Lauren Pierce Atelier

Last week I interviewed Lauren Bush (niece of former President George W. Bush and granddaughter of former President George Bush) about the new spring 2010 collection of her clothing line, Lauren Pierce Atelier, for the publication I work for.

This month she's been traveling all over the country introducing the collection at specific Barneys New York stores. This Friday, March 19, she comes to Scottsdale, but this weekend I'll be fulfilling my bridesmaidly duties, so we had to do the interview over the phone instead. I wish I could have met her in person, though, because she was so nice and genuine during our conversation, and I've only heard good things about her.
 
Her collection is pretty darn cool because it's all custom-made clothing and supports a good cause. She designed five dress silhouettes that ladies can choose from when they see the collection at Barneys. Then, the woman picks the fabric she wants the dress made with. All of the fabrics are cotton and dyed by women survivors of war in the Congo as a way of supporting themselves. The traditional method they use involves really bright colors and the fabric ends up looking sort of tie-dyed.

Anyway, so when a woman orders her dress in her silhouette and fabric print and colors and size and it finally arrives something like six weeks later, the tag will have the name of the woman who ordered it, plus the name of the woman who dyed the fabric. How cool is that? And Lauren Pierce contributes 10 percent of each season's profits toward helping the women living in the country where the fabrics were made (this season, the women of the Congo).

Lauren said she found these women through an organization called Women for Women, and I've since spent some time reading the information on the organization's website. It sounds like an amazing, amazing program, and I really want to get involved somehow, either by sponsoring a woman or going to an event here. It's definitely something I'm going to keep on my mind.

Read more about Women for Women here, and more about Lauren Pierce here.