DUBAI: US-Somali model Halima Aden has teamed up with American fashion house Tommy Hilfiger on a limited-edition T-shirt for a good cause. The 23-year-old, who made her runway debut at Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 5 show during New York Fashion Week in 2017, used recycled fabrics and leftover material to custom design the garment for Tommy Hilfiger.
Aden joined 23 other models and creatives for this charitable initiative, such as Dubai-based blogger Haifa Beseisso, ballerina and author Michaela De Prince and model Jasmine Sanders, among others.
The pieces are being auctioned on online marketplace Catawiki and all proceeds from the sales will be donated to the WWF Water Stewardship program in China’s Taihu River, the Mekong River basin in Vietnam and the Büyük Menderes river basin in Turkey.
“Honored to have custom designed a T-shirt with my friends @tommyhilfiger for a good cause,” wrote Aden on Instagram, adding that bidding for the design ends on Nov. 1 for this “one-of-a-kind Tommy Hilfiger piece.”
The 100% organic cotton shirt designed by Aden comes in a blue, red and white colorway and boasts a Tommy Hilfiger label in the center. It’s also emblazoned with the text “Waste Nothing & Welcome All” on the back.
The charitable new initiative appears to be an extension of the American label’s global ad campaign for Fall 2020, which urges consumers to create fashion that “wastes nothing and welcomes all.”
The 23-year-old used leftover fabrics to custom design a T-shirt for Tommy Hilfiger for charity. Supplied
Last month, Aden was selected to star in Tommy Hilfiger’s Fall 2020 global campaign alongside a diverse cast of other top models, including Dilone, Alton Mason and Soo Joo Park, among others. More than just an ad, the campaign was based on the “Together We Create” initiative, which invites consumers from around the world to reimagine archive pieces by using scrap material in an effort to save the environment.
Meanwhile, the model and activist has a longstanding relationship with the American brand. In addition to fronting the campaign for the label’s first-ever hijab, Aden – who made history in 2019 as the first-ever person to wear a hijab and burkini in the pages of Sports Illustrated – returned for the publication’s 2020 issue, wearing a custom Tommy Hilfiger burkini.
