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Ethical Fashion Show a Smashing Success
(January 5, 2009) -- Over 250 people attended the Fashion with Impact: An ethical fashion show event, which took place November 18 in the Linda K. Paresky Conference Center.
The event, the result of a unique collaboration between Simmons undergraduate and graduate students, included a runway show featuring Simmons students and faculty, and a series of educational vignettes explaining different stages of ethical fashion, from design to fabric choice to consumption.
For pictures from the event, click here.
The 2008
SOM Silverman Business Plan Competition Winner HeatherJean MacNeil '08SM directed the show.
MacNeil is founder of Proxy, a fashion-forward fair-trade apparel company for Gen Y customers. She hopes to
spread the word about Proxy through similar fashion shows on other campuses that raise consciousness about
ethical fashion while introducing designs from local and national entrepreneurial companies.
MacNeil was inspired to start Proxy after spending a number of years in several Latin American countries, where she witnessed women develop businesses to support their families and sustain themselves.
Fashion with Impact also marked the launch of the new undergraduate student-run venture, Edun Live on Campus at Simmons (ELOCS). ELOCS was designed to sell ethically produced T-shirts to help fuel the market for African "grower-to-sewer goods." Through the program, students are able to earn practical experience on how to run and grow an ethically-responsible business.
Fashion with Impact featured clothes from several other ethically-minded companies, including Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, and American Apparel. In addition to the clothes, the student management team incorporated video, music, and media elements to raise awareness about eco-friendly apparel production, stimulate reflection about ethical fashion choices, and introduce non-traditional entrepreneurial opportunities.
Event promotion was also student managed. Students from the Simmons Public Relations Club, led by undergraduate Whitney Gaglio '09, succeeded in getting the word out throughout the Simmons community, the COF, and the local Boston media scene. News of the event hit Daily Candy, the Boston Globe & Boston Magazine online calendars, and myriad physical placements among the COF. The Boston College newspaper featured an article about Gaglio and the event.
Audience response was extremely positive, and multiple initiatives have sprung from it. MacNeil has been invited to speak at Boston University where plans are underway for a fashion show and education event early next year. The team is engaging in conversations regarding developing the "Fashion with Impact" brand in college retail outlets. It is pursuing opportunities to replicate the Fashion with Impact educational experience on other campuses, and has been invited to showcase the Fashion with Impact message at the "Down 2 Earth" Sustainable Living Expo at the Hynes Center in April, 2009. The media team is currently working on producing a documentary DVD of the show.