02 May 2008
Business and Activism Intersect for Designer Kenneth Cole
Cole promotes social justice while selling couture
Washington -- A dashing young Sikh gazes jauntily through Kenneth Cole sunglasses. The full page ad reads, “Sonny Caberwal, practicing Sikh and entrepreneur, speaking out against racial profiling.”
Kenneth Cole, successful fashion designer and businessman, has aired his concerns about social issues on magazine pages and billboards for years. In 2008, he launched an “AWEARNESS” blog and a fashion ad campaign themed “We all walk in different shoes” to mark the company’s 25th year of “non-uniform thinking.” Caberwal modeled for the first in a series of ads highlighting diversity of ethnicity, life choices, politics and even physical handicaps.
“We wanted something provocative … nonstereotypical models,” Steve Wyatt, the Kenneth Cole marketing vice president and assistant creative director told America.gov. The response to the Caberwal ad, and the international buzz it created, surprised everyone. “It went out on the Sikh blogosphere. … We were amazed at the response,” Wyatt says. An article about the ad appeared in the Times of India.
In Caberwal’s entry on the AWEARNESS blog, he explains wearing a turban is “an integral part of Sikh identity,” but news media coverage in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks made no distinction between the many law-abiding people who wear turbans and those who are violent extremists. “Unfortunately, this has had a significantly detrimental impact on the daily lives of Sikhs around the world, who now frequently are mistaken for Islamic fundamentalists.” Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded in India in the 15th century.
“[N]obody should be persecuted because of their religion, including Muslims,” Caberwal wrote, calling attention to how discrimination against Sikhs incites abuse of Sikh schoolchildren by non-Sikhs.
In his video posted on YouTube, Caberwal, dapper in Kenneth Cole clothes, says, “”[I]t’s important for people to respect other people’s differences, not because you agree with those differences, but because being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes may impact how you think about how you behave.”
“To be aware is more important than what you wear,” says a Kenneth Cole quote emblazoned across his AWARENESS Web page. It underscores the designer’s social commitment. His AWEARNESS-KENNETH COLE, a philanthropic enterprise, raises money for and encourages participation in worthy causes that include environmental protection, social justice and the fight against HIV/AIDS. Cole was the first fashion designer to address the emerging AIDS epidemic in 1985, when few people wanted to acknowledge it. He is chairman of the board for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
The atypical models were recruited through a selection process aimed at identifying “people of substance” who make a difference in unusual ways, Wyatt says. They included Israeli and Palestinian film directors who are friends, a quadriplegic wheelchair rugby player who counsels others who have lost their ability to walk, a female track star who is a bilateral amputee and an injured Iraq war veteran.
COMBATTING NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES
Caberwal told America.gov, “I was really honored” to do the ad, which was “compelling in a way that few people can understand unless you actually have that identity.” He explains that it means a lot to a minority community that has been affected by negative media portrayal.
“Media impression really drives how people react to people in general. … It’s not something that’s isolated to the Sikh community,” he says.
“If … all the images that are put forth are negative images, the power that a small positive image can have is tremendous. … It’s the kind of impact that you want to reach out to the other person and say, ‘Hey, thanks for doing that because it makes my life a little bit easier.’”
Hundreds of people have reached out to him personally “in a very positive way” via FaceBook, from places Caberwal least expected. “People are plugged in when it comes to online social networking.”
Caberwal, a lawyer and successful entrepreneur, co-founded Tavalon Tea Bar in New York with partner John-Paul Lee. He says the Kenneth Cole campaign identified a potential market. “I had no idea that South Asians in general felt so unrepresented.” He sees tremendous room for growth in that niche. “Understand that there’s actual economic power behind that.” (See “Innovative Business Sees Future in a Cup of Tea.”)
More important, he says, real-life role models inspire others, giving them freedom to follow their dreams and be released “from the shackles by getting inspiration from other people and getting the right kind of encouragement. Whether it’s starting their own business or leaving a bad relationship, there is a certain amount of empowerment” everybody needs.
New York-based www.racialicious.com blogger Wendy Muse wrote that she “stopped in my tracks that day on Fifth Avenue” when she saw the Caberwal ad in the Kenneth Cole store window. “As thousands of designers and modeling agencies around the globe continue to reject models of color, of size or of varied physical abilities, Cole has provided his buying audience … the opportunity to judge beauty for themselves.”
For more about the Kenneth Cole campaign, see the AWEARENESS blog.
