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subscribe to style file blog via RSSLauren Bush, Beyond The FEED Bag
March 25, 2009 11:34 am
Lauren Bush is the first to acknowledge that her moniker carries some baggage. But as the model and activist-turned-designer sweetly insists, she didn’t call her new line of clothing Lauren Pierce in order to run away from her surname. “Pierce is in the family, too,” Bush explains. “It’s my middle name, and my brother’s name, and my grandmother’s maiden name. I wanted to embrace that. And also,” she adds, “I felt like, as much as this line is my thing, it’s not really so much about me, per se. Calling it ‘Lauren Pierce’ seemed to strike the right balance.” What Lauren Pierce is about, for those who care to know more about their clothes than the fact that they look good and wear well, is Bush’s desire to leverage fashion for the global good. The Lauren Pierce debut collection for Spring/Summer ‘09, for example, features one-of-a-kind pieces made from sustainable textiles such as hemp silk and fabrics hand-dyed by women in the Democratic Republic of Congo; ten percent of the season’s profits will land in the coffers of Women for Women International, a nonprofit serving women in post-conflict zones. These civic interests are nothing new for Bush—an honorary spokesperson for the United Nations’ World Food Program, she spearheaded the organization’s launch of the FEED bag, sales of which benefit children in the developing world. Now, via Lauren Pierce, she’s giving her altruism a rather more glamorous outlet. Barneys New York will be fêting the line—and its do-gooder designer—tonight at its Madison Avenue Store. Here, Bush talks to Style.com about putting fashion to good work.
What inspired you to launch Lauren Pierce? I mean, was this a fashion project, first, or were you casting about for ways to serve a humanitarian goal?
I guess if I had to pick one or the other, I’d say the initial impulse was, how can I be helpful? I’ve always liked fashion, but I couldn’t see the point of creating a brand just to create a brand. There are already so many great brands and interesting designers out there, you know? Having said that, though, working on FEED allowed me to see the power of the fashion world to get behind a product and raise a serious amount of money. That project has raised more than $5 million in less than two years, which is incredible.
Do you worry that Lauren Pierce will get put in that box, like, oh—how worthy?
I do and I don’t. It’s like, I don’t want to talk too much about the sustainability of the brand, because I don’t think people really shop for that. They might be intrigued, they might think it’s a nice bonus if they find out the clothes are made a certain way, but ultimately, people buy what they like. I’m not too worried about getting boxed in, though, because I do think the clothes work in terms of style.
You took design classes at Parsons and Central Saint Martins, and you interned for Zac Posen—am I to infer from all that that you’re designing the line yourself?
I am. It’s not exactly a typical process though, because I’m starting each season with the textiles and then working some kind of inspiration around them. For Spring, we used these hand-dyed fabrics from the DRC, and as much as I love that they’re so colorful and funky, it was important not to go overboard and do crazy cuts, too. So I’ve integrated the tie-dye into a collection that is otherwise pretty ladylike and refined. Whereas for Fall, I’m working with the Artisans’ Association of Cambodia, and they do these amazing woven silks. Those fabrics are all solids, so I could be more creative with the silhouettes.
How do you pick the organizations you want to work with season to season? Or, perhaps a more fraught question, how do you decide which nonprofit you want to support?
It’s a challenge. The original concept behind Lauren Pierce was, basically, there are all these remarkable artisans in the developing world, but they need an outlet, a marketplace. I wanted to help them create that. Women for Women was a pretty easy choice, for my first season, because I’ve known about their work for a long time—I wrote about them in my senior thesis at Brown—and I liked the fact that I would be giving money back to the same organization that’s training women in the DRC to dye the clothes. There was a nice loop. But it can’t always work that way. For Fall, as I said, the textiles are coming from the Artisans’ Association of Cambodia, but the donation is going to the Somaly Mam Foundation, which sets up centers for women who have been involved in human trafficking. It was started by a Cambodian woman, and that’s a huge issue over there, so…
There’s so much need. Do you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders?
Maybe a little bit. [Laughs.] I’ve definitely got a long list of places and organizations I’d like to help out. And that’s a concern because I don’t want to feel like, OK, I’ve checked that group of people off my list, so now I can’t ever go back and work with them again. I mean, I can only do so much. This is a boutique brand; that’s part of its point. I can’t scale up and make Lauren Pierce into some mass-market thing with, like, supply chains in a whole bunch of developing countries. Philosophically, this is much more in line with the principles of microlending.
You say that Lauren Pierce’s “boutique” quality is key for you. How so?
Well, you can go into the Gap or wherever and buy a charity T-shirt, and that’s great, but I feel like there’s an extra specialness when you know you’re wearing a garment that’s one of a kind. Hand-dyed, hand-woven, hand-stamped. There’s an intimacy. Maybe, eventually, the person wearing that piece of clothing stops to consider—this was made by someone.
So you’re hoping for some post-purchase consciousness-raising?
Sure. I mean, I’d like to sell to more women than just the ones who have already had their consciousness raised.
Last question. I’m sure you keep getting asked why you chose to call the brand Lauren Pierce rather than Lauren Bush, and I don’t want to dwell on that. But I wonder, do those questions raise your hackles?
Honestly, no. It’s not what I’d prefer to be talking about, but it’s to be expected that people ask about my family, and I understand why they do. When I was born, my grandfather was already Vice President. I grew up knowing that the public had this fascination with my family, and that just is what it is. That said, politics is not my arena, and I don’t have to answer every question. But my attitude is pretty much, go ahead, ask away.
tags: FEED, Lauren Bush, Lauren Pierce
I love the bohhemian meets going green look, it fits her perfect! If the purse was not for a cause then it would be completly tacky but she makes it and she is supporting a worth while cause so who could noot love it!!!
By brittanystahl on 03/25/09 at 11:56 am