Vivienne Westwood anoints poverty as being ‘so hot right now’
Posted on 17. Aug, 2011 by Jonathan Cherry in Advertising
If it’s not fashion shoots on oil-spilled coastal locations or images of rioting punks displaying ‘youthful passion’ in front of a line of police it’s a rather odd image of fashion mogul Vivienne Westwood selling her expensive designer stuff in a poverty stricken part of Kenya.
According to the press – she shot the images in Kenya because … The handbags in the lookbook are a part of Westwood’s Ethical Fashion Programme collection, where the iconic label has partnered with the International Trade Centre to provide jobs to over 7,000 women in the Kenyan capital, where they learn to create handmade, ethically produced bags for the London-based label. The project is intended to help provide people in one of the world’s poorest economies with actual skills they can use to maintain a living for themselves and their families. [More]
It doesn’t appear as if the extra money making handbags for Vivienne Westwood is really helping these people doesn’t it? But maybe it’s too early to tell. Perhaps the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ has now become a cool advertising idea?
2 Responses to “Vivienne Westwood anoints poverty as being ‘so hot right now’”
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Jason Suter
18. Aug, 2011
Maybe she can get Derek Zoolander involved in the next shoot, this is a very small step from “Derelicte”…
MissE
18. Aug, 2011
Just goes to show how screwed up the fashion world really is. They have no concept of the real world. The price paid for one of her bags could feed one of those families for a whole year.