Alice Vol. 1 No. 2

FASHION
WITH A
HEART
[50] Alice April 2016
By Emily Williams
In February, New York
Fashion Week brought
the $1.2 trillion fashion
industry into sharp focus
on a global scale.
It is the realm of the
absurd and the absurdly
overpriced, with past offerings including
Kanye West’s $1,600 ripped
sweater or Rodarte’s couture Star
Wars gown collection. But behind all
the glitz and glamour, the fashion
industry’s ethical reputation is increasingly
under scrutiny. In an industry
that employs nearly one-sixth of
the world’s population and creates the
second-highest amount of pollution,
accountability is hard to come by.
But a growing number of businesses
are making a mark by putting charitable
causes at the center of their designs.
Fashion for a cause is an increasingly
popular way for both companies and
consumers to make a statement about
their values and put their money where
their heart is.
“In a traditional sense, it used to be
that for-profit companies made products
and did services, and not-for-profit
companies were the ones that worked
within causes and messages,” says Joel
Strayer, a marketing instructor at The
University of Alabama. “(Now) we live
in an age where companies have to give
added value to the customer. I think
the recession and the recovery has had
a lot to do with the value being created
for customers in buying goods that
also have causes attached to them.”