Vogue’s Born Free Campaign Fights HIV Transmission

Born Free Africa is working to prevent the transmission of Aids from mother to child. Vogue’s Born Free campaign hopes to stop mother to child HIV transmission by 2015. Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue says in the video, “The fashion industry has a huge history of being involved in the AIDS epidemic.”

The series was released few days back on Vogue’s YouTube, after an introduction video was released a month before that. The video was labeled “Part 1” which leads viewers to believe there will be more of the series to come. The campaign was introduced last month, and the video explained that the concept was intended to involve mothers in the fashion industry, and they would work to create clothing lines that would support the cause. This campaign is involving mothers who are in the fashion industry, because the campaign targets both mothers and their children, and other women are able to relate to that more.

The mothers will be creating collections for other mothers and children. The mothers choose a print that’s already been made and create something new from it. The pieces offered are limited-edition and created by designers such as Prada, Diane von Furstenberg, and J-Crew.

Similar clothing is created for both mother and child, and offers anything from lunch bags, to dresses. The collection was released on mother’s day, and is available on Shopbop and Amazon. Shopbop.com has a section dedicated to the line, and says that while 100% of the profits will go to Born Free. This percentage will only apply to 59% of items sold. The website has a countdown to show how many more days until they plan to end the transmission of HIV between mother and child, which is a little more the 583 days at this point.

For more information you can go to BornfreeAfrica.org which access to the clothing line, information about the campaign, and places where those interested can get involved and donate to the cause.