Leading fashion designers have banded together to create Runway to Win, an e-commerce site which supports reigning American president Barack Obama’s bid for a second term.
The online store will feature limited edition T-shirts, scarves, tote bags, and bracelets from some of fashion’s biggest names, including Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Jason Wu, and Alexander Wang.
The project is modeled on Runway to Change which helped fund Obama’s 2008 bid for the top job. This new spinoff site is raising funds for the Obama Victory Fund.
As with anything political, the site’s launch isn’t without controversy though. The fashion industry is abuzz with talk that many designers opted out of the project as they were afraid of upsetting their Republican supporting customers. Personally I can’t imagine anyone deciding to boycott a favorite fashion label because of their political affiliations, but I suppose some staunch Republicans might.
As an Australian I can happily leave any allegiances out of it and observe that the project seems like a novel way to raise funds to assist the current leader’s campaign. Perhaps the Republican Party simply needs to round up its own interested designers and launch an alternative site. I’m all for a little healthy competition!
Runway to Win launches tomorrow.
[Image Source: Wikipedia Commons]
