ABOUT US
Freedom and Fashion is a fashion-oriented, creative arts ministry and organization that serves as a resource hub for fair-trade businesses and non-profit organizations working to combat modern-day slavery, human trafficking, child labor and human rights violations.
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THE BEGINNING…
In the spring of 2008, Bonnie Kim decided to volunteer at Nightlight, an organization that fights human trafficking and the exploitative sex industry in Bangkok, Thailand. Seeing Nightlight’s immense need of individual, material and financial support, Ms. Kim realized that fighting injustice would be a lot harder than she initially thought it would be. After her volunteer work was over, she learned about various organizations such as Not For Sale, Polaris Project, and others that were doing work on the front lines — fighting the same fight as Nightlight. But she found that all these organizations shared a similar struggle — they all needed consistent marketing and financial support.
That winter, Ms. Kim decided to pray for guidance. She felt God directing her to utilize her passion in art and fashion for social justice. Ms. Kim created an organization that would act as a conduit for businesses and organizations committed to fair trade and social justice issues. She envisioned that these like-minded groups could be showcased in a fashion show. Specifically, she wanted to feature fair trade and cause-centric designer collections on a runway and facilitate vendor fair space to make designer merchandise available to the public. In this novel way, Ms. Kim wanted to generate awareness about human rights issues, assist groups in recruiting new volunteers, and redirect consumer purchasing power. Thus, Freedom and Fashion was born.
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OUR MISSION…
Freedom and Fashion (FnF) is dedicated to educating society about the global social issues of modern-day slavery, sex trafficking, child labor, and human rights violations. FnF addresses these injustices through the purchasing power of conscious consumerism, by increasing the demand for socially-responsible and ethically-produced goods and ensuring they are readily available to consumers. Driven by our mission, FnF’s work is grounded in our three organizational goals:
Advocacy
FnF believes in educating the public about the hard facts of social injustice. There are more slaves today than in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Human trafficking alone is a 32 billion-dollar industry. We want to show people how the purchases we make, the things we watch, and the events in which we participate can affect those who are oppressed. We advocate using your freedom and purchasing power to give freedom to others and begin making your fashion statement against companies who violate labor laws and the standards of fair trade.
Promotion
As a hub for fair-trade, Freedom and Fashion showcases businesses and organizations that are already doing the front line work of educating, producing and empowering. FnF promotes these organizations and raises awareness for their cause on the runway, in our magazine, on our blog, and in our short films. In addition, people can purchase fair-trade friendly and cause-conscious merchandise on the day of the fashion show at the adjoining vendor fair.
Love
At the core of FnF’s values is God’s love. We believe in the call to action — to love the poor, the needy, and helpless, as exemplified in His word. At our events, we want to create an atmosphere that empowers guests to act, not out of hatred, but out of an understanding that power in the wrong hands can produce injustice. We want all attendees to become educated about their own purchasing power and how it can be used to make a statement beyond just fashion.
Note: Our organization welcomes people of all backgrounds to still participate in our mission’s goals to help those who are in oppressive situations. While our goal is to render Christian service and share the message of Jesus, we do not impose our beliefs on our staff or our partners and learning about the Christian faith is a voluntary exercise.
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SPREAD THE WORD…
