The Social Outfit to Raise Funds for Refugee Training & Employment Programs
The Social Outfit is a fashion label with a difference with the primary purpose of providing training and employment in the fashion industry to female humanitarian migrants.
The ethically produced clothing label and social enterprise is made on-site in Newtown by a group of women (and a few men) of new migrant and refugee backgrounds.
With only 20% of female humanitarian migrants engaged in the workforce in Australia, The Social Outfit provides fair and dignified employment and community training programs in the fashion industry with a focus on manufacturing, retail, marketing and design.
To date, The Social Outfit has either trained or employed over 400 people through their programs, which for most represents their first Australian job, a key stepping stone for successful integration.
This month, The Social Outfit is asking participants to join them in celebrating fashion that is made ethically as well as being good for the planet in the hopes of raising $30,000 for their non-profit community programs.
With many people working from home during Covid-19, they are calling for participants to bring some colour and style to their daily Zoom calls during Refugee week (June 15-19, 2020), and join the WearTheChange2020 style campaign.
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“Our styling challenge #WearTheChange2020 is about raising awareness of the importance of choosing ethically made and sustainable fashion over fast fashion, whilst supporting women from refugee backgrounds with our training and employment pathways in the fashion industry,” said CEO
Camilla Schippa.
Participants are asked to wear the same ethical or sustainable garment each day for a week, styled in different ways, with all funds raised going to the The Social Outfit’s community programs.
“With the fashion industry being one of the top global polluters and notorious for using forced labour, child labour and endangering workers through unsafe conditions in factories, we want to continue to educate buyers and shine a light on the importance of buying ethical and sustainable clothing over fast fashion,” continued Schippa.
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With sustainability at the forefront since launching in 2014, the Newtown based label also implement small-scale production and innovatively uses dead stock materials from Australia’s best known fashion brands since launching in 2014, including Bianca Spender, Cue, Carla Zampatti and Gary
Bigeni, saving over 5.5 tonnes of fabric from landfill to date.
The brand is currently using such fabrics to manufacture face masks during Covid-19 and selling them via a Buy 1 Give 1 impact model, where with every face mask purchased one is donated to a person in need.
Please visit wear-thechange.raisely.com/ to participate in the Wear The Change initiative during refugee week (June 15-19) and share on social media at #WearTheChange2020 #thesocialoutfit #refugeeweek2020.
This media release was submitted by In The Beginning PR. All image via The Social Outfit.
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