shirts and footwear from these corporates are branded Red, and the money from the sale of these products gets channelled into funds for AIDS, TB and malaria.

Ambassador for Unicef

Rajah is a goodwill ambassador for Unicef and has a number of projects lined up to support vulnerable children, specially in South Africa. The Cape Town-based designer is set to launch a project called ‘Kids changing the world’, later this year, to support children’s charities in South Africa, he told Business Line.

“I use all my shows to raise money for children.... about five per cent of our turnover goes to Unicef,” he said.

Later in the year, Rajah will put his “Couture with a cause” project on centre-stage in Paris, where 24 designers will also be on board, Rajah said. The project will launch dolls called ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ and money coming from the sale of these dolls will go to support children, he said. The project will then be brought back to South Africa, he added. He also has a similar project with bracelets designed by him.

Though celebrities endorse social and development-related causes in India, similar branding partnerships to raise money for a cause in a sustained pattern is yet to emerge.

Indian-designer Vikram Phadnis, who dresses Bollywood stars, including Salman Khan and Shilpa Shetty, for instance, told the correspondent that while he had no such cause-related project in his kitty, he would be interested if someone did approach him to support a cause through fashion and his celebrity clients.

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