Proving the point that fashion can be humanitarian, too…
A dress made from a refugee tent stole the show at a fashion event in London.
‘Dress For Our Time’ made its debut at the fashion capital as part of London Arabia Art & Fashion Week earlier this month. The show, now in its third year running, celebrates Arab culture in London.
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Created by British designer and humanitarian Helen Storey, the dress is made from a decommissioned United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees tent. It had previously been used by a family in Jordan, who had fled the conflict in Syria. The tent still bears stains on it from this time.
This wasn’t the dress’ first time at a fashion show. ‘Dress For Our Time’ had previously shown at the United Nations in Geneva, the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, and the Science Museum in London, as well as the American University in Dubai.
The designer maintained that fashion had the power to create debate on issues like the migrant crisis.
“People often feel impotent or overwhelmed by things like climate change or the migrant crisis,” Storey told The National. “This is an attempt to use a medium or a message that we are attracted to, which is fashion and what we look like.”
The migration crisis was the central theme to the evening. Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the UNCHR representative to the UK, gave a talk before the fashion show began. He dedicated it to praising the Arab community’s response to the ongoing crisis.
“The numbers of men, women and children fleeing their homes as a result of conflict and persecution in the world has reached alarming numbers,” he said.
“In the face of this huge and dramatic forced human displacement, we have witnessed truly moving and extraordinary manifestations of solidarity and sympathy for refugees throughout the Arab world.”
Here’s to fashion with a purpose.
Images: Instagram
