Big Issue launches limited edition fashion brand
Melanie May | 8 May 2017 | News
The Big Issue is launching a new fashion brand, #WEARABIGISSUE today (8th May).
Available via new online shop The Big Issue Shop, which sells its own branded products as well as those from other social businesses, the limited edition collection asks the public to buy a t-shirt for £30 to support a world issue.
Creative agency +rehabstudio came up with the idea of the range and created the branding for #WEARABIGISSUE as part of its regular Hackweeks, which look to find ways to hack advertising and engage young consumers.
A number of artists have donated their time to design the t-shirts including Paul Insect, Hayden Kays and Mau Mau have designed the t-shirts, using ‘Big Issue’ as their brief. Themes chosen include ocean pollution, gentrification, sex workers and climate change.
Fashion photographer Marc Hayden (Wonderland and VOGUE ITALIA) has shot the promo images for the campaign.
Artist Hayden Kays, whose design tackles mental health, said:
“I hope this T-shirt will start a conversation about mental health that otherwise may have gone unsaid. The mind is the most beautiful, powerful, yet dangerously fragile thing we all own. So we must look after our own and each others. I hope (my design) represents the trembling tightrope we all walk between being mentally well and mentally unwell.”
Russell Blackman, managing director of THE BIG ISSUE, said:
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“This limited edition #WEARABIGISSUE range of garments will allow people to share what they feel passionate about and the change they want to see. The recently launched The Big Issue Shop offers a platform for social trading that will make social and ethical shopping a truly accessible option for consumers, giving them the opportunity to use their spending power to make a positive difference to the world we live in.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.