Fashioning an opportunity

Senegal. Eric thought he fulfilled his childhood ambitions (“family’s ambitions”) by pursuing a decade long career in Finance. However, attending UCLA Anderson had the opposite effect of cementing his career in this sector.

Instead it triggered a deep feeling of dissatisfaction and uncertainty about his career trajectory. A year of self-examination led those feelings to be supplanted by a desire to enter the world of fashion. Introduced to it at an early age by his mother, Eric felt like Fashion alone still would not suffice.

Realizing the deep impact that education had on the women of his family, socio-economically and culturally, starting with his grandmother’s introduction to college back in the 1920’s, he found it to be a great addition to Le Dessein’s mission: providing the opportunity of an education to young girls from underprivileged communities from around the world by featuring their art on his fashion.

The process involves the notion of self-esteem and empowerment through ownership. Ownership of the drawings the women have created which are embroidered onto the clothes. Our commitment is to contribute 25% of our profits to their education – with the goal of supporting 10,000 of them in school, and the vision of creating leaders and future legacies…

 

 

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