Balenciaga Partners With World Food Programme To End Hunger

Fashion designer, Demna Gvasalia believes that fashion can change the world. In his latest collaboration with the World Food Programme at Balenciaga this season, he is challenging the way we approach clothes in a radical way. 

The Georgian designer is the Creative Director of both Balenciaga and his own label Vetements, has made an art form of the fashion industry, creating many collections that get people talking. Especially this new one: the new collaboration between Balenciaga and the United Nations World Food Program will see 10% of the proceeds donated to the cause of ending world hunger. Talk about feel food fashion.

The World Food Programme is an organization that is close to Demna’s heart. 

 “It came about from an honest desire to do something that stood for something, When we first approached The World Food Programme they were a bit suspicious,” he continues, “but they want to do anything that makes a difference. I love the fact that they went with it.” The World Food Programme fed the designer when he was 12 and had no place to live. “They brought bread, grain… and they delivered it via helicopters to the middle of the mountain. My whole story sounds like a Hollywood tale, but it was real, it was a real thing.” Full circle now that he is collaborating with the organization 25 years later.

With one in nine people in the world still going hungry, the United Nations is the largest humanitarian organization in the world working to end hunger. Assisting over 80 million people in 80 countries, they offer food aid in hopes to help break the cycle of poverty and hunger. 

From September 6, 2018, until February 1, 2019, Balenciaga will donate 10 percent of the sale price of each WFP-branded product sold in all Balenciaga stores and online. In addition to this, Balenciaga has already donated US$250,000 to support WFP in its mission to save lives and change lives around the world. All donated funds will be used according to greatest needs. 
 

When you will buy a WFP-branded product from Balenciaga, you will be making a tangible difference for people in hunger-stricken parts of the world, whether helping them recover from a disaster or build strong futures. For example, purchasing a cap means WFP could provide more than 200 packets of high energy biscuits to people in an emergency.*
 

You can shop oversized hoodies, T-shirts, bum bags and baseball hats with WFP labeled on each piece. 

Head over to Balenciaga and shop the collection here.

Preview Image:
Photography Campbell Addy 
Fashion director Alastair McKimm
Model Adut Akech
For i-D Magazine