After Melania Trump wore a Zara jacket that read “I Really Don’t Care Do U?” to go visit detained immigrant children in Texas, feminist fashion brand Wildfang decided to flip the script on the tone-deaf moment for a good cause.
Within in a few hours, they had taken to their social media to post a photo of their own merchandise with the words “I Really Care Do U” written on the back. They also stated that they would donate 100% of the proceeds to RAICES, an organization that provides legal services to immigrants and refugees.
Just three days after their initial post went live, Wildfang’s CEO Emma McIlroy told Teen Vogue that the brand has raised around $250,000 for the organization with plans on continuing to raise more. “We thought, ‘What can we do to turn this negativity around?’
We make a similar jacket, so what if we do our military jacket, and perhaps we could give the money. We put the first 100 jackets up at 7 pm and they sold out in an hour. We took all the inventory from all the stores and we put that online,” Emma explained.
“Last week was a really hard week to watch the news. It felt like we sunk to a new low,” Emma said about why the brand decided to move so quickly on making the jacket. “I’m an immigrant, there are other immigrants on the team and it touched our team in a deeply profound way. When the image of Melania came out it felt like an insult to injury.”
Wildfang is no stranger to the idea that fashion is political. Since they were founded in 2010, they have released several collections that are focused on voting, feminism, and inclusivity. It’s why Emma says some of the reaction to Melania’s jacket was so insulting. “When you have a position and a platform and a reach like FLOTUS its a really naive to suggest that your fashion doesn’t matter,” she told us. “I would never wear that jacket and I don’t have half the platform and poor choice all around. Fashion has been historically a very political way to express our views.”
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