Kering is a luxury brand umbrella that holds Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron, Brioni, and more affordable brands Puma and Volcom as well, beneath it.
We don’t often associate $4,000 shoes with social action. But the notion that luxury fashion and change can’t go hand-in-hand is, perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, erroneous.
The White Ribbon for Women campaign, launched in by the Kering Foundation 2012 and stemming from the original White Ribbon movement founded back in 1991, is adding fashion’s name to the fight for women’s rights globally. The aim is simple, but not easy: Provide awareness about the continued global violence against women and girls.
Here are the “key figures” the foundation hopes to address, as found on the foundation website:
WORLDWIDE
- 1 out of 3 women is a victim of violence during her lifetime.
- 1 girl under the age of 18 is forced into marriage every
2 seconds. - Women and girls make up 96% of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
- Up to 50% of sexual assaults are committed against girls under 16.
- 75% of refugee children have experienced violence and assault by an adult along their migration route.
EUROPE
- In France, every 7 minutes a woman is raped. That is 205 rapes a day.
- 31.5% of women have suffered from physical or sexual violence in Italy.
- Over 1 in 2 women aged 18-21 in the UK reported an abusive incident from their partner.
AMERICA
- 1 in 4 girls will experience sexual abuse by the time she is 16.
ASIA
- 25 to 30% of the country’s 630 million women are subjected to domestic violence during their lifetime in China.
- In Japan, 1 in 6 women reported physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime.
Acting as ambassadors for this year’s project are some of fashion’s biggest names: Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, among others.
The campaign, signaled with the hashtag #ICouldHaveBeen, asks for solidarity with those many victims of gender-based violence; those who have suffered, and are suffering still. And for those who haven’t, and never will, to imagine the lives of HER and the millions of other women and girls in the world less fortunate.
Running until November 25, 2017, the project looks to create a worldwide social media storm to spread awareness; to bring light into places that it made never have made it.
Go to www.ICouldHaveBeen.org to be a part of the movement.
Follow along on Twitter here:
