Richard Nicoll joins campaign

RICHARD NICOLL, New Creative Director for famous fashion and perfume house Cerruti teams up with EJF in aid of international campaign to end child labour in cotton production.

This young fashion designer raised eyebrows and made some furore back in 2002 when he graduated and Dolce and Gabbana bought his whole collection. The buzz and tone was set. Now, creative director for Cerruti he is acclaimed for his daring designs and he takes inspiration from diverse areas of the world and times.

Richard Nicoll, who won the British Fashion Council's Fashion Forward Award in 2006, and again in 2007, snagging the French ANDAM fellowship the same year, is joined in the project by Alice Temperley, Jenny Packham and Ciel in 2010. The t-shirts are produced on organic and fairly traded cotton and printed with organic certified inks. All money raised by EJF from the sale of the t-shirts goes to support the charity’s valuable work.

EJF works to achieve environmental security and resolve the profound human rights abuses associated with cotton production globally, with particular focus on the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan.

Around the world, whether it is state enforced, or child trafficking, millions of children face severe exploitation in the cotton industry. In Uzbekistan, the world’s 3rd largest exporter of cotton, roughly a third of the population are forced to work in conditions near slavery for the state run cotton industry. Many are children.  Schools across the country are shut down for the cotton harvest as children from the age of 7 are sent to work for weeks in the fields, paid little or nothing, but benefiting their repressive government through this forced labour.

Juliette Williams Programme Director, EJF, says: “Even in tough economic times, our buying power can be a force for good. Choosing organic and fairly traded cotton actively supports communities in some of the world’s poorest nations, where fair and equitable trade to the west can literally mean the difference between life and death. With public support, companies have been inspired to look at the way the cotton they buy and sell is produced, and high street names are saying ‘no’ to cotton from Uzbekistan until child labour and environmental abuses are eradicated. Together we can change our world”.