Philanthropy in Fashion

As Ali Hewson and her husband Bono stood with the fashion entrepreneur Renzo Rosso on an African trip earlier this year, the raw white cotton in the hands of the Diesel founder led to an epiphany.

 Why not create a collaboration among three people who believe passionately in the promise of Africa?

This week the tangible results of that trip will take the fashion for philanthropy fast forward, into a smart business. Bono, a persistent and vocal supporter of help for Africa going back more than 25 years, and his wife are expanding the reach of Edun, the fashion company they set up in 2005.

Through a partnership with Mr. Rosso, founder of the Diesel group, Edun products, sourced or made entirely in Africa, will be sold in Diesel stores under an Edun+Diesel label.

“Bono and I have known Renzo Rosso for over 10 years,” Ms. Hewson said. “When we decided to travel to Africa to visit both Renzo’s Millennium Village in Mali and our own cotton farming program in northern Uganda, we realized that the result would be both an amazing journey and a collaboration resulting in a line of beautiful clothes made from our cotton and 100 percent made in Africa.”

Bono himself is reticent about the overall subject of “Africa rising” and says that he would rather leave it to his African team to discuss aid to the continent in a wider context.

“There is a bit of a minefield here which you can choose to ignore. You don’t have to be an expert on this stuff,” the U2 musician said of his long-term support to African countries.

Bono’s attitude is that Africa is not a poor continent, but rich in everything: people, land, diversity — and especially young people, with 60 percent of its population younger than 25 years old.

“In my experience, the entrepreneurial spirit has always been alive and kicking. In tough circumstances of extreme poverty, the survival instinct is an innovative one,” he said, adding that new technology had brought new opportunities to the continent, like farmers managing their money via smartphone applications.

“People want control over their own destiny. You can see it in the Arab Spring, you can see it on college campuses, you can see it in on the streets of Nairobi,” he continued. “Economists predict that between 2010 and 2015, 7 of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world will be there. For those who think the 21st century will belong to China, look where the Chinese are: They’re in Africa!”

Bono’s active participation in founding Edun puts him and Ms. Hewson in a strong position to follow the code expressed by Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary general: “Africa does not need charity, it needs investments and partnership.”

While the entire Edun+Diesel line will be made in Africa, that goal has not been easy for Edun itself to achieve, although Ms. Hewson plans for 40 percent of its men’s and women’s ranges to be made in Africa in 2013.

The company, which sold a 49 percent stake to the luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 2009, manufactures its clothing in a variety of countries including China, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda.

Mr. Rosso is as plainspoken as Bono when he talks about Africa and his enthusiasm for the new partnership. His Only the Brave Foundation is philanthropic, but he says the African projects are founded on good business sense.

“I think working in Africa is both brave and smart: Brave because we are currently investing our time and money in building know-how in these parts of the world; and smart because Africa is the next big market, as the Chinese have already understood before anyone else,” he said. “I don’t feel I am doing it for philanthropy. We are doing it to generate sustainable development.”

The foundation’s initiatives, in spite of the recent political coup in Mali that has destabilized the country, have included building a secondary school with a dormitory for students from remote villages, laboratories used for teaching job skills and other modern facilities.

“Africa is a rich continent: rich in resources, rich in culture, rich in the ambition to grow permanently” out of its current problems, said the Italian entrepreneur, who, in addition to the Diesel jeans lines, also owns the upscale brands of Maison Martin Margiela and Viktor & Rolf as well as the production specialist Staff International, which has licenses for labels like DSquared2 and Just Cavalli.

 Mr. Rosso says that he wants the fashion industry not only to bring trade to Africa, but also to channel and give visibility to the continent’s creativity in style, fabric graphic design and craftsmanship.

Why this new collaboration? Ms. Hewson says the benefits will be a “two-way street”: Edun’s Conservation Cotton Initiative in Uganda will be alongside Diesel denim product skills, as well as the global commercial clout of the Diesel brand.

To all three, the initiative therefore is a small, but significant, part of a bigger picture.

As Mr. Rosso puts it: “With this project we want to show to consumers and to the industry alike, that it is indeed possible to source, produce and generate sustainable trade — and, hence, development — in Africa.”

While admitting that “there are kinks in any industry that need ironing out,” Ms. Hewson’s commitment to Edun, along with that of her husband, is to create “great clothes,” creating new jobs and serving consumers along the way.

“We are a tiny company with big ambitions — one of which was to persuade some of the fashion heavyweights to take more interest in this part of the world,” she said. “The business environment is getting easier in many places, and the more people and companies that show interest, the quicker that will change.”

When Lauren Bush, a scion of the Bush political family, was a college student in 2003, she traveled with the U.N. World Food Program as an honorary spokeswoman.

From her understanding of the importance of U.N. school lunches, in both feeding children and enticing them to school, came her current project: FEED.

“I would return from these travels to Latin America, Africa and Asia always inspired to get more people — especially young people — involved,” said Lauren Bush Lauren, as she became when she married David Lauren of the Ralph Lauren family in 2011.

Finding it frustrating that world hunger seemed both an overwhelming and a faraway issue, she was determined to act.

“I had an ‘aha’ moment and came up with the FEED bag as a way for consumers to give back in a tangible and meaningful way,” she says.

With help from the fashion industry, Ms. Bush Lauren produced a burlap and organic cotton bag that went on sale through Amazon in 2007. The FEED Web site now sells it for $80, which will provide school meals for a child for a year.

“I designed it to look like the bags of food rations I saw being distributed. I wanted the aesthetic to be connected with the cause — very industrial and utilitarian,” she said.

Five years on, 60 million school meals have been bought through partnerships with Bergdorf Goodman, Tory Burch, Clarins, DKNY, Gap, Godiva, Pottery Barn and, of course, Ralph Lauren.

“I love being an entrepreneur,” the designer said, explaining that while 20 percent of her time was spent speaking for the cause, the rest was a hands-on involvement with design, communication and partnerships. And, in creating the apparel and accessories that also are sold on the FEED Web site, she said, “We are able not only to give meals, but to support artisans’ livelihoods.”

“The combination of business, fashion and philanthropy is a powerful one,” she continued. “And when done right can make a huge difference in the world.”