United Colors of Fashion

Since I gave a little behind-the-scenes look at my design internship during fashion week, I thought I'd also give a little glimpse at another internship I'm working on right now. It's with a non-profit organization called United Colors of Fashion and I think their mission is extremely important.

UCOF's mission focuses on two things:

1. Empowering youth through fashion
The fashion industry can be incredibly hard to break into. Being successful in fashion requires a lot of connections, and unfortunately many young people dream of entering the industry but lack the resources. UCOF provides a free fashion education to under-resourced youth in the New York City area. Students are taught various aspects of the fashion business and matched with internships that give them real-world experience and allow them to build industry connections.

photo credit: Luan Luu


2. Curing HIV/AIDS
Sub-Saharan Africa is an area that is greatly affected by HIV/AIDS. UCOF works with the Mapetla Day Care in South Africa to bring both financial and material assistance to children living affected by HIV/AIDS, sickle cell anemia, and paralysis. You can take a look at one of UCOF's trips to the day care here.

Co-founder and President, Ciano Clerjuste, on one of UCOF's trips to South Africa.

Consider the scope of the fashion and textile industry: from the creation of a textile to a finished product in a retail store, and the million steps in between. This makes fashion/textiles one of the largest industries worldwide. When an industry has that much power, it's important to use it for good. UCOF is doing just that, harnessing the power of the fashion industry to help others.

UCOF is also launching Ombré Magazine, a philanthropic arts, fashion, and lifestyle magazine run by interns. There's a lot of exciting things planned for Ombré, so expect big things in the future!

I've been working as one of the social media specialists at UCOF, so basically I use social media to raise awareness about the organization. So here you go, spread the word!

http://www.unitedcolorsoffashion.org/


XO,
Lo

p.s. these pics are all UCOF's, I'm just borrowing :)

Tweet Pin It Now!

TBT: Tuscany

It's been a bit since we've done a throwback, so I decided to give you a look at one of my favorite days from study abroad. Funny enough, a lot of my favorite moments happened in my Food and Wine class, all strictly educational, of course. On this particular day we took a field trip to the the Tuscan countryside to visit a small farm. It was more like a mini village that produces its own olive oil and wine, but doesn't that sound like the best kind of farm? The place was so beautiful it doesn't need words, but I'll give you a few anyway.

It's a rough life, living at a vineyard in Tuscany and all.

After a presentation about how they make their products, we all sat down to a little "taste test". Olive oil doesn't seem like something you'd notice much difference in, but when I tell you this is the best olive oil I've ever tasted, it's no lie. I brought some home that I still use today for special dishes. The loads of bread, cheese, and prosciutto were also delicious.

Our teacher scheduled in some extra time to let us explore and take pictures, I think you can understand why!

Ciao Ciao!

XO,

Lo

Tweet Pin It Now!

Wine + Cheese

Do you ever have those I want to pull out all of my hair kinds of weeks? Well I have had a few of those in a row, leaving me wiped out and a bit sour.

This working woman decided she deserved a treat. I sped off to yoga for a little zen time. Once good and centered I snuggled up with a tall glass of red, some fancy smancy cheese, and Sex and the City reruns.

It's just what the doctor ordered!

A little light reading.

See I eat healthy things too.

We all work hard. Don't forget to take a moment for your self. Because I said so. 

XO,

Bee

Tweet Pin It Now!

Long Weekend

No longer being in school means that you don't have the luxuries of Christmas and summer vacations. Therefore, you have to take full advantage of every long weekend the calendar gives you. President's Day weekend just so happened to coincide with my friend Shayda's birthday, and it's been a solid six months since I've seen her, Katie, and Ceci, so I hopped a plane to Atlanta for a much needed Italy reunion. NYC tried to stop me with its massive snow storm, but thanks to some sweet talkin' by Shayda to Southwest Airlines, I managed to still make my trip. She's a miracle worker.

Friday night we planned a quiet girls' night at Katie's house. Most of our reunions are short with jam packed schedules, so it was nice to have some downtime for once. Katie, ever the perfect hostess, planned a full on spread of none other but Italian food.

 The wine/bellini bar, she knows us well. Don't worry, it wasn't fully stocked yet when I took this picture ;)

 Shayda enjoyed the perks of being the birthday girl while we cooked dinner.

Priorities...

I like to think I'm a decent cook, but apparently they only trusted me with cutting the bread.

Our lovely spread.

Dinner was fresh pasta with shrimp and pesto. mmmmm

For dessert Katie made chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered cookie dough balls that were to DIE for. Check the recipe here, you won't be sorry.

The perfect hostess!

After dinner we decided to have some scotch with Katie's dad. Maybe not our best idea ever. Ceci ended up with most of our glasses.

We spent most of Saturday getting ready for Shayda's birthday bash, and a bash it was. It was so epic no one seemed to come out with pictures because they were too busy having fun.

Struggles. This is a usual occurrence when we attempt a picture together.

So happy to have these three to adventure with.

XO,

Lo

Tweet Pin It Now!