Posts with tag charity

The rock-bottom economy has caused an influx of designer sample sales. But with so many options and so little time, might we suggest Divine Design: a shopping extravaganza (and no, we don't use the word lightly) that benefits Project Angel Food.

We all love the idea of supporting a company that benefits charity, but often, those companies are fairly high end, and not all of us can afford their products. Fortunately, this holiday season, that's not the case -- Payless is donating a million dollars in shoes to needy kids.

It's not even Thanksgiving yet and already a trio of designers are getting into the holiday spirit with charitable activities to benefit the children of the world.

While it's no secret that a pretty good-sized chunk of Goodwill's revenue comes from well-to-do bargain hunter types, and not the low-income demographic that they initially set out to serve, are we OK with it when they start acknowledging that? Apparently, a handful of Goodwill stores around the country have hired advertising agencies and, in one case, even launched a fashion blog to help recast the brand's image from a charity into a mecca for sweet deals on designer clothing.

We love companies that really give back, and when it's a tiny mom & pop business working hard to make a difference, even better! Vivian Cheng and Eric Jean-Louis are a Canadian husband-and-wife design team who started their jewelry company, Blend Creations, in 2005. They recently launched a fabulous new limited-edition line of pendants called Metal for Monsters with the goal of raising $10,000 for UNICEF.

Bare Necessities and Wacoal have teamed up to support breast cancer awareness and research. For every Wacoal Awareness bra or Wacoal Embrace Lace bra purchased at Bare Necessities throughout the month of October, both companies will donate $2 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

More than 50 Madison Avenue retailers have joined together to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research with the ninth annual Pink Ribbon Project. And this year, the Project is introducing something new.

This year's Pink Ribbon Project has a website offering Pink Ribbon items created by participating retailers, momsshop.com, all of which benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and The Mount Sinai Breast Health Resource Program.

One man's trash is another man's...well, you get it. But $30,000 seems a little excessive for a wastebasket, no?

This week Danish supermodel Helena Christensen held a star-studded auction that raised over $50,000 for Food Bank For New York City and Chernobyl Children's Project International. The highlight of the evening was the live auction of a custom Vipp (the venerable Danish design company) bin by U2 frontman Bono which sold for--yes--$30K.

But, get this: Inside the "circular file" are unpublished lyrics from U2's upcoming album, including a tribute to Nelson Mandela on this 90th birthday. Hello!! Talk about a good investment. I asked Helena how she convinced Bono to donate something so valuable. "I got him drunk," she laughed.

Other participants in the auction included REM's Michael Stipe, Julianne Moore, Christy Turlington, Mena Suvari, and Frederic Fekkai.

Traveling pop-up shop Little Black Dress debuted in Los Angeles this week. The sprawling boutique features clothing, jewelry, artwork, and even botanical and floral arrangements--all for a good cause.

Benefiting do-good organizations like Junior League and Dress for Success, Little Black Dress offers clothing from the likes of Kira Plastinina, La Rok and Vivienne Westwood. (Candle designer Dayna Decker even created a Swarovski crystal-encrusted collection exclusively for the temporary store.) After hours, Little Black Dress will hold philanthropic fashion events like "Vino and Vinyasa" and "Movie and a Makeover."

And if the Sunset Boulevard locale is far from home, not to worry. In 2009, Little Black Dress will make appearances in New York and Chicago, too.

Is that a baby bump? Are they getting a divorce? Is Tom Cruise converting her to Scientology? Those are the kinds of invasive questions Eva Longoria Parker deals with on a daily basis, so it comes as no surprise that she wants to make a statement -- she wants more privacy.

DKNY is doing a little charity work. No, the label isn't stylishly dressing starving bloggers (although, Donna? That would be a good one!) -- instead, they are making over 15 food distribution vans for City Harvest.

Hey, a makeover is a makeover, and we loooove a makeover (and a good cause).

As many of you may already know, Hayden Panettiere has a website called Panettiere's Closet, that auctions off items from the actress/singer's wardrobe to raise money for charity. But, don't expect any scandalous finds on the site anytime soon. Hayden has put her momager on an underwear ban.

Are you in need of a new pair of glasses? Why buy them from the eye doctor when you can purchase a pair that used to belong to a celebrity? Perhaps Ewan McGregor, or Michael Caine?

A number of stars have donated their specs to help reduce global blindness. They've given their glasses to Sightsavers International, which is auctioning off the glasses to raise money for the cause. The auction started today and will run through Monday, August 25.

Most of us have causes about which we're fairly passionate. Some of us wear our hearts on our sleeve. But some of us wear our cause on our chest, and FiveHumans makes it possible for us to do that in style.

The company was nice enough to send us a tee of our very own to check out (the women's "Oxygen Temples" style shown above because we have asthma), and we were really impressed. For one thing, it fits well and feels good without being clingy. We know, super-thin tees are great, but we're not a fan of showing any bulges we might have to the world, so we really liked this fabric.

Alicia Keys wore a Barack Obama tee for her performance at the Keep A Child Alive Black Ball, and now she's hoping to use it to raise even more money for charity by auctioning it off.