Acqua for Life

Acqua for Life is an initiative by Giorgio Armani in partnership with Green Cross International, aiming to collect clean water to Ghana and Bolivia, the two countries included in the project. This is the second year that Armani is taking actions in this specific cause and with two days left before the ‘expiration date’, the Acqua for Life Facebook page got almost 362 500 likes, which in itself means over 18 million litres of clean drinking water. The minimum quantity of water that will be donated is 40 million litres, the final result of the 2011 Water Race. Through 100 litres of donated water for each bottle of Acqua di Giò or Acqua di Gioia and 50 litres for each like on Facebook, they hope to take the Water Race even further and go above last year’s numbers.

Organisations performing charitable actions which not necessary are linked to the expectations of society could be called corporate philanthropy and should be separated from Corporate Social Responsibility, even though the line between them often is seen as fine, and even more so – hard to define. Whether we are talking about one action or the other, it gives a boost to the social image of a company and adds to what many of today’s highly sensible and conscious customers are looking for. We have seen fashion companies using their power to raise awareness before, and thanks to social media and a generally interested and involved ‘audience’ it is an industry that really can make an impact. Campaigns such as these do not only do what they are set to. Hopefully they create circles on the water, increasing the attentiveness for other issues regarding society, environment and development.

At the moment, Italy is the leading country, leaving both Denmark and USA behind, together with all the other countries taking part in the project. Even though it’s not the single contest but the gathered efforts that will make a difference, today, Milan is a winner, leading the Acqua for Life Water race 2012 to its goal.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Image courtesy of Acqua for Life – Armani

]]> http://www.theblogazine.com/2012/05/acqua-for-life/feed/ 0 http://www.theblogazine.com/2012/02/scandinavian-fashion-function-compassion/ http://www.theblogazine.com/2012/02/scandinavian-fashion-function-compassion/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:30:15 +0000 Redazione http://www.theblogazine.com/?p=13913 Scandinavian Fashion, Function & Compassion

Amidst the glamour, bliss and cold hard business of Copenhagen Fashion Week, the Swedish brand Resteröds made an unconventional and powerful set of statements. First, its runway presentation opened with a spoken poem about life on the street. Then, a collection of well-designed, everyday apparel with a sharp focus on usable quality was presented on the catwalk, worn by the very same people that the opening poem referenced: the homeless.

The brand, which is not a regular on the catwalk, was presenting a fully new collection for AW12 – a collection that otherwise has remained more or less untouched over the past 70 years. And raising eyebrows with its unconventional show has turned out to be a rather smart PR move, and it has raised money for a cause that often gets relegated to the gutter, so to speak. It also gave the brand a chance to show off a new edge in its designs, made all the more powerful in combination with an issue that left a mark in the minds of the audience.

We could continue by discussing Corporate Social Responsibility and the imperative for companies to take actions. We could reflect over whether the show was born of genuine concern for ethics or whether it was a publicity stunt. But it might be more important just to highlight the fact that the fashion industry holds a tremendous amount of power. And unconventional initiatives like this are a way to leverage that power to call attention to just causes.

Maybe it was the presentation or maybe it was the hefty knits, but the Resteröds AW12 catwalk show made the otherwise cold Scandinavian winter feel just a few degrees warmer.

The Resteröds AW12 charity show was organized in co-operation with Hus Forbi, a Danish newspaper for the homeless.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Images Copenhagen Fashion Week®

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