In response to the recent unfortunate turn of events in Haiti, Black Fashion Fair has teamed up with the fashion house Haus of Cité Soleil to raise funds in efforts to contribute to the country’s restoration efforts. Together, they have created a capsule collection in which the proceeds will be donated to the Haitian non-profit organization, Hope for Haiti, that was created to reduce poverty in Haiti and improve the overall quality of life for Haitian people. In addition to donated proceeds from the collection, Black Fashion Fair has committed to donating $5,000 to Hope for Haiti.
This month the Caribbean country was struck by a deadly earthquake that has been reported to have killed at least 304 lives and injured more than 1,800 people. The earthquake hit the westside of the country on a Saturday morning and caused extensive damage to several buildings including churches and hotels. As a result of the recent earthquake, Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a month-long state of emergency. On top of the country experiencing a number of unfortunately violent events this year, Haiti has also still not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake that occurred in 2010.
Haus of Cité Soleil is a Haitian fashion house that was founded in 2018 by designer David Jean. The name of the fashion brand derives from the city, Cité Soleil, which is an extremely impoverished and heavily populated commune located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti. The fashion house is grounded in contributing to the improvement of Haiti’s economy as they partner up with trusted Haitian non-profit organizations to donate 10% of each sale. Teaming up with Black Fashion Fair founder, Antoine Gregory, who is also of Haitian descent, made sense to continue the work to support Haiti’s recovery and to spread the mission on a different platform.
The BFF x Haus of Cité Soleil collection consists of two short-sleeved t-shirts, one long-sleeved t-shirt, and a hand-beaded bracelet. Each t-shirt features a hand-sketched drawing of Muhammed Ali and Arthur Ashe to highlight their contributions to Haiti and their oppositions of the treatment of Haitians that sought the right of asylum in the USA during the ’90s. The bracelet features beads that spell out ‘HOPE’ as a symbol of Haiti’s struggle for independence and the efforts of the two fashion brands coming together to keep hope alive for Haiti.
The collection is now available for purchase on blackfashionfair.org to join them in a good cause to stand by Haiti.