EITHER designer and Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia announced that the brand will support United24, an initiative by President Zelensky to collect donations for Ukraine. The objective is to launch a T-shirt whose profits revert 100% to the fund.
“Balenciaga will launch a t-shirt to raise donations and awareness for the United24 fund,” Gvasalia wrote in an Instagram post.
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United 24 is an initiative that works in three areas: defense, provision of medical aid and reconstruction of Ukraine. So far, 147,697,345 dollars have been raised, about 145 million euros.
according to designer, proceeds from sales will go to the country’s reconstruction area, including hospitals, schools and roads. The shirts will be available for purchase starting this Thursday.
The creative director was this Thursday speaking with the Ukrainian president, who thanked him for his support. Via Instagram, Zelensky revealed that Demna Gvasalia has become a fundraising ambassador for United24 to help temporarily displaced people.
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In March, during the Paris winter show, the designer had already highlighted the invasion of Ukraine, recalling the personal trauma of his experience as a refugee from Georgia. “The war in Ukraine reminded me of the pain of a past trauma that I carried with me since 1993, when the same thing happened in my country and I became a refugee forever,” reads a Gvasalia statement delivered at the fair, where the the guests were greeted with Ukrainian t-shirts.
After the war in Georgia, where he still has a family, the Balenciaga creative director even spent two years in the Ukraine, before settling in Germany. In an interview with Reuters, the designer said the brand has a responsibility to do something. “We can’t take up arms and go there to fight, but we can use our voices.”
Source: Observadora
