Displaying facts and Fact Fashion products in the Palace of Westminster
On a rainy February morning in a small school hall in North Yorkshire, Fact Fashion was born. Five young people, three
stages and the idea of a lifetime took Charlotte, Rosemarie, Evie, Jeanneil and I, on a journey we’ll never forget.
About the author: James is one of the founders of Fact Fashion, the winning initiative of this year’s ‘Solutions for the Planet’ competition.
The ‘Solutions for the Planet’ competition organised by Partners in Innovation gives young people the chance to come up with ways to save the planet. Fact Fashion was our idea. By putting hard hitting world statistics about poverty and injustice on to merchandise, we wanted to remind the judges and the world, of people like the child who dies from malaria every 45 seconds.
We spent all our lunchtimes on this and all our effort eventually paid off.
For the London final at the Palace of Westminster, we each modelled a range of Fact Fashion clothes including T-shirts, ties and bags, which we had designed. They were very well received and we were announced ‘Solutions for the Planet’ winners.
The Rt Hon Alan Duncan, Minister of State for International Development praised our new fashion range for raising awareness and proceeds to tackle poverty.
It was a once in a lifetime experience. It taught us how to work together as a team, speak to a large audience and have really good fun. CAFOD’s ‘Speaking up and speaking out’ guide has lots of ways you can tell people about the issues that matter to you.
Inside the Palace of Westminster supported by Rt Hon Alan Duncan and MP Julian
Since winning the competition, we at Fact Fashion have partnered with CAFOD, Macmillan and Balfour Beatty. We are hoping to make more links in the near future. All help would be gratefully received as we need to start producing their merchandise as soon as possible. If you would you like to contact us you can get in touch on CAFOD’s great generation page on facebook.
James, 12
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James, I love the idea your group had of putting statistics onto merchandise. I look forward to seeing your products and being able to buy something! A great blog post. Thanks!
Thanks Susan, agree, the kids have a great idea that I would love to see developed in merchadise to promote discussion and make people stop and refelct on the big numbers that affect so many people in our world. When they were on the train coming back from London wearing their clothing/bags etc with the Fact Fashion facts – people did sit up and take notice! My dreram for this project would be to see Fact Fashion goods being sold raising funds for good causes linked to the numbers and facts. Cafod being a great outlet. Thanks again for your interest – I hope others would like to share my vision of fund raising for good causes through this project. And honestly -the design is great too and you would love to own an item or give one as a gift.
Here’s to the future of Fact fashion.
Pete Harrison (teacher and mentor to the pupils)
Congratulations James and the fabulous Fact Fashion team from Ingleton. I am so delighted to see you here especially as I was the teacher of the Mums and Babies girls it makes me doubly proud that they inspired you. In my new role as Development Director for Partners in Innovation I want you all to know how much we value working with you all and your terrific teacher Mr. Harrison. I hope that many young people who are connected with CAFOD will be motivated to use your BIG IDEA in their fund raising efforts. Lets hope that many “older” people can see the amazing value of your idea and products. Onwards and Upwards Elaine Barker