Despite the global pandemic taking a toll on businesses across the globe, fashion is still an influential platform for change and awareness.
Sustainable designer Gabriela Hearst is an outspoken advocate for ethical practises and supports various organisations including Save The Children. Last December she donated 100 per cent of net proceeds from one week of sales to the charity’s relief efforts in Yemen and now she is back working with organisation via a partnership with NET-A-PORTER.
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“With the pandemic hitting everyone worldwide, Save the Children has focused on giving relief to children that need it so much,” she told Emirates Woman. “We do not think about the repercussion that children are having by missing school. Hundreds of millions of children are out of school, families that have lost income, so they are really suffering. As always, the most vulnerable suffer the most during crisis, and Save the Children is trying to bring relief. So, I think it’s very important for us to support them.”
The two-week handbag initiative, that launched on the e-commerce site this week, with 10 per cent of profits going to Save the Children’s global Coronavirus Response Fund and Gabriela Hearst has agreed to match this donation.
This crucial initiative coincides with the global launch of Hearst’s newest handbag ‘Baez’. The structured shape perfectly complements her other much-loved models including ‘Nina’, ‘Diana’ and Demi, the latter previously spotted on Meghan Markle, Amal Clooney and Queen Rania.
“The Baez Bag is not only a beautiful object, but incredibly practical as you can put a lot of things in. It looks aesthetically very sharp, the way the closure works, the way you can have two silhouettes in one bag. I always like bags that can do more than one thing. But at the same time, they are incredibly practical, which is what I like to achieve in our handbags,” she explains.
Hearst has been self-isolating in New York with her family, and like many of us it’s been a challenge emotionally and professionally. “I tried to keep a strategy to keep to day by day, trying to keep myself positive, making sure I am doing self-care because I am also a mother and run the business,” she reveals.
Hearst has a positive outlook on what the future post-COVID-19 means for the fashion landscape and believe both the creative and the business side play a role at highlighting important causes and supporting communities.
“Because we are a cross between creative and business, there is always that reach that we can create, bringing people in through desire for a product,” she says. “In this instance, through our handbags, but at the same time bring awareness to the crisis that children are facing right now.
“In today’s world, if you are an individual or a company that is in the position to help you must do so because that’s a duty. And I think the awareness of becoming more sustainable and also the company who focus on the social impact for the greater good is important for everyone who is in business.”
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Images: Supplied, Instagram
