Fashion Blogs

http://iconicitvfashion.blogspot.com/2013/05/ben-afflect-and-toms-create-congolese.html

Ben Affleck is very active raising awareness of his not-for-profit organisation, the Eastern Congo Initiative! This initiative was founded in 2010 and it provides developmental aid and international advocacy for community building initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ben is now collaborating with the brand TOMS which is an altruistic footwear brand and together they are designing 3 limited-edition signature styles, one for women and two for men! These limited-edition shoes will have a Congolese inspired style to them! To raise awareness and help those in the region, with every pair sold a child in need will receive a pair of shoes and a portion of the proceeds will go towards the Eastern Congo Initiative programs that help the youth and families in that region!

Blake Mycoskie, founder of  TOMS took a visit to Argentina in 2006, and noticed the type of shoes the polo players were wearing, called Alpargatas, simple slip-on canvas shoes that were favored by laborers for their comfort, durability and low cost. These shoes were worn by farmers for 100's of years in Argentina. Then he realized how many children there had no shoes. Inspired to help these children he took his vision and ideas and started the production of TOMS shoes,  inspired by the alpargatas style. His vision for this was genius! He started doing a 'one for one' deal where for every pair sold the other pair would be donated to a child in need. The canvas shoes have been given to children in 40 countries worldwide, including the United States, Argentina, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Guatemala, Haiti, South Africa, with over 1 million pairs donated!

TOMS shoes are worn by millions! Many celebrities have been seen wearing TOMS shoes around the streets like, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Kristen Stewart, Zac Effron and Liv Tyler!

TOMS has also collaborated with other organizations like Charlize Theron's Africa Outreach Project and many celebrities and fashion lines like Lenny Kravitz, the Olsen twins fashion line and The Row on limited edition collections!

Ben Affleck is really showing his love to the world, not only is he working on this but he also was one of many celebrities to take part in the "Live Below the Line" initiative! The "Live Below the Line" initiative is an annual anti-poverty campaign, which challenges participants to feed themselves on the equivalent of the extreme poverty line for five days, which is $1.50. Syndee and I discussed Ben Affleck and other celebrities a few weeks ago on Iconici Weekly Radio who were going to partake in this initiative!

To top it all off  Ben Affleck received an honorary doctorate degree from Brown University today! He was honored during graduation ceremonies in Providence, R.I. The Ivy League school presented Affleck with a Doctor of Fine Arts for his work as a director, actor, writer, and producer! You go boy!

Ben Affleck is Keepin it Iconic!

Miss Naiya Marcelo